May 12, 2025
Monday of the Fourth Week of Easter
Lectionary: 279
Reading I
The Apostles and the brothers who were in Judea
heard that the Gentiles too had accepted the word of God.
So when Peter went up to Jerusalem
the circumcised believers confronted him, saying,
‘You entered the house of uncircumcised people and ate with them.”
Peter began and explained it to them step by step, saying,
“I was at prayer in the city of Joppa
when in a trance I had a vision,
something resembling a large sheet coming down,
lowered from the sky by its four corners, and it came to me.
Looking intently into it,
I observed and saw the four-legged animals of the earth,
the wild beasts, the reptiles, and the birds of the sky.
I also heard a voice say to me, ‘Get up, Peter. Slaughter and eat.’
But I said, ‘Certainly not, sir,
because nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’
But a second time a voice from heaven answered,
‘What God has made clean, you are not to call profane.’
This happened three times,
and then everything was drawn up again into the sky.
Just then three men appeared at the house where we were,
who had been sent to me from Caesarea.
The Spirit told me to accompany them without discriminating.
These six brothers also went with me,
and we entered the man’s house.
He related to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, saying,
‘Send someone to Joppa and summon Simon, who is called Peter,
who will speak words to you
by which you and all your household will be saved.’
As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them
as it had upon us at the beginning,
and I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said,
‘John baptized with water
but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’
If then God gave them the same gift he gave to us
when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
who was I to be able to hinder God?”
When they heard this,
they stopped objecting and glorified God, saying,
“God has then granted life-giving repentance to the Gentiles too.”
Responsorial Psalm
R. (see 3a) Athirst is my soul for the living God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
As the hind longs for the running waters,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
Athirst is my soul for God, the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?
R. Athirst is my soul for the living God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Send forth your light and your fidelity;
they shall lead me on
And bring me to your holy mountain,
to your dwelling-place.
R. Athirst is my soul for the living God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Then will I go in to the altar of God,
the God of my gladness and joy;
Then will I give you thanks upon the harp,
O God, my God!
R. Athirst is my soul for the living God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the good shepherd, says the Lord;
I know my sheep, and mine know me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
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.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/051225.cfm
Commentary on
Acts 11:1-18
We have now entered a momentous part of Acts which describes
the inauguration of the mission to the Gentiles. It may not seem a big
deal to us, but it involved a radical change in thinking for the first
Christians who were all Jews, still felt like Jews and maintained many of the
religious customs of Jews. It changed the whole complexion of the
Christian ‘movement’ inaugurated by Jesus.
It opens with the conversion and baptism of Cornelius, a
gentile centurion in the Roman army. But it also involves a conversion on
the part of Peter, who becomes aware that God’s calling in Jesus is extended to
people of all races and religions. All of this is contained in chapter
10, which we will not be reading (the story of Cornelius is read on the 6th
Sunday of Easter in Year B).
What we see in today’s reading is the reaction of the
Christian leaders in Jerusalem to the news of a Gentile’s baptism. It
involves a major breakthrough in the development of the Church’s awareness of
its identity.
The Apostles and their fellow Christians in Jerusalem had
heard that the pagans were accepting the word of God. We will see here
and elsewhere in Acts that in matters of importance, the Apostles did not act
alone. Guidance came from the Spirit. The Apostles interpreted and
exhorted, but the consent of the whole church was then sought (“the whole
community”, Acts 6:5; “apostles and the brothers and sisters”, Acts 11:1; “the
church”, Acts 11:22; “the church and the apostles and elders”, Acts 15:4 and
15:22).
The Christians in Jerusalem seem to have received this news
with mixed feelings because, when Peter went up to Jerusalem the “circumcised
believers”, that is, the Jewish Christians, criticised him for visiting the
homes of the “uncircumcised” and even eating with them. This recalls how Jesus
too was criticised for consorting with the ‘unclean’ and eating with them,
which led to his speaking the three beautiful parables in chapter 15 of Luke’s
Gospel about the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Lost Son.
The “uncircumcised” were those Gentiles who did not observe
the laws of clean and unclean food and hence were in violation of Jewish
regulations concerning food preparation. At this stage, it is clear that the
Jewish Christians still saw themselves, even in a religious sense, as
Jews. We know that they continued to go to the Temple to pray, and in
this reading they have not yet changed their attitude to non-Jews—still seeing
them as a source of contamination.
Peter then shares with them the dream he had. In this
dream there appeared every kind of living thing that could walk, crawl or
fly. He was told to kill and eat them, and he recoiled in horror.
As a devout Jew he had never touched food that was regarded as ‘unclean’.
He was made to realise in no uncertain terms that:
What God has made clean, you must not call profane.
And just in case Peter did not get this message, the vision
was repeated three times!
Just then, he also got an invitation to join three men in
going to a house in Caesarea. This house, as we were told in the previous
chapter, belonged to Cornelius, a centurion in the Roman army. It seems
that he was an out and out Gentile, with no connections whatever to
Judaism. Peter went, together with six “brothers”, under the guidance and
the approval of the Spirit.
