April 30th 2023. The Fourth Sunday of Easter
GOSPEL: John 10, 1-10
Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini broadcast on Vatican Radio
Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel
GOSPEL: John 10, 1-10
Jesus said: “Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate
but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.
But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice,
as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he has driven out all his own,
he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him,
because they recognize his voice.
But they will not follow a stranger;
they will run away from him,
because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.”
Although Jesus used this figure of speech,
the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell them.
So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
I am the gate for the sheep.
All who came before me are thieves and robbers,
but the sheep did not listen to them.
I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved,
and will come in and go out and find pasture.
A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy;
I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”
The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ
1. Our relationship with our Redeemer cannot be forced. It must develop in freedom, in response to being touched in the heart by the voice of the Good Shepherd.
On this fourth Sunday of Easter, the Gospel is that of the Good Shepherd. What is it to have a relationship with Jesus as Good Shepherd? At first we are told that Christ enters into relationship with us through the door, not through tortuous or forced means. In the spiritual life, the interior clock is very delicate and cannot be forced. Nothing should be subject to coercion in the spiritual life, neither the conscience nor anything else. Our relationship with our Redeemer, our salvation, is a relationship that evolves gradually in freedom. How often we try to force, to manipulate, but we must respect the rhythm of life. What does not enter through this open door used by the Good Shepherd is a deception.
2. Evangelisation should not depend on projects and methods. Rather, it is a relationship with Jesus where he calls us by name to follow him.
In the first reading from Acts, Peter is preaching and the people feel pierced in the heart by his words. We have, as it were, an inner guardian of our hearts that opens when it is spoken to in the right way, and receives truth and salvation. When this door opens, the sheep exit from the fold and follow the shepherd, listening to his voice. The shepherd calls each of his sheep by name. How often we forget this in the spiritual life. It must be based on a personal relationship where Christ calls each of us by name, and we each feel known and recognized. Sometimes we try to evangelize with programmes and schemes, whereas what is really needed is a personal encounter. We think that the flock must be driven and forced from behind, but, instead, the relation with Jesus is very refined where he walks ahead of us and the sheep follow him because they rejoice at the sound of his voice. We lose sight of the fact that the authentic formation of conscience is by touching the heart. We tend to think it can be formed by disciple and constriction. As we saw in the first reading, those who crucified Christ are touched in the heart by Peter’s words and this leads them to baptism.
3. The Good Shepherd is the door to a new fullness of life. Bring redeemed requires an intentional act on our part whereby we leave sin behind and enter, through the doorway of Christ, into something new.
Jesus tells us that he is the gate for the sheep. In Rome we have the triumphal arches which represent a significant event whereby certain emperors entered into glory through military conquests. When we are enclosed behind our cages of fear, let us recall that Jesus is our gate. He says, “Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.” This might sound like a movement of going in and out of the same place, but it is not. To exit from one place is always to enter somewhere else. The goal, in fact, of the sheep is always to find pasture. In the previous chapter of John’s Gospel, the man blind from birth was thrown out of the synagogue for professing Christ. He has left the synagogue but has entered into pasture, has found a new life with his confession of faith. We too must exit something if we are to enter into salvation. Being redeemed always involves an intentional act of entering into something new and leaving the old. These two things always go together. One cannot enter into the new life if one does not make a definitive break with sin. Otherwise one does not really enter into the new and one does not really leave the old. And Jesus is the gate!
4. The idols in our lives impoverish us, steal our true beauty, diminish our lives, destroy our relationships. We must abandon these delusions, idolatries and addictions. By listening to the voice of the Good Shepherd may we have the courage to exit from these things and enter into an abundance of life.
The last phrase of the Gospel tells us that the thief comes to kill, steal and destroy, but Jesus comes that we may have abundant life. If we consider the idols that we have in our lives, we will see how they kill and destroy. We must abandon all those things that impoverish us, that sap our life, that destroy our relationships, that take away our true beauty. How many self-destructive behaviours we engage in! To follow Christ is described as a sacrifice but it is actually a more joyful and fulfilled life. We do not follow Christ because we wish to follow an ethical system. To not follow him and to pursue idols is to damage and destroy ourselves. Jesus came that we might have life and have it in abundance, not a superficial and meaningless life, but one that is full, solid, authentic and abundant. That the Lord will give us the courage to enter into him and exit from the world, exit from delusions, idolatries, sin, addictions, by his power, by his voice that calls us, because it we hear ourselves called by name, because it is beautiful to be with him, in freedom, without being forced.
ALTERNATIVE HOMILY
In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus describes himself as the Good Shepherd. Many of the details in this discourse are very interesting. This shepherd, we are told, is the one who enters the sheepfold by the door. Many of the thoughts and influences that affect us are manipulative and contorted. This is a sign that they do not come from the Holy Spirit. Jesus, by contrast, “enters through the door”. He does not force us, or use manipulation to prompt us to follow him. He will lead us out to good pasture. In other words, he will lead us to life, life in all its fullness. The theme of a door is very important. We humans are better at building walls than doors, because we are driven by our fears and insecurities. We construct a safe world around ourselves, a world in which our objects and our projects are safeguarded, but this system becomes a cage and we try to carry our cage with us everywhere we go. These things that give us security are the “thieves and brigands” that Jesus mentions in the passage. These empty things do not give life. In fact, they suck the life out of us. When we exit from the lockdown, will all of our fears and fixations with our personal cage still be intact? Jesus alone calls us to true life. How does he call us? By speaking in a deeply personal way to the guardian that is our heart. Our hearts are fearful and defensive. Jesus does not deal with us by forcing us or threatening us. A good shepherd leads his sheep, he does not drive them from behind. Love requires freedom and he wants us to respond to him in love. So he invites us to follow him by speaking to our hearts, by calling each of us by name. When a person truly loves us, then he knows us deeply. Jesus touches us by speaking the name written in our hearts that is deeply personal. He does not drive us with fear or coercion. Rather, he stimulates our desires and waits for us to respond to him in freedom and love. How often we have presented God as someone who makes demands! But he is not a thief who wants to steal from us! He only wants to give.
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