Fourth Sunday of Easter [A]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May 3, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John 10:1-10<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today is the fourth Sunday of Easter and traditionally\nit is also called as the Good Shepherd Sunday. This is for an obvious reason.\nThe Gospel reading tells us about Jesus who introduces Himself as the gate of\nthe sheepfold and the Good Shepherd. The other readings also point the image of\nGod as the good shepherd, like the world-renown psalm 23, \u201cthe Lord is my shepherd.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The gospel of John has no parables like the other three\ngospels, but John has something else. The gospel gives us the seven \u201cI AM\u201d statements.\n \u201cI am the bread of life.\u201d (John 6:35,\n41, 48, 51); \u201cI am the light of the world.\u201d (John 8:12); \u201cI am the door of the\nsheep.\u201d (John 10:7,9); \u201cI am the resurrection and the life.\u201d (John 11:25); \u201cI\nam the good shepherd.\u201d (John 10:11, 14); \u201cI am the way, the truth, and the\nlife.\u201d (John 14:6); \u201cI am the true vine.\u201d (John 15:1, 5). These statements reveal\nthe particular ways Jesus relates with us His disciples. If Jesus is the bread\nof life, we cannot live without consuming Him. If He is the light, we cannot\nsee and find our way home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Jesus proclaims that He is the door of the sheep and\nthe good shepherd, this assumes that Jesus treats us as His sheep. The question\nis why sheep? Why not cuter animals like Persian cats or Shih Tzu? Why not\nsomething useful like German shepherd or horse? Ok, sheep can be useful also as\nfarm animal. Lamb and mutton are one of the finest meats, and the wool can turn\nto be expensive cloth. But, does Jesus consider us as sheep because our\ncuteness or usefulness?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Together with goats, sheep is are one of the domesticated\nanimals. Humans have farmed sheep for the last ten thousand years. In the Palestine\nat the time of Jesus, sheep is a very common animal, and despite working as\ncarpenter, it is not difficult for Jesus to observe the life of shepherd and\nits flocks. What makes sheep different from goat is that sheep has no built-in\nself-defense mechanism. Unlike the goats, they are equipped by sturdy horns and\ncan be aggressive when attacked. Sheep are basically defenseless and thus, they\ndepend heavily on the shepherds to protect them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We might raise our eyebrow and reject the idea that we\nare helpless like the sheep. Afterall, humans are on the top of animal kingdom because\nour intelligence and physical prowess. Indeed,\nthis is true, if we only limit ourselves to biological or natural aspect of our\nhumanity. If we consider our spiritual life, we are no better than a sheep. Without\nGod\u2019s protection and His angels\u2019, we are just punching bags of the evil spirits.\nWithout God\u2019s laws and guidance, we do nothing but harm ourselves. More importantly,\nwithout God, we cannot be saved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the final analysis, borrowing the words of Bishop Robert\nBarron, Christianity is the religion of salvation, and not self-help. No matter\ngood we are, we cannot reach heaven without God\u2019s grace. Our actions are only\nmeaningful as far as it is aided by God\u2019s love. The image of the sheep leads us\nto humble and grateful realization of who we are. We are nothing without God,\nyet no matter spiritually weak and defenseless we are, God remains faithful to us\nand will lead the green pasture because He is our Good Shepherd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fourth Sunday of Easter [A]
\nMay 3, 2020
\nJohn 10:1-10<\/p>\n
Today is the fourth Sunday of Easter and traditionally it is also called as the Good Shepherd Sunday. This is for an obvious reason. The Gospel reading tells us about Jesus who introduces Himself as the gate of the sheepfold and the Good Shepherd. The other readings also point the image of God as the good shepherd, like the world-renown psalm 23, \u201cthe Lord is my shepherd.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-renungan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9477\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}