HOMILY FOR THE 4TH SUNDAY OF EASTER YEAR A.
THEME: JESUS IS THE WAY TO ENTER A NEW SPACE!
BY: Fr. Augustine Ikechukwu Opara.
(ACTS 2:14A,36-41,1PETER 2:20B-25, JOHN 10:1-10)
A story was told years ago about a young girl who lived on a farm outside Victoria Texas and was raising a lamb for the county fair. After months of daily care, feeding and grooming she and her dad took the lamb to the fair for judging and then sale. She had more money than ever from the sale and was enjoying the rest of the fair until she experienced what we might call seller’s remorse. She had grown attached to that lamb and wanted it back. Her dad tried to reason with her but to no avail, so they went to the large pen where all the lambs were being kept. Her dad told her there would be no way to ever get her lamb back as they all looked alike. She however began to call her lamb and within seconds her lamb was there. The lamb knew the voice of the one that had cared for and loved it.
Sheep and shepherd were a major part of the economy and culture of the middle east in Jesus’ time. So, when Jesus wanted to teach some difficult lesson, he could explain it by using farming and shepherding as example. Today he uses the sheep gate. The gate is important for two major reasons:
i. It was Protective: It kept the sheep from wondering, getting stolen by robbers or killed by wolves.
ii. Provided for the sheep: It made for an organized exit and coming in for grazing(eating & drinking water).
RELATED: HOMILY FOR THE 4TH SUNDAY OF EASTER YEAR A.
Today Jesus used the image of a shepherd because shepherds were very familiar to the people of his time. At that time one of the most difficult jobs for the shepherds was to protect the sheep at night. They gathered the various flocks in one place to jointly keep them safe overnight. One shepherd would lay down to sleep over the entrance to the flock to be the guard. In a real way, the shepherd would literally lay down his life for the sheep. The next morning, each shepherd would call his flock and they would recognize his voice because they knew who cared for them and they would follow him to the pastures.
Jesus is that shepherd for us, the shepherd who gives his life and knows his sheep. The one shepherd who would lay down to sleep over the entrance to the flock to be the guard. He loves us and has given his life for us. We need also to recognize his voice and follow him. But he is more than just a shepherd because he is actually the gate. He is the way to enter a new space, the space where we do what he calls us to do. He knows each of us. He cares for us personally. It is Jesus’ voice which calls us to greater concern for each other and for building a community of trusting relationships so all can benefit. As Jesus knows and cares for us, so should we know and care for each other. That is the space he wants us in.
As we listen to these words of Jesus in today’s Gospel, they take on added meaning because we are in the Easter season. We have celebrated Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus had to die to himself to live his new life. Jesus has shown us how to live life to the fullest, we must die to ourselves in order to rise to new life. Our secularized world thinks it has the answer to our needs but what it offers only leads us into deeper despair.
Only dying to ourselves as we follow Jesus will lead us to the happiness we seek. Jesus teaches us that the way to happiness lies not in filling up each of our wants and needs and desires. The way to happiness lies in a very different choice of life; the way to happiness will only be found in sacrificing and taking up our cross with Jesus, reproducing the life of Jesus in our own lives.
Happy feast of the Good Shepherd!
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