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4TH SUNDAY OF EASTER (B)

  1. A once popular Easter hymn goes as follows: “Hail, thee, Festival Day – blessed day that art hallowed forever. Day when Our Lord was raised – breaking the kingdom of death!” This is what the Lord has done – both for himself and for us – He has broken the kingdom of death! Of course, each one of us will die – but our biological deaths, thanks to the Lord’s death, have lost their sting. Our definitive death has already taken place in baptism. This is why St. Paul asks the Romans – and ourselves – “Are you not aware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” Through baptism into his death, we were buried with him, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live a new life. And what are we to call this new life? We call it divine life, divine grace, God’s life, Trinitarian life, eternal life. This last expression is what the Good Shepherd chapter in John’s Gospel, has employed – Jesus says – “My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.”

  2. Peter is the apostolic preacher in our first reading. He explains to the people the significance of the good deed done to the cripple, that is, by what means the man was healed. Then Peter says with gospel boldness – “All the people of Israel should know that it was in the name of Jesus the Nazorean that this man stands before you healed”. Then Peter has strong words to say about the Lord Jesus and how he was treated by his own people: “He is the stone rejected by you the builders which has become the cornerstone”. The prophet Isaiah had first used this expression with reference to the nation of ancient Israel, a tiny nation, so tiny that the great empire-building nations of the day did not consider Israel worthy of any role in the geopolitical scheme of things. Psalm 118 repeats the words of Isaiah, and the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke apply the Isaiahan expression to Jesus himself: “He is the cornerstone rejected by his own people.” Jesus is also the stone that will cause unbelievers to stumble, a rock along the way that will make them fall.

  3. Our Gospel passage for today is taken from Chapter 10 of John’s Gospel – the “Good Shepherd” narrative. The Lord Jesus is not some hired hand nor a robber nor a thief. He is the Good Shepherd who calls each one of us by name and leads us. He is the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. The hired hand does not do so – the hired hand sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away. In John 10, we should note that Jesus calls himself not only the Good Shepherd, but he refers to himself as the sheep-gate as well. This has a precise meaning from ancient Middle East custom. Once the shepherd had safely led the sheep inside the gate, the shepherd would then guard the gate by reclining across the entrance so that any robber or wild animal had to encounter the shepherd who thus protected the sheep with his body and blood, that is, with his very life. Does not this suggest some thoughts about the Eucharist? Does this not suggest some thoughts about ourselves who receive the Eucharist? It is reassuring for us to think about the Lord Jesus as the Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. But is this not also a challenge? Does not the Lord Jesus teach us to be good shepherds for one another?

  4. I said at the beginning that Christ by his resurrection has broken the kingdom of death – for himself and for us. What does this mean? To answer this, I would call your attention to the closing verses of our Gospel reading today. Jesus says – “The Father loves me for this – that I lay down my life to take it up again. No one takes it from me; I lay it down freely. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again.” On Good Friday, did Jesus lay down his life freely – or did others snatch it from him? Did not evil persons lead him to Calvary where he was nailed to the cross? I would suggest an important distinction introduced into theological discussions by the German theologian Karl Rahner. We can speak of death as necessity and death as freedom, as liberty. For example, an elderly person dies after years of a debilitating illness. A young person at the dawn of adulthood is cut down by a tragic accident. Jesus himself was nailed to a cross and dies between two thieves who were also put to death. In these instances, death takes place outside our freedom. If this is all that happened to Jesus, death as necessity, we would not have been redeemed! But more importantly, there is death as liberty. This brings us to the heart of Christ’s death, and this can shed light on the death of all of us who are his followers. When the Lord says – “the Father loves me for this that I lay down my life to take it up again; no one takes it from me”, he is telling all who follow him – yes, death does lie within our freedom – yes, the Christian can die the death he or she chooses to die. Did Jesus die the death he chose to die? In terms of being nailed to a cross, the answer is no – but in terms of his life-long obedience to his heavenly Father, his constant unwavering yes to the Father’s will, the answer is yes – and so it is with ourselves. In baptism we are plunged into Christ’s death and resurrection; at every Eucharist we proclaim Christ’s dying and rising until he comes again; in our life-long struggle to die to sin and selfishness and to live for God and neighbor, in our efforts to be obedient to the great command that we love one another as Christ has loved us, we are gradually learning how to die well, which means how to live well, which means how to love well – in obedience to Christ’s Holy Thursday command. (A Johannine commentator sees the mutuality of love between shepherd and sheep as expressive of the mutuality of love between Jesus and the Father. The Father’s love for Jesus is shown in Jesus laying down his life so that he might take it up again. “What is being said here is that in Christ’s sacrifice, the Father’s love for him is truly present, and this sacrifice is therefore a revelation of the Father’s love.” Does this not tell us that the Father’s love will be present in our deaths as well?)

  5. No wonder we pray to God our Father on Good Shepherd Sunday – “Give us new strength from the courage of Christ our Shepherd and lead us to join the saints in heaven.”