Fourth Sunday of Easter
- Fr. LE Polansky
- 7 days ago
- 5 min read
Happy Mother’s Day! I hope it is a good one for all of our Moms, Grand-Moms, and Great-Grand Moms … our God-Moms … our Step-Moms … and our Moms-to-Be. Happy Mother’s Day to all of you and to all those women who are as close to us as our Moms. I think the Fourth Sunday of Easter … Good Shepherd Sunday … is a great day to be celebrating Mother’s Day. A lot of the things a Mom does for us is sort of like being a shepherd … caring for us … watching out for us … and protecting us … right? And maybe we’re all grown up and don’t have to rely on our Moms as much as we used to, but remember … we are who we are and we are what we are in part because we had a Mom shepherding us when we were little. If you still have your Moms with you … let them know how much you love them this weekend!
Entrance Antiphon: Ps 33(32):5-6 – “The merciful love of the Lord fills the earth; by the Word of the Lord the heavens were made, alleluia.”
First Reading: Acts 13:14, 43-52 – “We now turn to the Gentiles.”
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 100:1-2, 3, 5 – “We are His people, the sheep of His flock.”
Second Reading: Rev 7:9, 14b-17 – “The Lamb will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water.”
Alleluia: Jn 10:14 – Alleluia, Alleluia. “I am the good shepherd, says the Lord; I know My sheep and Mine know Me.” Alleluia, Alleluia.
Gospel: Jn 10:27-30 – “I give My sheep eternal life.”
Communion Antiphon: “The Good Shepherd has risen, who laid down His life for His sheep and willingly died for His flock, alleluia.”
In a recent study in England cited in a scientific journal (Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, Volume 9, Issue 3, pages 293-298), tape recordings were made of thirty-one newborn infants and played for their mothers in a series, so that each time the mothers of the newborns heard five different babies cry in a row. In the first two days after her baby was born, twelve of the twenty-three mothers in the sample recognized their own baby’s cry. After two days, all of the mothers tested recognized their own child’s cry. In another part of the experiment, mothers in a hospital ward with lots of mothers and lots of children were found to wake up when their own baby cried ... but were able to sleep through the cries of other children. The study shows that as human beings, we can be remarkably adept at listening when we know something is truly important to us.
Jesus said in today’s Gospel that His sheep hear His voice and follow Him. But even more sensitively than a mother hearing the cries of her child, Jesus has heard the voices of those who cry out to Him. He pointed to the need for faith and mutuality in today’s Gospel. Jesus and God the Father are one, with an unbreakable unity, and that is the sort of unity Jesus wants for His followers.
In the First Reading, Paul and Barnabas proclaim the Good News of Jesus to both Jews and Gentiles. The Apostles wanted to establish a new unity in Christ between both groups. Large, excited crowds came to hear the message that God’s favor could be shared with everyone. It was a message that promised comfort to the outcast and downtrodden. Unfortunately, the large crowds brought jealousy and concern to those comfortable with things the way they were. I think we today can relate. We know in our own time that some people worry more. Some worry about what will happen to them if things change regarding the distribution of health care. Others are concerned if measures are taken to control climate change. Then there are those who worry about what will happen if things go on in the troublesome way in which they seem to headed. There are others who work behind the scenes ... working hard in an effort to maintain the status quo ... these people are fearful of losing their “special place” in the scheme of things ... so what do they do? They stir up others to do their dirty work. And that’s exactly what we see in the readings happening against Paul and Barnabas. 2,000 years and people don’t change all that much ... do they?
We need to realize that Jesus wanted things to change. That was true then ... and it’s true now. Jesus was and is ready to give eternal life. The Good News that Paul and Barnabas had to share had come from Jesus Himself. Jesus promised that those who heard His voice and followed Him would never perish. That applies equally to us today. Life was and is the gift of Jesus to those who listen to Him ... to those whom He recognized as following Him. Jesus redefined community for His followers. Community is the result of discipleship ... community is not as an accident of birth as the early Jews believed. And furthermore, Jesus could make such a promise because of His intimate relationship with God the Father.
Jesus called God the Father “Abba,” a word denoting incredible intimacy. “Abba” is translated “Father” in the Gospel, but it bespeaks a special intimacy that the word "father" doesn't really capture. Unfortunately, we do not have a word in our language which conveys the true definition of the word. “Abba” is not so much a word about male or female ... power or position ... or any of the things by which we so often judge one another’s place in society. “Abba” is a word about closeness and trust.
Saint John’s vision in the Book of Revelation reinforces the diversity to be found among the followers of Jesus. First of all, the followers of Jesus were to be a great multitude, beyond the ability of anyone to count. The followers of Jesus came “from every nation, race, people and tongue.” Guess what? Our concerns about skin colors and accents and documentation of immigrants may not be as important as we thought. The followers of Jesus have been brought together by their discipleship, by following Jesus who is their Shepherd. Jesus leads His followers to springs of life-giving water in the desert.
Those who believe in Jesus, those who seek to hear and heed His voice as best they can, will arrive at a whole new reality. We know that we are not perfect and that we cannot live without recognizing our brokenness and need for others. We are not complete by ourselves, but we are part of the flock which Jesus tends. Community grows out of our commitment to caring for each other. As Jesus and the Father are One, their relationship grows from mutual love, and our relationships will grow from mutual love, too.
As we approach this table and share in the Eucharist, there is one thing of which we can be sure ... when we approach this altar we should all know that God feeds each and every one of us with the same love and the same concern that a mother does when she hears her child cry. Happy Mother’s Day!
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