OMELIE / Omelie EN

11 mag 2025

11/05/2025 - 4th Sunday of Easter - Year C

11/05/2025 - 4th Sunday of Easter - Year C

prayer for vocations

1st reading Acts 13, 14. 43-52 from Psalm 99 2nd reading Rev 7, 9. 14-17 Gospel Jn 10, 27-30

“It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first, but since you reject it and condemn yourselves as unworthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles”. With these words, Saints Paul and Barnabas rebuke the Jews of Antioch of Pisidia, who then expel them from their territory.

These are harsh words, because they highlight how serious it is not to listen to the Word of God, not to take the announcement of Jesus Christ and his gospel seriously. This indifference or refusal means also the rejection of eternal life, of the communion with God, of the benefits that he alone can give us even now.

Today, hearing the Gospel of the Good Shepherd, we could say that such a rejection would be the refusal to be led to the pasture by the Shepherd, to receive protection, life and salvation from him.

Certainly we do not want to be deprived of the benefits which today's reading from the Revelation speaks about: “they will not hunger or thirst anymore, nor will the sun or any heat strike them. For the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes”. Those who enjoy eternal consolation are people who have suffered persecution for their faithfulness: “they survived the time of great distress”, but they have given all their trust to the blood of Jesus, that is, to his sacrifice and obedience to the Father. The trust in the crucified Jesus made them strong, capable of suffering in turn to remain faithful to him. Already in this world they have been rewarded with great peace and fortitude, and later, in the world to come, they will enjoy the glory of the Son of God, “the Lamb who is in the center of the throne”!

Lamb and sshepherd are the Lord Jesus. He is the lamb who offered his life, and God made him shepherd, to embody all the goodness of God towards mankind. The prophets described God precisely with the image of the shepherd: “The Lord is my shepherd,” says the psalm; and Ezekiel: “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice”. This is Jesus' task: to serve the Father, to embody his love and tenderness towards us.

By loving the Father he loves us. Christians are invited to take this task upon themselves. That is why today we speak of vocations, that is, people called to give their life. There are vocations to represent Jesus the Shepherd in the midst of communities: and these are the calls to priesthood. Then there are vocations to make present the love of Jesus who prays and blesses, who welcomes the sick and the little ones to assist them in their needs, and these are the calls to a life wholly consecrated to God and toservice others. There are vocations destined to reveal the unfaltering of God's love, and these are the calls to form a Christian family, where love never allow itself to be unfaithful, even when the spouse is, because it knows that spousal love has the task of revealing the beauty and strength and perseverance of God's love.

Today, let us pray for vocations in the Church: that is, let us pray that we are always given those who offer themselves to God to show the various aspects of his love, whether in the family, in the world, in a parish or in religious communities.

And by praying we also offer ourselves, willing to live with the knowledge that we are called by God to always be a embodiment of him, witnesses of his holiness. Let us therefore not turn our eyes away from Jesus, who walks before us as a faithful and sure shepherd!