IV SUNDAY OF EASTER
JESUS, THE GOOD SHEPHERD
By our Pastor, Fr. Carmelo Jiménez
This fourth Sunday of Easter is known as the Sunday of Jesus the Good Shepherd. The gospel shows us how good a shepherd Christ is. Jesus also presents himself as a door. For me, a priest, it is very special because I received the priestly consecration on the fourth Sunday of Easter. But I'm not going to talk about me, but about Christ.
“[T]hen all of you and all the people of Israel should know that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead” (Acts 4:9).In the full text that we hear, let's look at how many times the word "name" appears because it is central to the announcement made by Saint Peter. That reminds us of what St. Paul transmits to us through the hymn to the Philippians: "the name that is above every name ... At the name of Jesus every knee should bend ..." (Phil 2: 9-10). The insistence on the name is strong. We know that as a word, Jesus means "God saves" or "God is my savior". In the insistence of this discourse on the "name", the one condemned by them is being vindicated. That is, from the death and resurrection of Jesus, is when the name of "Jesus" exercises all its dynamic, salvific, powerful work.
"I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). That affirmation is expressed in the language of the biblical revelation of "I Am." In the OT God revealed himself to Moses with that enigmatic name of "Yhwh" (Yahweh) (also known as the divine tetragrammaton) which means "I am who I am". Jesus, the Lord, as expressed by Saint John, has no doubt or refrains from establishing the connection of who he is and what he feels. And in the same way that it has been presented in other moments like: the truth, the life, the resurrection, the light; now we are presented with the image of the pastor and the categorical affirmation: "I am the Good Shepherd". The words of revelation of today's Gospel speak in favor of a revelation for the confidence of those who hear and follow him: "A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."
“Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 Jn 3:2). Jesus, in the gospel is proposed, as the person we can trust; only by Christ we become true sons and daughters of God. Outside of Jesus Christ there is no other way to meet the God of life and the truth of our existence. God, the God of Jesus, the God of love, does not keep the divine for himself. This text insinuates an even more intense promise when it is said that, in the manifestation of God, at the end or at the end of each one, we will still be something more. This is the promise of God, the Father, who wants to share his life with us and in Jesus we can reach Him.
That trusting in our good shepherd, Jesus, we come to the knowledge and love of God, so that we can one day reach the eternal glory. Amen.