A Homily – The Fourth Sunday of Easter (Year B)

First Reading – Acts 4:8 – 12

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 117(118):8 – 9, 21 – 23, 26, 28 – 29

Second Reading – 1 John 3:1 – 2

Gospel Acclamation – John 10:14

The Gospel According to John 10:11 – 18 ©

 

(NAB)

 

Listen!

 Jesus, the Nazorean, the son of God and creator of the universe, Jesus is not the gatekeeper of our salvation. He is not the gatekeeper, because there is no gate, no fence, no battlements; the heavenly city is wide open, it has no walls.

 Jesus, as second person of the trinity, as the word made flesh represents the cosmic principle of relationality, and Jesus the divine logos is the source of all being, in whom all things and people exist.

 It is not the name of Jesus that delivers salvation or somehow acts as its guarantor, it is our being in Christ, the fundamental reality that undergirds every existent thing, which confers the reality of being on all creatures, and the whole of the created order…from beginning to end.

 Remember.

 The bargain that the faithful make should be this:

 Join the Church and you will be given the secret code, the name of Christ that will get you through the gates of paradise. It should be, act without fear, the good you seek has already found you.

 Consider the words of the psalmist who teaches that God’s law is written in our hearts. Who tells us that God speaks to us there, instructing us in the ways of justice, and that all other versions of God’s law are merely reflections of the law written there.

 God’s law is like a living flame; look into the law where it light is brightest, watch it illuminate the world, its flame fueled by the breath of God, the divine whose spirit whose breath is life.

 It is good to uphold God’s law, to demonstrate its fecundity through right living, but first we must set aside the voice of desire and listen instead to the voice of God. Allow the way to inform you of what right living is.

 Do not overcomplicate the nature of God’s commands, God’s judgments and God’s decrees; Jesus taught that the whole of the law is love.

 He taught that we are to love God with all our strength, and all our heart and all our mind; to love your neighbor as ourself.

 Now keep it super simple, and seal it with a kiss.

 Do not attempt to measure yourself against an unrealistic standard of purity. Sinlessness and righteousness are labels men and women wear like jewels around their necks, so heavy they are bent by them.

 We have all fallen short, we will always be short.

 Respond to the impure with love, to sin with compassion, to injustice with mercy; this is the way.

 God’s law is love, and there is no other. To love is its own reward; in this life you will receive no other, it is the divine capacity for love that cast us in the God’s image.  

 Be mindful!

 Those who do not love are not unloved by God, therefore love the hateful, it is the only cure for their condition.

 Always bear in mind that the things you ask God to do for you are in truth a statement of your intentions for how you want to live your life.

 Know this.

 God has sewn a seed within you, within that seed is the knowledge of and desire for a just and holy way of life, but God will not live that life for you; each and every day you must choose the good, if you are on the path that leads to the way of justice.

 Weep for the mercy of God and marvel at the wonders of creation. Hear the voice of God whispering in your heart; listen. Lift up your countenance, see the face of God reflected in your neighbor’s, and see your own self, within them, looking back at you through their eyes.

 If you decide to lead your life in service to the truth you must remember that the closer we are to understanding it the easier it is for us to deceive ourselves about what we know.

 Look at the example God’s angels set for us. Look to the fallen, look to their stories in our myths, then look more closely at those who claim to speak for God, those who are present in your own life, learn to discern the corrupt and the corruptible, look for the false prophets.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today.

 There is wisdom and truth; there is also folly, misconstrual, fear and lies.

 Remember the beginning of Joh’s Gospel:

 In the beginning was the Word

All things came to be through the Word

Not one thing came to be without the Word

In the Word was life, and light

 The Church teaches that Jesus is the Word of God, it also teaches that the Word is the Good Shepherd. All the sheep are in her/his sheepfold. There is not one sheep who is not a member, not one whom the Good Shepherd does not care for and love.

 It is sad and unfortunate that the priests and the bishops of the Church, those hirelings who put themselves in positions of management, it is sad and unfortunate that they forget this basic tenant of ministry. They have done great harm to the People of God because of their fear, and their greed and their shortsightedness, pretending that they were only responsible for a few of the sheep, when they were tasked with protecting the whole.

 From the earliest days of the church, the hierarchy presented itself as both Sheep and Shepherd to the community, but they were really rustlers and wolves who came to devour the flock.

 Remember.

 God does not love the shepherd because the shepherd laid down his life; God’s love undergirds all things. The burden Jesus bore he took on in recognition of God’s love for the world. The shepherd had faith in God, Jesus trusted God’s plan, it was faith and love that allowed him to lay down his life.

 Love preceded the sacrifice, the sacrifice did not engender love.

 

First Reading – Acts 4:8 – 12

The Name of Jesus Christ is the Only Name in Which We Can Be Saved

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter said: ‘Rulers of the people, and elders! If you are questioning us today about an act of kindness to a cripple, and asking us how he was healed, then I am glad to tell you all, and would indeed be glad to tell the whole people of Israel, that it was by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the one you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by this name and by no other that this man is able to stand up perfectly healthy, here in your presence, today. This is the stone rejected by you the builders, but which has proved to be the keystone. For of all the names in the world given to men, this is the only one by which we can be saved.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 118:8 – 9, 21 – 23, 26, 28 – 29

The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.

Alleluia.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,

    for his mercy endures forever.

It is better to take refuge in the LORD

    than to trust in man.

It is better to take refuge in the LORD

    than to trust in princes.

The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.

I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me

    and have been my savior.

The stone which the builders rejected

    has become the cornerstone.

By the LORD has this been done;

    it is wonderful in our eyes.

The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD;

    we bless you from the house of the LORD.

I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me

    and have been my savior.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;

    for his kindness endures forever.

The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.

 

Second Reading – 1 John 3:1 – 2

We Shall Be Like God Because We shall See Him As He Really Is

Think of the love that the Father has lavished on us, by letting us be called God’s children; and that is what we are.

Because the world refused to acknowledge him, therefore it does not acknowledge us.

My dear people, we are already the children of God but what we are to be in the future has not yet been revealed; all we know is, that when it is revealed we shall be like him because we shall see him as he really is.

 

The Gospel Acclamation – John 10:14

Alleluia, alleluia.

I am the good shepherd, says the Lord; I know my sheep, and mine know me.

Alleluia, alleluia.

 

The Gospel According to John 10:11 – 18 ©

The Good Shepherd is One Who Lays Down His Life for His Sheep

 

Jesus said:

 

‘I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd is one who lays down his life for his sheep.

The hired man, since he is not the shepherd and the sheep do not belong to him, abandons the sheep and runs away as soon as he sees a wolf coming, and then the wolf attacks and scatters the sheep; this is because he is only a hired man and has no concern for the sheep.

‘I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep.

And there are other sheep I have that are not of this fold, and these I have to lead as well.

They too will listen to my voice, and there will be only one flock, and one shepherd.

‘The Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.

No one takes it from me; I lay it down of my own free will, and as it is in my power to lay it down, so it is in my power to take it up again; and this is the command I have been given by my Father.’

 

The Fourth Sunday of Easter (Year B)