READING OF THE DAY First Reading from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles Acts 4:8-12
Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said: “Leaders of the people and elders: If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a cripple, namely, by what means he was saved, then 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; in his name this man stands before you healed. He is the stone rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.”
Second Reading from the First Letter of John 1 Jn 3:1-2
Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 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.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY From the Gospel according to John Jn 10:11-18
Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why 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 on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father.”
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER The Good Shepherd — Jesus — is attentive to each one of us; he seeks us and loves us, addresses his Word to us, knowing the depths of our heart, our desires and our hopes, as well as our failures and disappointments. He accepts us and loves us as we are, with our merits and our faults. He “gives eternal life” to each one of us: that is, he offers us the opportunity to live a full life, without end. Moreover, he safeguards us and leads us lovingly, helping us to cross risky paths and the sometimes dangerous roads that appear in life. (Regina Coeli, 12 May 2019)
BENEDICT XVI - JESUS OF NAZARET - "I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD" (Jn 10:10) Thoughts - ...The thief comes "to steal, kill and destroy" He sees the sheep as his property, which he owns and exploits for himself. He cares only for himself, everything demands only for himself. On the contrary, the true shepherd does not take away life, but gives it. "I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly." ...Jesus promises to show to the sheep the "pasture" what they live on, to truly lead them to the sources of life. We can listen here, as a resonance, to the words of Psalm 23: "He makes me rest in green pastures, he leads me to still waters.... You prepare a table before me... Happiness and grace shall be my companions all the days of my life..." In an even more immediate way, Ezekiel's shepherd's speech resonates here: "I will lead them into excellent pastures, and their fold shall be in the high mountains of Israel" (34:14)... Jesus as the Incarnate Word of God is Himself not only the shepherd, but also the nourisher, the true "pasture" He gives life by giving Himself, He who is Life. ...In the light of Psalm 23 "...If I would walk through the valley of darkness, I will fear no evil.... Happiness and grace shall be my companions all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever and ever." They recognized in Christ the Good Shepherd who guides through the dark valleys of life, the shepherd who has personally passed through the dark valley of death; The shepherd who also knows the way through the night of death and who does not abandon me even in that last solitude, leading me out of that valley into the grassy pastures of life, into the place of "refreshment, light, peace" Clement of Alexandria expressed this confidence in the shepherd's guidance in verses that reveal something of this hope and of this optimism of the early Church, often suffering and repeatedly persecuted: "Guide, O holy shepherd, your spiritual sheep ; Guide, O King, your uninjured children. The footsteps of Christ are the path to heaven". Naturally, Christians were reminded of both the parable of the shepherd who follows the lost sheep ( Lk 15), loads it on his shoulders and takes it home, and the speech of the shepherd in the Gospel of John. For the Fathers, these two elements merged into one another: the shepherd who sets out to search for the lost sheep is the Eternal Word Himself, and the sheep that He puts on His shoulders and lovingly carries home is humanity, is the human nature that He assumed. In His incarnation and in His cross He brings home the lost sheep - humanity - He also brings me. The Logos made man is the true "bearer of the sheep" - the Shepherd who follows us through the thorns and the desert of life. Carried by Him, we come home. He gave His Life for us. He Himself is Life.
S FAUSTI - JESUS is the Shepherd/God's Lamb who takes away the sin of the world (Jn 1:29), He came to set the sheep free and give them life, His life as Son. JESUS identifies Himself as the "Good Shepherd." For the shepherd, the sheep are his: they belong to him and he cares for them as if they were his own life. The hireling, on the other hand, is preoccupied by his salary: the sheep are at the service of his life, not he of their own. That is why he does not hesitate: he acts out of cowardly self-interest. At the moment of danger, he flees from those who have followed him. The wolf, the traditional enemy of the flock, represents the hostile forces of evil. Jesus Himself sent His disciples as lambs in the midst of wolves. Every age has its wolves. Sometimes they have names and surnames. But mostly they are anonymous. Then they are more insidious: they indicate the widespread mentality, the false model of man, the "fashion" that spreads and brings havoc inside the flock. The action of abducting and dispersing is typical of the enemy, the devil: he kidnaps man of his truth and makes him flee from his life. He does the opposite of the Son, who came to give life and to gather all the dispersed, reuniting them to Himself and to the Father. There is a knowledge, an intimacy, a mutual love between the Shepherd and the sheep. He calls each one by name: "I have called you by name; you belong to me .... you are precious in my eyes, you are worthy of esteem and I love you" (IS.43:1-4) The relationship of knowledge and love that exists between Jesus and each one of us is the same as that between the Father and Him: "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you." (15,19). The mutual love between Father and Son, the mystery that is their very life, is the same that circulates between us and Him. In fact, the Son does not keep it jealously to Himself. As He receives it, so He gives it, as He is loved by the Father, so He loves His brothers and sisters. John does not so much say that Jesus dies "in the place" of the sheep as that He gives them His own life. He emphasizes the transmission of the "Glory" from the Son to the brothers. There are also other sheep that are not of this enclosure. "This enclosure" is that of the temple, in which Israel stands. There are other religious or secular "fences", which keep man enslaved. The Son has brothers not only in the people of God, but everywhere: everything has been done through Him, light and life of every man, who is son in the Son. For this reason the Father loves the world (3:16) and the Son, Savior (4:42) and Light of the world (8:12), will be lifted up not only to gather all the dispersed of Israel, but for all peoples. Jesus wants to lead them to freedom as well. Christianity is by its nature universal (Catholic): it excludes no one. If one excludes anyone, one denies the Father, Who loves all, and the Son, Who is like the Father. The very concept of "mission" has nothing to do with proselytism. It is the inner impulse of the Son towards his brothers. It is this love that makes him the Shepherd of his brothers. The Son did not come to make a unique fold, a larger enclosure in which to eventually imprison everyone: he removes the brothers from every cage, religious or otherwise, to make them live in the law of freedom, which is love and mutual service.