When they got there, Cornelius said he had been told by an
angel to summon Peter to his house. Peter had a special message for him
to hear. Peter had barely begun to explain the message of Jesus when the
Holy Spirit came down on all of the household, just as the Apostles themselves
had experienced it at Pentecost. The “household” (Latin, familia)
included not only those related by blood (parents, children, other relatives),
but also slaves and all who were under Cornelius’ authority.
It was perfectly clear to Peter that there was no way he
could deny baptism and membership of the community to this Gentile, who up to
this he had regarded as unclean and a person not to be mixed with. He told
the Christians in Jerusalem:
If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when
we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?
Peter could not deny the Gentiles the invitation to be
baptised and to enjoy full fellowship in Christ with all believers. The
Jewish believers were compelled to recognise that God was going to save
Gentiles on equal terms with Jews. By divine action rather than by human
choice, the door was being opened to Gentiles.
Peter explains why he allowed a pagan to be baptised.
However, he does not answer the objection that he had lodged with the
uncircumcised. According to Luke, Peter was considered to have been the
first to receive pagans into the Church, in spite of the episode of the
Ethiopian eunuch (with the deacon Philip), about which we read on Thursday of
last week, and the date of the evangelisation of Antioch, to which Luke does
not refer till later (in fact, immediately after this incident). Against this
background, the council of Jerusalem (which we will hear about in the middle of
next week) appears as a kind of sequel to, or repetition of, the discussion in
today’s passage. It is clear that Peter’s leadership is being emphasised.
The people in Jerusalem accepted what Peter told them and
gave thanks to God that even the Gentiles could experience “the repentance
[Greek, metanoia—i.e. radical conversion] that leads to
life”. Not just repenting the past, but undertaking a complete
turn-around in their life involving a total commitment to the Way of Christ.
This story is just one example to be repeated again and
again in the life of the Church of how change does not come from the centre,
which in fact is often resistant to change, but from the outer limits.
The same is true of our Church today. There is always
tension between the central institution of the Church and the more charismatic
and prophetic elements which are often more in touch with the grass roots and
with the changes taking place in society. These effect a call for change in the
thinking and behaviour of the Church. In recent times, the Second Vatican
Council and more recently, the Synod on Synodality, are excellent examples of
this process. It is important to recognize that this tension is a good thing,
and it is necessary both for progress and continuity.
Comments Off
Commentary on
John 10:1-10
The Vatican II Missal offers us a description of shepherding
that is relevant to today’s Gospel:
“Two kinds of sheepfolds or corrals are mentioned in today’s
reading. In the common town sheepfold, the shepherd makes his special
call and his sheep follow him out confidently. Out on the range, however,
a “gatekeeper” sleeps across the corral opening: his body is the protecting
door. So we live, pray and are saved through Jesus our Good Shepherd.”
We now jump from chapter 7 to chapter 10, omitting the whole
episode linked with Jesus as the Light of the World and the dramatic healing of
the man born blind, texts which we reflected on during Lent in relation to
baptism. We begin today to consider two images that Jesus gives of himself: the
first is that of a gate and the second that of a shepherd.
We have to imagine a “sheepfold” as an area surrounded by
walls or wooden fencing but open to the sky, and with only one entrance.
The walls kept the sheep from wandering and protected them from wild animals at
night. Only a genuine shepherd enters the sheepfold through the single
gate. Thieves and brigands will try to enter by another way, such as by
climbing over the walls or breaking through the fence.
All who came before me are thieves and bandits, but the
sheep did not listen to them.
Jesus is referring to all the ‘false shepherds’, including
some of the Pharisees and religious leaders of his time who are quite unlike
the true prophets of the past.
However, The real shepherd enters by the gate and is
recognised and admitted by the “gatekeeper” (the one mentioned above who sleeps
across the entrance). There are many sheep in the sheepfold belonging to
different shepherds so the shepherd calls his own sheep out one by one.
He then walks ahead of them and they follow their shepherd because they know
his voice. They never follow strangers. (This is quite different
from the European or Australian custom where the sheep are driven from behind.)
We are told that his hearers failed to understand the
meaning of what Jesus said. They failed to realise that the parable applied
particularly to the religious leaders.
So he spoke more clearly:
Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.
Here we have the second of the seven ‘I AM’ (ego eimi )
statements made by Jesus in this Gospel. Again Jesus points to his divine
origin by using the name of God which was given to Moses at the burning bush
(Exodus 3:14).
In contrast to the ‘false shepherds’ mentioned earlier,
Jesus, as the Gate and the Way, has come:
…that they may have life and have it abundantly.
This is a constant theme we have heard many times already,
especially in chapter 6, about Jesus as the food and nourishment giving us
life.
Comments Off
https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/e1042g/
Monday,
May 12, 2025
Easter Time
Opening Prayer
Lord God, our Father,
the Spirit of Jesus calls us, as he called
your Son, to abandon our old selves and our old world to be free for new life
and growth. Forgive us our fear and hesitations,
lead us out of our worn-out phrases and
habits, and our self-made certainties, steep us in the gospel of your Son, that
his good news may become credible in our times and our world.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord.
