Fourth
Sunday
of Easter
Year A
PRAYER
Psalm 23:1–6
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READING
THE WORD
First Reading
Acts 2:14, 36–41
Yahweh is my shepherd,
I lack nothing.
In grassy meadows he lets me lie.
By tranquil streams he leads me
to restore my spirit.
He guides me in paths
of saving justice as befits his name.
Even were I to walk in a ravine
as dark as death
I should fear no danger,
for you are at my side.
Your staff and your crook
are there to soothe me.
You prepare a table for me
under the eyes of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup brims over.
Kindness and faithful love
pursue me every day of my life.
I make my home
in the house of Yahweh
for all time to come.
Peter stood up with the Eleven
and addressed them in a loud
voice: ‘Men of Judaea, and all
you who live in Jerusalem, make
no mistake about this, but listen carefully to what I say. ‘The
whole House of Israel can be
certain that the Lord and Christ
whom God has made is this Jesus whom you crucified.’
Hearing this, they were cut to
the heart and said to Peter and
the other apostles, ‘What are we
to do, brothers?’ ‘You must repent,’ Peter answered, ‘and every
one of you must be baptised in
the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of your sins, and you
will receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit. The promise that was
made is for you and your children, and for all those who are
far away, for all those whom the
Lord our God is calling to himself.’
He spoke to them for a long time
using many other arguments,
and he urged them, ‘Save yourselves from this perverse gener-
FIRST READING
Acts 2:14, 36–41
PSALM
Psalm 23:1–6
SECOND READING
1 Peter 2:20–25
GOSPEL
John 10:1–10
ation.’ They accepted what he
said and were baptised. That
very day about three thousand
were added to their number.
Second Reading
1 Peter 2:20–25
What glory is there in putting
up with a beating after you
have done something wrong?
The merit in the sight of God is
in putting up with it patiently
when you are punished for doing your duty.
This, in fact, is what you were
called to do, because Christ suffered for you and left an example
for you to follow in his steps. He
had done nothing wrong, and
had spoken no deceit. He was insulted and did not retaliate with
insults; when he was suffering
he made no threats but put his
trust in the upright judge.
He was bearing our sins in his
own body on the cross, so that
we might die to our sins and
live for uprightness; through his
bruises you have been healed.
You had gone astray like sheep
but now you have returned to
the shepherd and guardian of
your souls.
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Gospel
John 10:1–10
‘In all truth I tell you, anyone
who does not enter the sheepfold through the gate, but climbs
in some other way, is a thief and
a bandit. He who enters through
the gate is the shepherd of the
flock; the gatekeeper lets him
in, the sheep hear his voice, one
by one he calls his own sheep
and leads them out. When he
has brought out all those that
are his, he goes ahead of them,
and the sheep follow because
they know his voice. They will
never follow a stranger, but will
run away from him because they
do not recognise the voice of
strangers.’
Jesus told them this parable but
they failed to understand what
he was saying to them. So Jesus
spoke to them again: In all truth
I tell you, I am the gate of the
sheepfold. All who have come
before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep took no notice of them.
I am the gate. Anyone who enters through me will be safe:
such a one will go in and out
and will find pasture. The thief
comes only to steal and kill and
destroy. I have come so that they
may have life and have it to the
full.
HEARING
THE WORD
“The Gateway”
Communication with the
divine has been one of
peoples’ main pre-occupations since the beginning
of the human race. World
religions propose and develop various and unique
ways to communicate with
YEAR A - FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
God. The Fourth Sunday
of Easter makes us keenly
aware that, for Christians,
there is only one way and
one channel through which
we can have access to God
– Jesus Christ, the Risen
Lord. He is our gateway to
God and to God’s eternal
kingdom.
The first reading continues
the speech of Peter that
we started to read last Sunday. While in the last Sunday passage resurrection
was emphasised, today’s
passage indicates the outcome of the resurrection
for Jesus and for believers.
The earthly work of Jesus
culminated in the resurrection when God made Jesus
“Lord and Christ.” These are
two very important titles.