->The union between the churches and between men - the Church is destined for the world! - is the same as that found in God. In the one mutual love, Father and Son are one, in the distinction of each one. The Son has only the one command from the Father: to give life as He receives it, to love as He is loved. It will be the command he will soon give to his disciples (13:34) to make them participants in his life. We still lose our life. But it is not a void to be lost, to be filled as much as possible with things that will also be lost. It is an emptiness to be returned, to be emptied of selfishness as much as possible in order to fill it with love. The idol, after having seduced and squeezed us, always abandons us in our time of need; he does not keep his promise and disappoints the hope placed in him. Jesus, after having spoken of the Good Shepherd in terms of his courage, which makes him expose his own life, now says what he "disposes" in favor of his sheep: he makes available to them his own life, which is the knowledge and love of the Father. For this reason he is the beloved Son, the perfect fulfillment of the Father's Love. Life is love: it is realized in the gift of self. The "power" of the Son is the same as that of the Father: that of loving. In John, the cross is not seen as a defeat, but as "Glory", the manifestation of God-Love, who by His nature gives Himself.
Among the great metaphorical figures with which Jesus identifies Himself, as the Living and Life-giving God, the Source of Living Water, the Bread of Life, the Light of the world, the Good Shepherd, the Door of the sheep and the Vine, the human figure of the Good Shepherd, presented just before the Last Supper, represents the Mission described in the Gospel, His attitude, the Care and Guardianship of His children, which God had already promised and described in the Old Testament through the prophets (Ez 34:11-16, 36:24-28). And it is also what He wishes to leave to His own as a committal and task towards His people. And Peter, after healing a man in the Name of Jesus, writes about the reaction of the people. He had taken to heart the task entrusted to him by the Lord. John, in his letter, writes of the immense joy that God gives us, for being His children, and of the wonder that we will experience when we see Him, just as He is! He communicates to everyone the beauty of God's Love! In fact, the Good Shepherd offers His Life for His flock, and on the cross He achieves Salvation for all in the Gift of Life.In this way He fulfills the Will of the Father, in the fullness of His conforming to the Love of the One who sent Him to redeem us from sin and from the consequent perdition. This Son, persecuted, condemned and crucified, has taken upon Himself the evil of the world and has paid us dearly for it "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is Eternal Life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Paul Rom 6:23).He whom we have crucified, is the One who intercedes for us! "He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not give us everything together with Him? Who will accuse God's elect? God justifies. Who will condemn? Christ Jesus, who died, nay, rose again, stands at the right hand of God and intercedes for us? Who then will separate us from the Love of Christ? Perhaps tribulation, anguish, persecution, hunger, nakedness, danger, the sword?...But in all these things we are more than winners by virtue of Him who loved us!" (Rom 8:32-37...39). The mercenary, on the other hand, watches the flock for money, and leaves the sheep when the wolf comes. Figure of the mercenaries of that time who frequented the temple, zealots and revolutionary leaders of the people, Pharisees, Sadducees are the mercenaries who let the people in danger and flee. He who is the guardian and does not prevent the perils, does not defend, rather abandons those entrusted to him, is a mercenary who flees in front of the threats to the flock, does not feel and does not take responsibility.
READING OF THE DAY
RispondiEliminaFirst Reading from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles
Acts 4:8-12
Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said:
“Leaders of the people and elders:
If we are being examined today
about a good deed done to a cripple,
namely, by what means he was saved,
then 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;
in his name this man stands before you healed.
He is the stone rejected by you, the builders,
which has become the cornerstone.
There is no salvation through anyone else,
nor is there any other name under heaven
given to the human race by which we are to be saved.”
