May 3, 2020 Fourth Sunday of Easter

2020년 5월 3일 부활 제4주일(성소 주일)

 

오늘의 복음 : http://info.catholic.or.kr/missa/default.asp

제1독서

사도행전. 2,14ㄱ.36-41
오순절에, 14 베드로가 열한 사도와 함께 일어나 목소리를 높여 말하였다.
36 “이스라엘 온 집안은 분명히 알아 두십시오.
하느님께서는 여러분이 십자가에 못 박은 이 예수님을
주님과 메시아로 삼으셨습니다.”
37 사람들은 이 말을 듣고 마음이 꿰찔리듯 아파하며
베드로와 다른 사도들에게,
“형제 여러분, 우리는 어떻게 해야 합니까?” 하고 물었다.
38 베드로가 그들에게 말하였다.
“회개하십시오. 그리고 저마다 예수 그리스도의 이름으로 세례를 받아
여러분의 죄를 용서받으십시오.
그러면 성령을 선물로 받을 것입니다.
39 이 약속은 여러분과 여러분의 자손들과 또 멀리 있는 모든 이들,
곧 주 우리 하느님께서 부르시는 모든 이에게 해당됩니다.”
40 베드로는 이 밖에도 많은 증거를 들어 간곡히 이야기하며,
“여러분은 이 타락한 세대로부터 자신을 구원하십시오.” 하고 타일렀다.
41 베드로의 말을 받아들인 이들은 세례를 받았다.
그리하여 그날에 신자가 삼천 명가량 늘었다.

 

제2독서

베드로 1서. 2,20ㄴ-25
사랑하는 여러분,
20 선을 행하는데도 겪게 되는 고난을 견디어 내면,
그것은 하느님에게서 받는 은총입니다.
21 바로 이렇게 하라고 여러분은 부르심을 받았습니다.
그리스도께서도 여러분을 위하여 고난을 겪으시면서,
당신의 발자취를 따르라고 여러분에게 본보기를 남겨 주셨습니다.
22 “그는 죄를 저지르지도 않았고 그의 입에는 아무런 거짓도 없었다.”
23 그분께서는 모욕을 당하시면서도 모욕으로 갚지 않으시고
고통을 당하시면서도 위협하지 않으시고,
의롭게 심판하시는 분께 당신 자신을 맡기셨습니다.
24 그분께서는 우리의 죄를 당신의 몸에 친히 지시고 십자 나무에 달리시어,
죄에서는 죽은 우리가 의로움을 위하여 살게 해 주셨습니다.
그분의 상처로 여러분은 병이 나았습니다.
25 여러분이 전에는 양처럼 길을 잃고 헤매었지만,
이제는 여러분 영혼의 목자이시며 보호자이신 그분께 돌아왔습니다.

 

복음

요한. 10,1-10

1 “내가 진실로 진실로 너희에게 말한다.
양 우리에 들어갈 때에 문으로 들어가지 않고
다른 데로 넘어 들어가는 자는 도둑이며 강도다.
2 그러나 문으로 들어가는 이는 양들의 목자다.
3 문지기는 목자에게 문을 열어 주고, 양들은 그의 목소리를 알아듣는다.
그리고 목자는 자기 양들의 이름을 하나하나 불러 밖으로 데리고 나간다.
4 이렇게 자기 양들을 모두 밖으로 이끌어 낸 다음,
그는 앞장서 가고 양들은 그를 따른다.
양들이 그의 목소리를 알기 때문이다.
5 그러나 낯선 사람은 따르지 않고 오히려 피해 달아난다.
낯선 사람들의 목소리를 알지 못하기 때문이다.”
6 예수님께서 그들에게 이 비유를 말씀하셨다.
그러나 그들은 예수님께서 자기들에게 이야기하시는 것이
무슨 뜻인지 깨닫지 못하였다.
7 예수님께서 다시 이르셨다.
“내가 진실로 진실로 너희에게 말한다. 나는 양들의 문이다.
8 나보다 먼저 온 자들은 모두 도둑이며 강도다.
그래서 양들은 그들의 말을 듣지 않았다.
9 나는 문이다. 누구든지 나를 통하여 들어오면 구원을 받고,
또 드나들며 풀밭을 찾아 얻을 것이다.
10 도둑은 다만 훔치고 죽이고 멸망시키려고 올 뿐이다.
그러나 나는 양들이 생명을 얻고 또 얻어 넘치게 하려고 왔다.”

May 3, 2020
Fourth Sunday of Easter

Daily Readings — Audio

Daily Reflections — Video

http://www.usccb.org/bible/ 

Daily Mass : http://www.catholictv.com/shows/daily-mass 

Reading 1

Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven,
raised his voice, and proclaimed:
“Let the whole house of Israel know for certain
that God has made both Lord and Christ,
this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart,
and they asked Peter and the other apostles,
“What are we to do, my brothers?”
Peter said to them,
“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.
For the promise is made to you and to your children
and to all those far off,
whomever the Lord our God will call.”
He testified with many other arguments, and was exhorting them,
“Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”
Those who accepted his message were baptized,
and about three thousand persons were added that day.

 

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 23: 1-3a, 3b4, 5, 6

R. (1) The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He guides me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side.
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
or:
R. Alleluia.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows. 
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
or:
R. Alleluia.

 

Reading 2

1 Pt 2:20b-25

Beloved:
If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good,
this is a grace before God.
For to this you have been called,
because Christ also suffered for you,
leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.
He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.

When he was insulted, he returned no insult;
when he suffered, he did not threaten;
instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly.
He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross,
so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness.
By his wounds you have been healed.
For you had gone astray like sheep,
but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

 

Gospel

Jn 10:1-10

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.” 

http://evangeli.net/gospel/tomorrow

 «I am the gate of the sheep»

Fr. Pere SUÑER i Puig SJ
(Barcelona, Spain)

Today, in this Gospel, Jesus uses two images when referring to himself: He is the shepherd and He is the gate. Jesus is the good shepherd and He knows his own sheep. «He calls each of his sheep by name» (Jn 10:3). For Jesus we are not just numbers; He has a personal kinship with each one of us. The Gospel is not only doctrine: it is Jesus' personal attachment to us.

And not only He does know us personally. He also personally loves us. “To know”, in St. John's Gospel, does not simply mean an act of our intellect, but and act of adhesion to the known person. And Jesus bears each one of us in his Heart. We must also know him like that. To know Jesus does not only mean an act of faith, but also of charity, of love. «Ask yourselves whether you belong to his flock, whether you know him —St. Gregory the Great tells us, while commenting this text— I assure you that it is not by faith that you will come to know him, but by love». And love is proven by deeds.

Jesus is also the gate. The sole gate. «Whoever enters through me will be saved» (Jn 10:9). And a little further, He insists: «No one comes to the Father except through me» (Jn 14:6). Today, a misinterpreted ecumenism causes some to believe Jesus is but one of many saviors: Jesus, Buddha, Confucius, Mohammed..., it does not matter! But no! Whoever is saved, is saved through Jesus Christ, even if he did not know it in this life. He who tries hard to do well, will enter through Jesus, whether he is or he is not aware of it. But, because of the gift of our faith, we do know it. Let us be grateful for it. Let us try hard to enter through that gate, which, though narrow, He keeps it wide open. We bear witness that all our hopes are placed on Him.

http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html

 

Across today’s three readings and Responsorial Psalm, there were several comforting and familiar phrases – I feel greatly blessed to have had such meaningful words and images to feed my imagination.  But even among these hopeful words, I found one with extraordinary power to begin with.

Beloved. 

In a world spiraling with the Covid-19 pandemic, many of us feel unsettled at best. Too many have lost any sense of security; fewer but still many too many have lost loved ones. Still I wonder whether you, too, closed your eyes on your reading to FEEL the warmth of an embrace, to HEAR the whisper of a loving God reminding us we are his beloved.  It immediately helped me.

Beloved:
If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good,
this is a grace before God.
For to this you have been called,
because Christ also suffered for you,
leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.  

I wonder whether you, too, immediately thought of our Covid-19 heroes who are putting themselves in harm’s way to do what is good for others – and whether you, too, said a little prayer that they realize that their suffering is a grace before God.  I wonder if you, too, thought that the ‘suffering’ that some of us are experiencing because of the need to remain distant from others is also a grace before God (and such a minor sacrifice!).  It brought me GREAT peace to be reminded of the Easter promise in this passage – that if we experience any suffering at all in doing what is good, we have been called to do so because Christ gave us the example of his sacrifice for each of us. 

There is so much beauty in the first reading in which so many were baptized in Christ’s name; in the Psalm that recognizes God is with us always; in the Gospel reading with it’s familiar call to us to see Christ as The Way.  I pray that we each can see ourselves, through a lens of  absolute trust and grace, as the willingly baptized – eager to suffer for good –  following Christ like sheep through the Gate – knowing that our faith will see us through all and redeem us our sins, so that we may dwell in the house of our LORD, forever. Amen.   

 http://www.presentationministries.com/obob/obob.asp

the greatest event of your life

"You must reform and be baptized." —Acts 2:38

Peter, on whom "tongues as of fire" had just descended (see Acts 2:3), preached at the first Christian Pentecost. In the power of the Holy Spirit, Peter witnessed for the crucified and risen Christ. Peter invited the thousands of people who heard his message to receive the Holy Spirit by being baptized. "Those who accepted his message were baptized; some three thousand were added that day" (Acts 2:41).