The ordinary meaning of
the word “Lord” indicates
someone with authority.
However, this word is also
used by the Greek translation of the Old Testament
to translation God’s proper
name, “Yahweh”, which the
Israelites dared not to pronounce. Using this word,
the author of Acts indicates
that Jesus, thanks to his
resurrection, assumed authority over the entire creation and became its Lord.
The second title, “Christ”,
is not Jesus’ family name
as many wrongly assume.
“Christ” is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word
“Messiah”, which means
“the anointed one”. By applying this title to Jesus the
author of Acts implies that
Jesus was anointed by God
and sent into the world to
carry out the mission of
salvation, the mission he
successfully accomplished
and concluded by dying
and rising from the dead.
Page 2
The second part of this passage contains Peter’s call
to his fellow Jews and to
all humanity to repent and
be baptised. Repentance in
the Scripture means turning away from all misguided and erroneous ways of
living and turning to Christ.
It also means turning away
from seeking God in any
other way or in any other
religion but through Christ.
Baptism refers to the rite of
inclusion into the Christian
community. Since Jesus
through his resurrection
manifested that he is both
Lord and Christ, all humanity, the Jewish people and
“those who were far away”
(the non-Jews), are now
called to turn to him and
become members of the
Christian community.
In the second reading we
continue to read from 1 Peter where the author again
emphasises Christ’s central
role giving believers access
to God. The author begins
by alluding to the sufferings
that some endure because
they are Christians. When
someone suffers and is
persecuted for doing good
and following Jesus’ ways,
he or she resembles Christ.
But this passage clearly
focuses on Christ’s sufferings. The author emphasises that Christ went to the
cross because of our sins.
In Genesis ch 3 we learn
that the immediate and
main consequence of the
first sin was the breakdown
of the relationship between
God and humanity. Ever
since then humanity lived
in isolation from God. Christ
went to the cross to liberate us from our sins. This
means that he removed
the main obstacle that pre-
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YEAR A - FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
vents us from having access to God. By the wounds
that Jesus suffered he has
healed our hearts broken by
sin so that we may return to
God wholeheartedly. Doing
so Jesus became our leader
and guardian.
“
The well-known story of the
good shepherd from John
10 is the
only parable in this
Gospel. In
it, John the
Evangelist
used
the
imagery of
sheep, the
s h e p h e rd ,
the sheepfold
and
the gate to
describe
Jesus. The
author applies these
images to
him for one
single purpose – to
indicate
that Jesus
is the true
leader
of
God’s people
(the
shepherd)
and
the
only gateway to God and
God’s kingdom (the gate).
Reading this story, we have
to recall the prophetic denouncement of Israelite
leaders in Ezekiel ch 34. In
this chapter the prophet reflects on the tragic fate of
the Israelites who suffered
destruction and exile in 586
B.C. at the hands of the Babylonians. The reasons for
this tragedy lied in the selfish and abusive behaviour of
“Israel’s shepherds”, its leaders. Ezekiel prophesied that
Jesus,
unique
and
God himself will intervene
and will become the good
shepherd who will provide
for his people and secure
their lives (Ezek 34:11-16).
John uses the parable of the
good shepherd to show that
this promise and prophecy
was fulfilled in Jesus. For
those who “know his voice”,
those who have faith in him
and follow
his
ways,
he
became the
guardian
and leader. He also
opened
the way to
God and to
the eternal
life for his
f o l l owe r s .
In his resurrection
Jesus became the
gateway to
God
and
eternal
life for his
faithful.
secure way
that can lead us
to God
At the time
of
Peter
and John,
in the initial days of
Christianity, there was a great variety
of religions which proposed
ways of contacting God and
offered various paths and
means to salvation and immortality. However, for the
early witnesses to Jesus’
resurrection there was absolutely no doubt that the
path to God and to eternal
life led through Jesus. The
proclamation of the early
Church, the kerygma, focused entirely on Jesus’
death and resurrection. On
the cross he abolished the
PAGE 3
lasting power of sin and
threw open the path to
God. In doing so he fulfilled
his mission as Christ. In the
resurrection he became the
glorified Lord of all creation.
