20240422 THE GATE TO LIFE
22 April 2024, Monday, 4th Week of Eastertide
First reading | Acts 11:1-18 © |
God can grant even the pagans the repentance that leads to life
The apostles and the brothers in Judaea heard that the pagans too had accepted the word of God, and when Peter came up to Jerusalem the Jews criticised him and said, ‘So you have been visiting the uncircumcised and eating with them, have you?’ Peter in reply gave them the details point by point: ‘One day, when I was in the town of Jaffa,’ he began, ‘I fell into a trance as I was praying and had a vision of something like a big sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners. This sheet reached the ground quite close to me. I watched it intently and saw all sorts of animals and wild beasts – everything possible that could walk, crawl or fly. Then I heard a voice that said to me, “Now, Peter; kill and eat!” But I answered: Certainly not, Lord; nothing profane or unclean has ever crossed my lips. And a second time the voice spoke from heaven, “What God has made clean, you have no right to call profane.” This was repeated three times, before the whole of it was drawn up to heaven again.
‘Just at that moment, three men stopped outside the house where we were staying; they had been sent from Caesarea to fetch me, and the Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going back with them. The six brothers here came with me as well, and we entered the man’s house. He told us he had seen an angel standing in his house who said, “Send to Jaffa and fetch Simon known as Peter; he has a message for you that will save you and your entire household.”
‘I had scarcely begun to speak when the Holy Spirit came down on them in the same way as it came on us at the beginning, and I remembered that the Lord had said, “John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.” I realised then that God was giving them the identical thing he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ; and who was I to stand in God’s way?’
This account satisfied them, and they gave glory to God. ‘God,’ they said, ‘can evidently grant even the pagans the repentance that leads to life.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 41(42):2-3,42:3-4 © |
My soul is thirsting for God, the God of my life.
or
Alleluia!
Like the deer that yearns
for running streams,
so my soul is yearning
for you, my God.
My soul is thirsting for God, the God of my life.
or
Alleluia!
My soul is thirsting for God,
the God of my life;
when can I enter and see
the face of God?
My soul is thirsting for God, the God of my life.
or
Alleluia!
O send forth your light and your truth;
let these be my guide.
Let them bring me to your holy mountain,
to the place where you dwell.
My soul is thirsting for God, the God of my life.
or
Alleluia!
And I will come to the altar of God,
the God of my joy.
My redeemer, I will thank you on the harp,
O God, my God.
My soul is thirsting for God, the God of my life.
or
Alleluia!
Gospel Acclamation | Jn10:14 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the good shepherd, says the Lord;
I know my own sheep and my own know me.
Alleluia!
Gospel | John 10:1-10 © |
I am the gate of the sheepfold
Jesus said:
‘I tell you most solemnly, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold through the gate, but gets in some other way is a thief and a brigand. The one 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 his flock, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know his voice. They never follow a stranger but run away from him: they do not recognise the voice of strangers.’
Jesus told them this parable but they failed to understand what he meant by telling it to them.
So Jesus spoke to them again:
‘I tell you most solemnly,
I am the gate of the sheepfold.
All others who have come
are thieves and brigands;
but the sheep took no notice of them.
I am the gate.
Anyone who enters through me will be safe:
he will go freely in and out
and be sure of finding 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.’
THE GATE TO LIFE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ACTS 11:1-18; PS 42:2-3,42:3-4; JOHN 10:1-10]
Where can we find life? Today, many are offering different ways to the fullness of life. The world claims that life is found in power, fame, glory, honour, wealth and pleasure. With so many voices, how do we know where life is to be found? There are so many gates. Which one should we take? The danger is not that we are led by leaders who perhaps could be sincerely misguided in searching for the way to life. We cannot blame them because they do not come from God and can only depend on their reflection and personal experiences gained from past mistakes. This is true for the Orthodox Jews during the time of Christ. They were sincere in wanting to obey the Mosaic Laws which forbade them to eat with the uncircumcised or even enter their houses as it would cause them to be ritually unclean. Who would dare to change the Mosaic traditions since these came from God? So we can appreciate why they were scandalized when Peter entered the house of Cornelius, a non-Jew, and welcomed the Gentiles to the Church.
However, Jesus shows the way. He came from God and so He knows the heart of God. He understands the traditions, and He was not against them. But it was important that the people understood the spirit of the traditions, and be ready to change so that they could be practiced meaningfully and be life-giving. In His ministry, the Lord remarked when discussing ritual cleansing, “Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)” (Mk 7:18f) After Pentecost, in the early Church, this message was underscored in the vision given to Peter when the Lord said to Him, “Now Peter; kill and eat! What God has made clean, you have no right to call profane.” By so doing, the Lord was preparing the way for the Gentiles to be accepted as Christians. Otherwise, Christianity would have remained a small little sect within Judaism, with followers only from among the Jews. But with the vision of Peter and also that of Cornelius, the gate of salvation is now open even to non-Jews, and communion, especially the celebration of the Eucharist, could be truly celebrated together with the Gentile Christians.