Philip was sent by the Holy Spirit to proclaim Jesus to the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:29, 35). Then "Philip went down into the water with the eunuch and baptized him" (Acts 8:38).

Peter was sent by the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:19) to the home of the centurion, Cornelius. Peter proclaimed the forgiveness of sins through Jesus, the "Judge of the living and the dead" (Acts 10:42). Then "the Holy Spirit descended upon all" (Acts 10:44). "Peter put the question at that point: 'What can stop these people who have received the Holy Spirit, even as we have, from being baptized with water?' So he gave orders that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ" (Acts 10:46-48).

After the Lord freed Paul from prison through an earthquake, Paul and Silas prevented the Philippian jailer from committing suicide. Then they went to the jailer's home and "proceeded to announce the word of God to him and to everyone in his house. At that late hour of the night he took them in and...then he and his whole household were baptized" (Acts 16:32, 33).

We began the Easter season by renewing our baptismal promises. What difference has that renewal made in our lives? Baptism is the most important event of our lives. It is our entry in the life of Jesus. Live your Baptism fully.

Prayer:  Father, may I live the "radical newness" of my Baptism (Lay Members of Christ's Faithful People, Pope St. John Paul II, 10).

Promise:  "I came that they might have life." —Jn 10:10

Praise:  "He has been raised, exactly as He promised" (Mt 28:6).

 http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/readings/

 "I came that they may have life abundantly"

 Do you know the peace and security of the Good Shepherd who watches over his own? The Old Testament often speaks of God as shepherd of his people, Israel. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want (Psalm 23:1). Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock! (Psalm 80:1) We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture (Psalm 100:3). The Messiah is also pictured as the shepherd of God's people: He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms (Isaiah 40:11). Jesus says he is the Good Shepherd who will risk his life to seek out and save the stray sheep (Matthew 18:12, Luke 15:4). He is the Shepherd and Guardian of our souls (1 Peter 2:25).

The Good Shepherd and Guardian of our souls
What can shepherding teach us about God and our relationship with him? At the end of each day the shepherd brought his sheep into shelter. They knew the voice of their shepherd and came at his beckoning. So familiar was the shepherd and his sheep, that each was called by a distinct name. In the winter the sheep were usually brought to a communal village shelter which was locked and kept secure by a guardian. In the summer months the sheep were usually kept out in the fields and then gathered into a fold at night which was guarded by a shepherd throughout the night. He was literally the door through which the sheep had to pass.

The Scriptures describe God as a shepherd who brings security and peace to his people. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and for evermore (Psalm 120:8). Even the leaders of God's people are called shepherds: they shall lead them out and bring them in; that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep which have no shepherd (Numbers 27:17). Just as a shepherd kept watch over his sheep and protected them from danger, so Jesus stands watch over his people as the Shepherd and Guardian of our souls (1 Peter 2:25). Do you know the peace and security of a life fully submitted to God?

Jesus willingly laid down his life for us - the sheep he ransomed with his own blood 
St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) writes: "He has accomplished what he taught us: He has shown us what He commanded us to do. He laid down his own life for his sheep, that within our mystery he might change his body and blood into food, and nourish the sheep he had redeemed with the food of his own flesh. He has shown us the way we must follow, despite fear of death. He has laid down the pattern to which we must conform ourselves. The first duty laid on us is to use our material goods in mercy for the needs of his sheep, and then, if necessary, give even our lives for them. He that will not give of his substance for his sheep, how shall he lay down his life for them?" (Tr. 46 in John). Do you look to Jesus the Good Shepherd, to receive the strength and courage you need to live and serve as his disciple?

 "Lord Jesus, you always lead me in the way of true peace and safety. May I never doubt your care nor stray from your ways. Keep me safe in the shelter of your presence."

Psalm 23:1-6

1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want;
2 he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters;
3 he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Daily Quote from the early church fathers: Green pastures and still waters, by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.

"The pastures that this good shepherd has prepared for you, in which he has settled you for you to take your fill, are not various kinds of grasses and green things, among which some are sweet to the taste, some extremely bitter, which as the seasons succeed one another are sometimes there and sometimes not. Your pastures are the words of God and his commandments, and they have all been sown as sweet grasses. These pastures had been tasted by that man who said to God, 'How sweet are your words to my palate, more so than honey and the honeycomb in my mouth!'" (excerpt from Sermon 366,3,1)

http://www.homilies.net/

  

More Homilies

May 7, 2017 Fourth Sunday of Easter