Second Reading from the First Letter of John
1 Jn 3:1-2
Beloved:
See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God.
Yet so we are.
The reason the world does not know us
is that it did not know him.
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.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY
From the Gospel according to John
Jn 10:11-18
Jesus said:
“I am the good shepherd.
A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
A hired man, who is not a shepherd
and whose sheep are not his own,
sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away,
and the wolf catches and scatters them.
This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd,
and I know mine and mine know me,
just as the Father knows me and I know the Father;
and I will lay down my life for the sheep.
I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.
These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice,
and there will be one flock, one shepherd.
This is why 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 on my own.
I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again.
This command I have received from my Father.”
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
The Good Shepherd — Jesus — is attentive to each one of us; he seeks us and loves us, addresses his Word to us, knowing the depths of our heart, our desires and our hopes, as well as our failures and disappointments. He accepts us and loves us as we are, with our merits and our faults. He “gives eternal life” to each one of us: that is, he offers us the opportunity to live a full life, without end. Moreover, he safeguards us and leads us lovingly, helping us to cross risky paths and the sometimes dangerous roads that appear in life. (Regina Coeli, 12 May 2019)
BENEDICT XVI - JESUS OF NAZARET - "I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD" (Jn 10:10) Thoughts - ...The thief comes "to steal, kill and destroy" He sees the sheep as his property, which he owns and exploits for himself. He cares only for himself, everything demands only for himself. On the contrary, the true shepherd does not take away life, but gives it. "I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly."
RispondiElimina...Jesus promises to show to the sheep the "pasture" what they live on, to truly lead them to the sources of life. We can listen here, as a resonance, to the words of Psalm 23: "He makes me rest in green pastures, he leads me to still waters.... You prepare a table before me... Happiness and grace shall be my companions all the days of my life..." In an even more immediate way, Ezekiel's shepherd's speech resonates here: "I will lead them into excellent pastures, and their fold shall be in the high mountains of Israel" (34:14)...
Jesus as the Incarnate Word of God is Himself not only the shepherd, but also the nourisher, the true "pasture" He gives life by giving Himself, He who is Life.
...In the light of Psalm 23 "...If I would walk through the valley of darkness, I will fear no evil.... Happiness and grace shall be my companions all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever and ever." They recognized in Christ the Good Shepherd who guides through the dark valleys of life, the shepherd who has personally passed through the dark valley of death; The shepherd who also knows the way through the night of death and who does not abandon me even in that last solitude, leading me out of that valley into the grassy pastures of life, into the place of "refreshment, light, peace" Clement of Alexandria expressed this confidence in the shepherd's guidance in verses that reveal something of this hope and of this optimism of the early Church, often suffering and repeatedly persecuted:
"Guide, O holy shepherd, your spiritual sheep ;
Guide, O King, your uninjured children.
The footsteps of Christ are the path to heaven".
Naturally, Christians were reminded of both the parable of the shepherd who follows the lost sheep ( Lk 15), loads it on his shoulders and takes it home, and the speech of the shepherd in the Gospel of John. For the Fathers, these two elements merged into one another: the shepherd who sets out to search for the lost sheep is the Eternal Word Himself, and the sheep that He puts on His shoulders and lovingly carries home is humanity, is the human nature that He assumed.
In His incarnation and in His cross He brings home the lost sheep - humanity - He also brings me.
The Logos made man is the true "bearer of the sheep" -
the Shepherd who follows us through the thorns and the desert of life.
Carried by Him, we come home.
He gave His Life for us.
He Himself is Life.
S FAUSTI - JESUS is the Shepherd/God's Lamb who takes away the sin of the world (Jn 1:29), He came to set the sheep free and give them life, His life as Son.
RispondiEliminaJESUS identifies Himself as the "Good Shepherd."
For the shepherd, the sheep are his: they belong to him and he cares for them as if they were his own life. The hireling, on the other hand, is preoccupied by his salary: the sheep are at the service of his life, not he of their own. That is why he does not hesitate: he acts out of cowardly self-interest. At the moment of danger, he flees from those who have followed him.
The wolf, the traditional enemy of the flock, represents the hostile forces of evil.
Jesus Himself sent His disciples as lambs in the midst of wolves. Every age has its wolves. Sometimes they have names and surnames. But mostly they are anonymous. Then they are more insidious: they indicate the widespread mentality, the false model of man, the "fashion" that spreads and brings havoc inside the flock. The action of abducting and dispersing is typical of the enemy, the devil: he kidnaps man of his truth and makes him flee from his life.
He does the opposite of the Son, who came to give life and to gather all the dispersed, reuniting them to Himself and to the Father.
There is a knowledge, an intimacy, a mutual love between the Shepherd and the sheep. He calls each one by name: "I have called you by name; you belong to me .... you are precious in my eyes, you are worthy of esteem and I love you" (IS.43:1-4) The relationship of knowledge and love that exists between Jesus and each one of us is the same as that between the Father and Him:
"As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you." (15,19).