Gospel Reading - John 10: 1-10
Jesus said: “In all truth I tell you, anyone who does not
enter the sheepfold through the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief
and a bandit. He who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the flock; the
gatekeeper lets him in, the sheep hear his voice, one by one he calls his own
sheep and leads them out. When he has brought out all those that are his, he
goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know his voice. They will
never follow a stranger but will run away from him because they do not
recognize the voice of strangers.' Jesus told them this parable, but they
failed to understand what he was saying to them. So, Jesus spoke to them again:
In all truth I tell you, I am the gate of the sheepfold. All who have come
before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep took no notice of them. I am
the gate. Anyone who enters through me will be safe: such a one will go in and
out and will find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full.”
Reflection
In Jesus we have the model of the true
shepherd. In him is fulfilled the expectation of the Good Shepherd promised by
God: the “Great Shepherd” greater than Moses (Hb 13: 20).
•
John 10: 1-6: The gate of the sheepfold. In Jn
10: 1-10 it is said that Jesus is the “gate” to get to the sheep and to be led
to the pastures (10: 7, 9-10).
•
The theme of the sheep had already been
introduced in John 2: 15 and in a particular way in 5: 2 where it is indicated
that there is a Sheep Pool with five porticos along which were laid the sick to
be healed. In this last context the sheep indicate the people who were oppressed
by their directors. In Jn 10: 1, Jesus links the theme of the sheep to the
atrium or inner courtyard of the Temple, the Jewish institution administered by
men of power who trampled on the rights, justice and exploited the people. Such
individuals were called by Jesus “thieves and bandits.”
•
Jesus begins his long presentation before the
Pharisees, who were closed up in their unbelief and insufficiency (9: 40-41)
with a general affirmation: a more sure way to enter into contact with the
sheep is that of entering by the gate of the enclosure in which they are kept.
Anyone who enters in a different way is not animated by a reason of love for
the sheep, but in order to exploit them for his own interest. This is the sin
of those who direct the people: to take hold of everything that belongs to all
for themselves. Jesus calls this attitude using the term “thief.” This was
precisely the accusation that Jesus addressed to the chief priests of the
people during his first visit to the Temple (2: 13ss).
•
Another term that Jesus uses to indicate those
who take away from the people what belongs to them is: “bandit.” Such a term
indicates those who use violence. Therefore, the chief priests of the Temple
oblige the people to submit themselves to the violence of their system (7: 13;
9: 22). The effect of this is that it produces a state of death (5: 3, 21, 25).
•
The shepherd enters through the gate to take
care of the sheep, not to oppress them or maltreat them. In fact, the sheep
recognize his authority (voice) and follow him. The voice of Jesus contains a
message of liberation for them that is typical of the Messiah. Besides, his
voice is not addressed to an anonymous group of persons, but he calls each one
personally. For Jesus no anonymous crowd of people exists, but each person has
a face, a name, dignity. The Temple (the enclosure of the sheep) has become a
place of darkness, characterized only by economic interests; money has replaced
the exclusive attention to God: the Temple has become the business or trading
house (Jn 2: 16).
•
Jesus leads the people to take them out of the
darkness. And he does not do this in a fictitious way, but in a real way,
because such is the work which the Father has entrusted to him. The fundamental
strokes of this mission are: to enter and to call. Those who respond to that
call, to the call to liberty become a new community: “Those who are His own.”
•
John 10: 7-10: Jesus is the new door. Jesus
again uses the symbolism of the gate in vv. 7-8: applying this to himself. He
is the new door not only in regard to the old enclosure of Israel represented
by the chief priests of the people but also in regard to those who follow him.
He reminds the first ones of his legitimacy to be the only place of access for
the sheep, because he is the Messiah ready to give his life for the sheep. And
it is not by domination or prevarication, that one can approach the sheep to
have a relationship with them, but rather by assuming the attitude of the one
who gives his life for them. His words are a categorical invitation to change
mentality, way of thinking and way of relating.
•
The entrance through Jesus signifies to consider
the good of man as a priority and to commit all our energy to attain this.
Anyone who does not enter into this new logic is an oppressor. The reader finds
that the words of Jesus addressed to his contemporaries and in a particular way
to the chief priests of the people, who have used domination and violence to
exploit the people, are truly hard and strong, firm.
•
He is the new gate in regard to every person.
But for men and women of today what does it mean to enter through the door
which is Jesus? It implies to “get close to Him”, “to trust Him” (Jn 6: 35), to
follow Him and to allow ourselves to be guided by His message (8: 31, 51), in
definitive it means to participate in the dedication of Jesus so that the true
happiness of man may be accomplished.
Personal Questions
•
Jesus is the Good Shepherd because he always
knows you, but do you recognize him? He is a Shepherd who comes to your life as
a door to go out and to enter: do you allow Him to lead you when you relate
with others?
•
In your community, in your family are you also a
door, not to close it, but to remain open to fraternal communication, to allow
esteem and hope to go through?
Concluding Prayer
Lord, send out your light and your truth; they shall
be my guide, to lead me to your holy mountain to the place where you dwell. (Ps
43: 3)
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét