Reflection on the Readings at Mass for the 4th Sunday of Easter – Year A. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray.
Through the Liturgy our Lord Shepherds Us
Today’s First Reading for the 4th Sunday in Easter is a continuation of Peter’s Sermon at Pentecost from Acts 2:14, 36-41. An interesting note here is that while the text informs us that thousands who heard Peter’s Sermon at Pentecost were “cut to the heart,” his appeal to them was not emotional at all. Rather, what the Holy Spirit had voiced through the Apostle Peter was simply the kerygma of the Church, which was based upon empirical evidence, the prophecies that Christ Jesus had fulfilled during His life on earth, and eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ journey among us. Moreover, the arguments that Peter was exhorting were specifically crafted and tailored for a Jewish audience who had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost (the Shavuot) to commemorate the giving to the Torah to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. Therefore, Peter’s exhortation to this particular audience of pilgrims was essentially to inform them that you no longer have to wait for the Messiah you have been promised of old, because He had come to dwell with us and you gave Him the death penalty, but if you ““Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit.”
According to Luke, who is also the author of Book of Acts, this was the second time in fifty days that the city of Jerusalem hosted a crowd who found themselves convicted to heart over the execution of God. Luke 23:47-48 reads, “Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, and said, “Certainly this man was innocent!” And all the multitudes who assembled to see the sight, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breast.” Now, fifty days later, many of those same people who had witnessed Christ on the Cross accepted teaching of the Apostle Peter and were included in the estimated number of three thousand persons who were Baptized that day. We celebrate the reality that for many conversion takes time, and sometimes as little as fifty days.
Todays’ Second Reading from 1 Peter 2:20-25 belongs to what many believe was an early Christian hymn, which recapitulated or was closely based upon Isaiah’s Suffering Servant in 53:4-12. Like Christ Jesus, the Suffering Servant was unjustly persecuted and killed, but an evil which was allowed by God so that as a sacrificial lamb he would “make himself an offering for our sin.” The Christian mystery is how this sacrificial lamb, was then resurrected to become the Shepherd of God’s sheep that had gone astray. Here, the author of 1 Peter rejoices, saying, “. . . but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.”
It is in that context of a good shepherd being promised to us from Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd,” and Genesis 49:24, “. . . by the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,” and Ezekiel 34:11, “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out,” and the protype of good shepherds in the young Moses and David, that we understand the Gospels usage of the imagery of sheep, shepherd, and wolf. Also belonging to that tradition is today’s Gospel Reading from John 10:1-10, which, aside from Ezekiel, is the longest continuous narrative on the sheep, shepherd, wolf imagery. There is nothing esoteric about the Gospel of John. It is the most non-enigmatic Gospel, because the author made deliberate use of as many words of as possible to create what is a self-interpreting text; meaning that if you want to know what John means, just wait for it and John will tell you or has already told you what he means. In this way, John and demands very little of the reader to have a deep knowledge of Old Testament prophecies, such as the Gospel of Matthew heavily demands of its audience. In this instance case, the Good Shepherd narrative is very literal; it means exactly what it says. Yet, it is interesting to note the use of two ‘I Am’ statements here, where Jesus refers to Himself as both “the gate,” and in verse 11, as “the good shepherd.” Later in chapter 21, Jesus commands the Apostle Peter to participate in His shepherding by feeding and tending the Lord’s sheep; a duty which has hence been transferred to each of Peter’s successors in the line of Apostolic Succession.
That work of shepherding is the work of our Catholic liturgy. For, the liturgy not only gathers us as sheep, but it also processes us into lines and right paths to feed us the Body of Christ, and refreshes our soul with the Blood of Christ. In the Divine Symphony we hear and know our Shepherd’s voice through the sacred Scriptures being read and the Priest celebrant in Persona Christ, especially during the prayers of consecration – we truly hear His voice. In this way, the liturgy also tends to the sheep, so that there is nothing that we shall want, and the Holy Spirit that we receive at the Sacrament of Baptism gives us that sure courage so that we shall never fear any evil. For, certainly, we do find great evil in the world after liturgy concludes and dismisses us into dark valleys and to tables with our foes gathered around us until we are gathered again in the holy Mass. While, even there at Mass, we find wolves and false shepherds in our midst, the gates of Hell will never prevail against Christ or His Church, because Christ Himself is the gate. This is the liturgy that we called and gathered into.
This is just one way how the readings at Mass this Sunday connect to the liturgy and how the liturgy is forming us how to live our lives in the world. Be in the world what you have received through the liturgy.