Calling him “Lord Jesus
Christ” we make a profound
profession of faith, acknowledging that through him
we now have access to God
and membership among
God’s people. It is because
of him, and only because of
him, that we can confidently sing with the Psalmist “I
make my home in the house
of Yahweh for all time to
come”. We can dwell in the
house of God for ever because Christ is our gateway
to that house.
LISTENING TO
THE WORD OF GOD
Today’s readings invite us to
look at Jesus as the unique
and secure way that can lead
us to God. In the contemporary African society where
suffering, poverty, famine,
and other negative experiences have become a part
of many peoples’ lives, we
need to question ourselves
about the implications of
our belonging to Christ.
True faith always expresses
itself through moral actions
visible in the lives of believers. In the sufferings of Jesus, the full meaning of his
title, “Christ”, was revealed,
showing him as the one
who liberates from oppression and advocates for justice while making use of the
weapons of non-violence.
This carries a lot of significance for today’s Christian
youth on the African continent where the scourge of
violence, increasing corrup-
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tion, tribalism, and hatred
seem to take over.
Each one of us ought to look
at Jesus, the perfect model,
who shows us the exceptional route to God. For us
to be a part of his sheepfold
means listening solely to his
voice. We must do so for
two main reasons. Firstly,
Jesus leads us to accurate
knowledge of the Triune
God who is revealed through
Jesus, His Word. Second, we
have to acknowledge that
there are many other voices which are competing for
our attention today. These
other voices which advertise the non-Christian and
secular lifestyle are stronger
than ever before. Certainly,
the one who does not pay
heed to Jesus’ voice will inevitably turn to idols which
seek to replace God. They
actively search for new followers and cry out with
seductive voice: “Listen to
me”. Hence, it is important
for all of us to see and notice those idols which try to
distract us from listening to
Jesus and which can cause
us to deviate from following
him. Those are surely the
“thieves” mentioned in the
Gospel. These thieves are
very active in the society,
breaking into the lives of
many in order to lead them
astray from the truth. It is
imperative for the followers of Jesus, especially the
energetic young people, to
co-operate with Jesus and
stand against those adversaries of human life which
try to deceive us into believing that happiness can
be achieved without God.
It is good to keep in mind
that, as the second reading
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YEAR A - FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
of today clearly states, the
commitment for the sake of
God’s kingdom will result in
persecution, as Jesus himself was persecuted. However, it is also helpful to bear
in mind that to “those who
win the victory, the Lord
will give some of the hidden
manna”. In what concrete
ways can the victory be
won today?
It involves among others standing against the
scourge of violence by becoming artisans of peace,
saying no to bribery, tribalism, corruption, promoting
a culture of honesty, casting away all types of mediocrity and minimalistic approach in studies as well as
in professional work. With
Jesus as the shepherd the
destination will surely be
reached; the arrival will be
safe though the way may
not be smooth. Some may
even die on account of their
faith, but the final victory is
secure when we follow our
shepherd and choose him
as our gateway to the Father.
PROVERB
“When you follow
in the path of your father,
you learn to walk like him.”
Response to God:
Lord, I need you more than
ever. I pray for the many
times I have gone astray
from your path and ask for
guidance to walk in your
ways always.
Response to your World:
What can I do to show
others the path to God as
taught by Jesus?
How can my group act to
reflect the Christian call to
be “Jesus’ sheep”?
PRAYER
Bless me, heavenly Father,
forgive my erring ways.
Grant me strength to serve you,
put purpose in my days.
Give me understanding,
enough to make me kind,
so I may judge all people
with my heart,
not only my mind.
Teach me to be patient
in everything I do,
content to trust your wisdom
and to follow after you.
Help me when I falter,
hear me when I pray,
and receive me
in your kingdom
to dwell with you forever.
Amen.
ACTION
Self-examination:
Do my decisions in life stand
in conformity with God’s
ways?
Do I walk the path of Jesus
the good shepherd?
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