Commentary liturgy Fourth Easter Sunday (21 April 2024)

God, good shepherd, in your mercy keep the flock you have redeemed with the precious blood of your Son". So we pray at the end of today's Eucharistic celebration. Presenting God as the shepherd of his people speaks much less to people today than it used to, especially to the new generations living in cities where a shepherd leading a flock is considered a pauper who has nothing better to live on and is forced to tend sheep. People do not like to be considered sheep, and sometimes this term is used in a derogatory sense. Therefore, when we read this page of the gospel, we must immediately place ourselves in the context of the time: at the time, having many children and owning numerous flocks was the only wealth of a family and losing them was a terrible ruin, as for example in the Old Testament we read in the story of Job, who from being a rich owner of many animals of different species found himself penniless, deprived of everything: no more children, no more animals, but God restored him to health and to his economic and family fortune. 

In today's gospel Jesus says that he is the good Shepherd (indeed in the Greek text poimḗn ho kalós means the beautiful shepherd) who loves his sheep. Starting from the idea that having many sheep was then an important wealth, we understand that he considers us, his sheep, to be his enormous wealth. It is in this light that we need to read and interpret the story of the people of Israel where God calls himself shepherd of his flock. How many times in the psalms it is sung: "The Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want (Ps.23:1): here the prayerer entrusts the path of his existence to the guidance and protection of God the shepherd. And again: 'You, shepherd of Israel, listen, you who lead Joseph like a flock ... awaken your power and come to our rescue' (Ps.80:2-4). Throughout the Bible, the image of the shepherd shows God's solicitude in gathering and guiding his people, and quite often this is connected to the experience of Israel's long exodus, the paschal passage from slavery to entry into the promised land. Its pilgrimage through the centuries has taught Israel that it is only thanks to God that it can call itself a people because without his intervention it could never have come out of Egypt. This is why Israel often returns to renew its faith and prays with humble trust: "He is our God, and we are the people he shepherds, and the flock his hand leads" (Ps 95:7). "We all went astray like sheep," sings the prophet Isaiah, "each one of us followed his own way; but the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Is.53.6).

2. God, then, is the true Shepherd of all mankind, who, in turn, chooses and associates trustworthy collaborators, entrusting them with the care of his flock: in the millennial experience of Israel's history, these are the kings, who must be armed with solicitude and steadfastness in guiding the people. Originally, the king's sceptre was precisely the shepherd's staff as, for example, 1750 years before Christ, we read in the Codex of Hammourabi of Babylon. Here, on several occasions, the king is presented as a shepherd who saves the people with the sceptre of justice, protects and guides all with justice and fairness to guarantee the welfare and security of each without selfish and oppressive ends. The staff is also used to call the sheep away to dangerous places, to separate them from the goats, and to defend them by chasing away the wild beasts that threaten them. But history records the unfaithfulness of so many kings who, not caring about the flock entrusted to them, have been preoccupied with themselves, their wealth and their honour; instead of justice they have sown injustice and instead of building peace they have fanned violence. This is referred to in the criticism of prophets such as Ezekiel, who thus stigmatises them: ''Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who have done nothing but shepherd themselves! (Ez 34:2). 

Despite the unfaithfulness of the kings of Israel throughout history, however, God has never abandoned his people and if, through the prophets, he has condemned the misconduct of his unfaithful co-workers, he has at the same time ensured that he personally cares for each and every one of his sheep because he is the God of fidelity to the covenant made with Abraham and renewed throughout the ages. His is a tender father's love that sets out in search of the lost sheep, ready to bind up the wounded one and happy to restore vigour to the one that is weak and sickly; he becomes energetic, however, against those who act badly to the point of destroying the fat and strong sheep. Again the prophet Ezekiel notes: God will shepherd justly... He will judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats (cf. Ez 34:16-17).Jesus wanted to define himself as the good Shepherd who continually calls and tirelessly comes looking for us when we get lost on life's journey and risk falling into steep ravines filled with all kinds of risks. But there is more: when Jesus attributes to himself the title of good shepherd, as in today's Gospel text, he declares himself at the same time the awaited Messiah, the promised saviour, the shepherd of the new and eternal covenant. Jesus, the good shepherd is not, like the kings of the Old Testament, just a collaborator of God, but he is the Messiah, the Son of God himself who protects and guides us with the rod of his mercy: his sceptre is the cross. St John writes: "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all to myself" (John 12:32) His listeners understood this well and the Jews began to divide and argue. The high priests and the leaders of the people understand that Jesus turns a harsh criticism against them because they behave as mercenaries who neglect the true good of God's people. It is precisely in contrast to their behaviour that the figure of Jesus the Good Shepherd emerges.

3. We read in the gospel: 'For this is why the Father loves me: because I give my life, only to take it up again. No one takes it away from me: I give it of myself". Jesus, the good shepherd, freely offers his life as a sacrifice for his sheep. King of truth and freedom, Christ lives to love, making himself the support and model of all those whom he calls to be his co-workers and co-responsible in leading his people, and he does not fail to call them out when they betray their mission. How very different is the figure of this King, this good Shepherd, from the rulers and all those who in any form hold power in the world! How urgent it is also within our Christian communities, as Don Tonino Bello said when he died on 20 April 1993, to rediscover 'the power of signs and abandon the signs of power'. And he added: "To live is to abandon oneself, like a seagull, to the thrill of the wind; to live is to savour the adventure of freedom; to live is to stretch out one's wing, the only wing, with the confidence of one who knows he has a partner in flight as great as You. To be with the least of these is to allow oneself to be involved in their lives'.  Jesus spends his life to save his people and becomes a certainly unsurpassable model for every shepherd. He encourages all those who have responsibilities in the family, in Christian or civil communities, to follow in his footsteps by turning away from the worldly mentality of power in order to appropriate as far as possible that of love, of the free gift of self, which is exactly the opposite and counter-current to every prospect of success and worldly power. In the school of Christ, every good shepherd struggles to break down fences and fill ditches of enmity and distrust; difficulties and failures do not hold him back because he is sustained by this certainty: if Jesus is risen, nothing and no one will be able to prevent the fulfilment of his promises. For He has assured: "I give them eternal life, and they shall never be lost, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand"? (Jn 10:28). No one can snatch us from his hand unless we turn away from him. In this regard, the example of so many saints over the millennia is useful: St John Mary Vianney, the curate of Ars, used to repeat that the secret of every good Christian, and first and foremost of every pastor, is to feel loved by God and to draw from his love the vigour to continue to love everyone despite everything. May the Lord give his Church shepherds after his own heart in this our time, rich in challenges and full of promise. May this be our prayer today 61st Day of Prayer for Vocations.

+Giovanni D'Ercole

P.S. De André sang: 'God of heaven, if you want to love me, come down from the stars and seek me out'.  Perhaps he had not yet fully understood that God has never been on the stars, but from the beginning he has pitched his tent among us. I think that unfortunately still today many like him seek and await this miracle, and the task of each of us is to make us good shepherds capable of showing the way and leading us into the fold. Interesting in this regard is this consideration taken from a televised sermon by the American Archbishop Fulton Sheen (1895-1979), a great preacher and a true man of God in the process of beatification: "There are too many mercenaries, too many thieves around...they are the ones who would like to take possession of you; they are the ones who steal your freedom, hide the truth from you, enslave your work, steal your time and even your joy; they are the ones who subtly and cunningly prevent you from being yourself. Beware of the thief and the mercenary who presents himself as a friend, robs you, depersonalises you and abandons you. Let the Good Shepherd lead you, follow Christ the Shepherd, do not fear the dark valley and pass with him through the gate of freedom, truth and life'.