HOMILY FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER YEAR A ON 3RD MAY 2020: SUNDAY OF GOOD SHEPHERD


HOMILY FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER YEAR A ON 3RD MAY 2020: SUNDAY OF GOOD SHEPHERD
READINGS
First reading Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Second 1 Peter 2:20b-25
Gospel John 10:1-10

GREETINGS
My dear brothers and sisters I welcome once again in today’s Eucharistic celebration as we animate and celebrate the fourth Sunday of Easter. This Sunday is also known as Good shepherd Sunday and we join with the mother church to pray for vocations in our church. The church needs more hands for the service of the kingdom because the harvest is rich but the laborers are few. Therefore, we pray that more men and women may adhere and respond to the call to priestly and religious vocation and the matrimonial vocation by hearing the voice of God who calls us in his vineyard of service and consecrates us to himself. 
In a special way, we are in the month of May and his Holiness Pope Francis in his short letter to the faithful for this month has requested us to take the advantage of the fact that our families have become churches to recite the rosary as part of our family prayer as it has been the tradition. And this time around, the Holy pontiff requests us to pray the rosary intensely amidst the restrictions of the pandemic of covid-19. He encourages each one of us to rediscover the beauty of praying the Rosary at home in the month of May either as an individual or as a group keeping in mind the fact of social distance and other measures that we ought to observe in this pandemic. 
Therefore, With the invitation of Pope Francis exhorting us to devotedly pray the rosary in our families, this Sunday we reflect on Jesus as the Shepherd and as a shepherd he must have the sheep and his sheep must know what to do for they should hear his voice and follow him. Religious men and women who have responded to the call to follow Christ give us the example on how we can hear the voice of the shepherd and follow. Jesus as a shepherd is a beautiful image that invites us to follow him because we all need shepherds who can guide us in the right path. The catholic church has got human leaders who govern it on behalf of Christ. The Pope and the bishops are our shepherds but they are nourished and led by Christ himself; the Good shepherd and prince of shepherds who gave his life for his sheep. Jesus freely laid down his life for his flock and he invites me and you to do the same by lying down our life for the service of others. The bishops are our shepherds, the priests too are our shepherds but they all share in the ministry of Jesus who is the fulness of their authority.
EXHORTATION
In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, St. Peter with the other eleven continue to broadly proclaim to Israel the way God made Jesus who had been crucified to be our Lord and Christ. This proclamation led to the conversion of three thousand people who accepted their message and got baptized. The crowds that the disciples were addressing consisted of people from Judea, Jerusalem and other places and these were the people who condemned Jesus to death but after hearing the message of repentance which was delivered by the disciples, they were ready to be renewed in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and reception of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. 
By deeply mediating on the first reading, we discover that receiving the gifts of the Holy Spirit is not a privilege of the few chosen persons; it is not for priests alone, it is not for the religious brothers and sisters alone but for all who accept to come back to God and it is also given freely to those whom God choses. We have all received the Holy Spirit during our confirmation and at baptism and our life needs to continually remain under the guidance and help of the same Spirit so as to be saved from the corrupt generation of our present age; which is the corruption of sin. Our sins should not be a hinderance to our spiritual growth because we having a loving God who cleanses us even if our sins are like scarlet and makes us as white as wool. Jesus carried our sins in his body upon the cross and he continues to sanctify us through his precious blood.
The second reading invites us to walk in the footsteps of Christ who suffered for us. Christ had no spot of sin but for our righteousness, he willingly accepted the insults and the suffering that was brought to him. In all his suffering, he submitted himself to the just judge -God the Father whose will he had come to accomplish. If Christ handed himself over to the just judge and he had no sin; how much do we need to make atonement for the forgiveness of our sins such that we may return to the shepherd and guardian of our souls. Prophets like Isaiah had spoken about the good shepherd who was most high and wise. This was a prefiguration of Jesus’ shepherd hood whose arm was to reign on God’s behalf (Isaiah 40:10-11). The person of Jesus was to replace kings, prophets and priests who were the shepherds of the people.
In the Gospel of St. Luke 15:1-7, we find the parable where the shepherd leaves the ninety-nine and goes in search of one lost sheep. This is the good shepherd and it is Jesus himself who continually seeks you and me when we stray from the right paths by committing sin. Because he is a good shepherd who seeks us, there is no excuse for us to remain in the bondage of sin. We are invited to embrace God’s grace which was shown through Christ who suffered for us and constantly invites us to follow in his footsteps.
The Gospel today introduces us to the fact that we have one shepherd; Jesus Christ whom we ought to follow. Indeed, we have heard about the conversion of those who heard the message which was preached by Peter and the other disciples and after hearing this message, they realized how much they had strayed and asked what they ought to do to make their lives better. Peter told them one thing, to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. This made them to share in new life brought by Jesus whom they had crucified and we too are invited to share in the same life by following Christ our true shepherd. 
Dear friends, we need not to allow sin to be our shepherd, the only true shepherd is Jesus Christ and once we are in sin, we can never receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the blessings that God promised to our ancestors and their children. At the appearance to his disciples, Jesus said to them; ‘peace be with you’. But where is this peace in our hearts and in our communities and in the world at large. We seemingly don’t have peace, we do not have love, we do not have what we need because we have accepted sin to be our shepherd and rejected the true shepherd. When we have Jesus as our shepherd; we lack nothing and our hearts are always filled with bliss. I want each one of us to ask himself or herself the question; is Jesus my true shepherd or we think that the money on our bank accounts, the assets we own, our popularity, etc. can gain us anything without Jesus as our shepherd. Jesus died for our sins and for our righteousness, we need to constantly come to him for healing because by his wounds we are healed and he guides us in ways that are everlasting. If you find that Jesus is not your shepherd, ask yourself what you ought to do and the answer is simple; repent and through the name of Jesus, you will receive forgiveness of your sins.
We are invited to denounce all our sinful ways by making Jesus our first object of love and to follow him by recognizing his voice; the voice of love, peace and gentleness. The Gospel tells us the identity of a thief; he comes to steal, to destroy and disappear. Jesus is the main gate and he says that all he came before him were thieves and he calls you and me to use him as our gate for salvation. Thus, we need to be cautious not to be under shepherds who are not meant to build our lives. We may have seen people claiming to be shepherds (prophets in short), they come and build churches here and there, they put some music and after six months they disappear from that place to another; they go to seek greener pastures implying that they were not shepherds but wolves who had come to rob and steal the sheep from their shepherd.  We should not listen to such prophets but the ministers of Christ; the clergy, who shepherd the catholic church on behalf of Christ. 
We are all shepherds but in different ways; if you’re a parent, are you a good shepherd in your family. If you are a leader at any level; are you a good shepherd in your position of leadership. Some shepherds are like thieves and when the sheep hears their voices, they run away. We are invited to be good shepherds in our tasks and responsibilities but above all to recognize that Christ is the only shepherd whom we have to embrace by following his example in service; for he came to serve and not be served. Let’s continue to pray for increase in religious vocation and also to ask God to deliver us from the present pandemic. Good and be a good shepherd just as Christ is a good shepherd.

The Lord be with you.

BY DEACON PETER CAMILLIAN


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