OMELIE / Omelie EN

03 mag 2020

03/05/2020 -  4ª Sunday of Easter - A

03/05/2020 -  4ª Sunday of Easter - A

Prayers for vocations

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

Today’s gospel helps us understand the value of the symbol of our faith! This is like the voice of the shepherd which the sheep recognise. The Creed is a list of truths, called “Symbol of the faith”: in a short form it summarises those truths without which we cannot call ourselves Christians. Through it we recognise who is a brother of ours and we can distinguish them from those who cannot call themselves so. It is the sign of recognition for Catholics, Orthodox people and protestants, it is the expression of the common faith that makes us brethren in Jesus Christ. If anyone included any changes in the Symbol of faith, this would be considered an heresy, he would be among those false friends the apostles recommend us to protect ourselves against, because they are dangerous for our life. Changing something in the Creed means in fact accepting a different version of God, and therefore of the man, and with it shaking the foundations of our coexistence and our way to love and value one another. It is not random that putting together the Creed has taken so much effort, has required so many decades and needed many discussions during Councils and Synods. At the beginning the Creed was short, not much longer than crossing ourselves nowadays. In time, the holy fathers have felt the need to defend the believers from subtle heresies which would have, going forward, made the faith useless, with no value for hope and fruitless for charity. In different times, every time it was necessary, were arranged Councils of Bishops in order to find the exact and complete formulations for the Christians' faith, in harmony with the holy Gospels and with the old tradition of the Church. The Symbol we recite today is called Nicene-Constantinopolitan, because it has been created during the Council of Nicea (325) and it was then completed in Constantinople (328). A Christian cannot be satisfied with knowing the symbol of the faith by heart, but they need to have taken in and understood its content, a thing that happens through long periods of taking part in the liturgy and catechism.

We, in the great abundance of words and talks that are offered to and even shouted at us, need to be able to distinguish between what is true and what is deceiving, what is coming from the Lord and what is prepared by His enemy. Here it is, the Creed, even in its shortest form, is a proper criteria. If any doctrine or any attractive argument is different from it, we need to strengthen our awareness. In case, we need to ask for help to someone who knows our faith better.

Recognizing the voice of our Shepherd is of vital importance, in order not to follow false shepherds and find then ourselves following paths without peace that do not bring us anything but trying to satisfy our or other people’s selfishness! The Creed is helping us with this work of choosing, as are helping us those in the Church who have the charisma and the task of representing the Shepherd, the guide, the protector!

In this fourth Sunday of Easter the whole Church is praying the Father to give always the gift of these people to His people, because we need them, because we are always poor, weak and ignorant. We need someone to turn us towards Jesus, “the gate for the sheep”: if we get the wrong gate we will not access the peace and the house of the Father! Jesus insists in telling us that He is the gate, the true gate, the one used by they who act in the light, who do not want to deceive anyone. The thieves do not go through the door, but they look for other accesses because they would like to pass unnoticed and act in a hidden way not to be recognised. The shepherd, and anyone in harmony with him loves the sheep, enters through the door. So, Jesus is the gate for anyone who love the men! If I see someone who avoid Jesus, I will be careful, I will not trust him! If someone avoid Jesus or are ignoring Him in their reasoning and in their choices, they are people I need to consider a danger to me!

Jesus is my shepherd, He is my gate! “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation!” Saint Peter says today, recommending to make haste and run to Jesus! It does not matter if we will have to suffer with Him, carrying the cross with patience, but with Him we will be safe, because He is “the shepherd and guardian of your souls”!

Let us pray then so the Lord may call many to follow Him and to serve Him, and let us pray so those who hear the calling may answer generously. In the Church there will still be they who can exercise the charisma and the service of the shepherd! And of course let us pray also for those who already have this task, so they may be strong, joyful and serene and their work may be fruitful!