This explains why Jesus said, He is the gate of the sheepfold. We are called to follow Jesus by entering the gate. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. We should not be listening to voices other than Jesus’, who is the Gate. As the Lord warns us, “All others who have come are thieves and brigands; but the sheep took no notice of them. I am the gate. Anyone who enters through me will be safe: he will go freely in and out and be sure of finding pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” The surest way of walking the right path to true freedom and life is to follow Jesus and to enter the gate through Him. As Christians, we must not take heed of the voices in the world today, the voice of materialism, consumerism and moral relativism. We must not be deceived by the world, those who advocate a life of amorality, a life of self-indulgence, a life of individualism, a self-centred life.
We must listen to Jesus who comes to give us life, abundantly and to the full. “I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full.” We must not listen to those who advocate a culture of death – whether through the abortion of innocent unborn babies, euthanasia for those suffering, especially the elderly, senseless killing of innocent victims through terrorism and war. We must promote the fullness of life, which is only possible through selfless giving for the greater good of humanity and society rather than satisfying ourselves only. We must promote authentic love through strong marriages between a man and a woman, loving families with children, and true, lasting and fruitful love. Most of all, we need to give voice to the vulnerable and the innocent civilians, including children that are killed in wars, simply because of a narrow sense of nationalism, seeking power over others.
Indeed, Jesus is not just the Gate to the sheepfold but He is also the true shepherd. Jesus said, “I tell you most solemnly, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold through the gate, but gets in some other way is a thief and a brigand. The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the flock.” Jesus is upfront. False shepherds do not come through the Gate. They use all kinds of deception to mislead people into voting for them. This is the downside of democracy today, not to say that totalitarianism is the answer. But democracy is certainly far from perfect. Today, many leaders get elected because they have influence, money, power to manipulate the popular opinions of people through bribery, dishonest means, or the exploitation of social media to disseminate false information about their opponents and exaggerate their own achievements.
But Jesus came to lead us to His Father. He came for us and not for Himself; “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away – and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep.” (Jn 10:11-13) This explains why priests in the Catholic Church are not paid a salary, simply because we are not hired men. We do not work from nine to six every day. We work at every moment in our life. There is no break from being a priest. Priestly vocation is not a job but a call to service that is given voluntarily and freely without any demand for remuneration. As the Lord said, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.” (Jn 10:17f)
Shepherds are like parents. Parents do not take holidays from their children nor do they declare that on weekends and for 21 days a year, they are not their parents, “so please do not disturb!”. Parenthood is a full-time vocation and not work! Parents are not hired workers! Do we demand that our children pay us for raising them? Do we calculate how much they have to pay us back for all our financial and personal sacrifices? Even if they were to pay us back financially, there is no price to the personal sacrifices we have made for them. When we love, we lay down our life for them. And even when our children betray us, we will still love them all the same. We do not run away when we face danger or rejection. We give our lives to them without condition. If they return us a favour or show gratitude, we receive with thanksgiving from our hearts that their lives have been touched and transformed.
But that is not all, if we want to be good shepherds after the heart of Christ, then we need to learn from Him. Sometimes, sheep do not listen to the shepherd, and sometimes, it is partly due to the fault of the shepherd because he did not win the confidence of his sheep. Jesus shows us how to be good shepherds so that our sheep will follow us. He said, “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 his flock, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know his voice. They never follow a stranger but run away from him: they do not recognise the voice of strangers.”
The greatest challenge of a shepherd is to be in constant contact with his sheep. We need to walk with them, journey with them, and be in the frontline, and watch them from behind as well. We walk ahead, beside and behind them. Unless, the sheep knows our voice, they will not follow us. This is why as shepherds, before we condemn those sheep that have lost their way, we must first examine ourselves, whether we have been good shepherds. If we have not been showing our love for them, our care and concern, they will be distant from us. So it is of great importance that shepherds do not rule or govern from their armchair, like the religious leaders during the time of Jesus. Rather, we must follow Jesus who went out to the fields, the lakes and the deserted areas to be with His people in their pain, suffering, anxiety, sickness and hunger. Let us walk that way so that our sheep will know that they have truly good shepherds to protect, guide and lead them to the greener pastures of life.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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