OMELIE / Omelie EN

30 apr 2023

30/04/2023 - 4th SundaySunday of Easter - year A

30/04/2023 - 4^th SundaySunday of Easter - year A

Reading 1 ACTS 2,14.36-41 Psalm 22 Reading 2 1PT 2,20-25 Gospel JN 10,1-10

Good Shepherd's Sunday

“I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly”. This is how Jesus introduces Himself after giving us some of the mental images describing very well His role in the world and in the Church.

He is the true shepherd, who is taking loving care of the sheep. He is the gate through which the sheep have to pass to enter the pen where they are guarded, and through which they get out to look for their food, guided and protected by the shepherd. These images end with the sentence quoted above: Jesus gives life, and He gives it handsomely.

Helped by these images today we reflect on the need for the Church to always have the role of shepherd in itself. Bishops and priests are the concrete, tangible sign of Jesus’s love for His disciples. Bishops, priests and deacons give substance to the Lord’s care for each faithful person: they welcome him with love, teach him, feed him with the Word and Eucharistic Bread, and give him certainty of the forgiveness of the sins coming from God Himself. The first two readings are driving our attention to the latter unimaginable service.

Today we pray insistently so the Father may still call men to take on the Shepherd’s duty, and may give those called holiness and courage to do the duty given to them with zeal and joy. The Church suffers when there are not many shepherds or there are none, and even more when in them we cannot see God’s holiness. In this case, the Christians might feel left to their own devices, and cannot find consolation. On the other hand, we need to pray also so the shepherds can be welcomed as such by the faithful, and they are seeked for their specific ministry, as disciples and Jesus’s apostles, and not for any other reason.

The service Jesus wants to be provided the most is the one concerning the forgiveness of the sins. Sins are preventing men from enjoying God’s peace, the peace of heart and harmony with their neighbours. Sins are preventing men from being generous and merciful, hindering them so they are not receiving the Holy Spirit, therefore being unable to spread around them anything but uncertainty and anxiety. Sins, disobediences to the Father, veil the eyes and make us dull towards God and men. We need to take away the sins from the men’s heart and help them not to sin again.

Saint Peter in his letter tells us clearly that Jesus “himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness”. He is without sin, and He wants to lift the burden from our shoulders so we can make the Father’s will, so righteousness, and so be witnesses that God is love.

And in the first reading again Peter said: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”. Our repentance is necessary: God uses it to give us His Spirit. The latter is like the best wine which cannot be stored in a dirty vase or a vase full already of other things. God’s Spirit can come in us when our sins are transferred to Jesus’s shoulders, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin from the world.

To our shepherds we ask first of all that they give us God’s forgiveness, and to the Father we ask that they who can forgive us in His name may never be missing.