The mutual love between Father and Son, the mystery that is their very life,
is the same that circulates between us and Him.
In fact, the Son does not keep it jealously to Himself. As He receives it, so He gives it,
as He is loved by the Father, so He loves His brothers and sisters.
John does not so much say that Jesus dies "in the place" of the sheep as that He gives them His own life. He emphasizes the transmission of the "Glory" from the Son to the brothers.
There are also other sheep that are not of this enclosure. "This enclosure" is that of the temple, in which Israel stands. There are other religious or secular "fences", which keep man enslaved.
The Son has brothers not only in the people of God, but everywhere: everything has been done through Him, light and life of every man, who is son in the Son.
For this reason the Father loves the world (3:16) and the Son, Savior (4:42) and Light of the world (8:12), will be lifted up not only to gather all the dispersed of Israel, but for all peoples.
Jesus wants to lead them to freedom as well.
Christianity is by its nature universal (Catholic): it excludes no one. If one excludes anyone, one denies the Father, Who loves all, and the Son, Who is like the Father.
The very concept of "mission" has nothing to do with proselytism. It is the inner impulse of the Son towards his brothers.
It is this love that makes him the Shepherd of his brothers.
The Son did not come to make a unique fold, a larger enclosure in which to eventually imprison everyone: he removes the brothers from every cage, religious or otherwise, to make them live in the law of freedom, which is love and mutual service.
->The union between the churches and between men - the Church is destined for the world! - is the same as that found in God. In the one mutual love, Father and Son are one, in the distinction of each one.
RispondiEliminaThe Son has only the one command from the Father: to give life as He receives it, to love as He is loved. It will be the command he will soon give to his disciples (13:34) to make them participants in his life.
We still lose our life. But it is not a void to be lost, to be filled as much as possible with things that will also be lost.
It is an emptiness to be returned, to be emptied of selfishness as much as possible in order to fill it with love.
The idol, after having seduced and squeezed us, always abandons us in our time of need; he does not keep his promise and disappoints the hope placed in him.
Jesus, after having spoken of the Good Shepherd in terms of his courage, which makes him expose his own life, now says what he "disposes" in favor of his sheep: he makes available to them his own life, which is the knowledge and love of the Father. For this reason he is the beloved Son, the perfect fulfillment of the Father's Love.
Life is love: it is realized in the gift of self. The "power" of the Son is the same as that of the Father: that of loving.
In John, the cross is not seen as a defeat, but as "Glory", the manifestation of God-Love, who by His nature gives Himself.
Among the great metaphorical figures with which Jesus identifies Himself, as the Living and Life-giving God, the Source of Living Water, the Bread of Life, the Light of the world, the Good Shepherd, the Door of the sheep and the Vine, the human figure of the Good Shepherd, presented just before the Last Supper, represents the Mission described in the Gospel, His attitude, the Care and Guardianship of His children, which God had already promised and described in the Old Testament through the prophets (Ez 34:11-16, 36:24-28).
RispondiEliminaAnd it is also what He wishes to leave to His own as a committal and task towards His people.
And Peter, after healing a man in the Name of Jesus, writes about the reaction of the people. He had taken to heart the task entrusted to him by the Lord.
John, in his letter, writes of the immense joy that God gives us, for being His children, and of the wonder that we will experience when we see Him, just as He is! He communicates to everyone the beauty of God's Love!
In fact, the Good Shepherd offers His Life for His flock, and on the cross He achieves Salvation for all in the Gift of Life.In this way He fulfills the Will of the Father, in the fullness of His conforming to the Love of the One who sent Him to redeem us from sin and from the consequent perdition.
This Son, persecuted, condemned and crucified, has taken upon Himself the evil of the world and has paid us dearly for it "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is Eternal Life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Paul Rom 6:23).He whom we have crucified, is the One who intercedes for us! "He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not give us everything together with Him? Who will accuse God's elect? God justifies. Who will condemn? Christ Jesus, who died, nay, rose again, stands at the right hand of God and intercedes for us? Who then will separate us from the Love of Christ? Perhaps tribulation, anguish, persecution, hunger, nakedness, danger, the sword?...But in all these things we are more than winners by virtue of Him who loved us!" (Rom 8:32-37...39).
The mercenary, on the other hand, watches the flock for money, and leaves the sheep when the wolf comes. Figure of the mercenaries of that time who frequented the temple, zealots and revolutionary leaders of the people, Pharisees, Sadducees are the mercenaries who let the people in danger and flee. He who is the guardian and does not prevent the perils, does not defend, rather abandons those entrusted to him, is a mercenary who flees in front of the threats to the flock, does not feel and does not take responsibility.