Acts 4:8-12

1 John 3:1-2

John 10:11-18

Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for his 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.

Let’s begin by providing some context to the first reading from the Book of Acts. Peter and John were going to the temple area when they came across a man crippled from birth begging at what was called “The Beautiful Gate.” The cripple asked the Apostles for alms. Peter replied, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.” The man stood up, walked about, then entered the temple to give praise to God. Peter and John then commenced to preach to the crowd about Jesus, who was crucified, then raised from the dead. “Repent,” Peter told the people, “and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away.”

The Scriptures tell us, then, that “the priests, the captain of the temple guard, and the Sadducees confronted them.” They were upset that Peter and John “were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.” They arrested them, and the next day Peter and John stood before the Sanhedrin, the same group of judges before whom Jesus had stood in judgement just days ago. The question was asked of the Apostles, “By what power or by what name have you done this?” This is where today’s reading picks up. Peter tells them: “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.”

This answer of Peter’s includes what the Church calls the kerygma, or “proclamation” of our faith in Jesus. It is the kernel, the most basic expression of Christian faith: Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.” This Jesus whom you crucified has been raised from the dead. He has conquered death, the ultimate consequence of sin. But He has also conquered disease and illness. He has power over whatever it was that caused the man to be crippled and, by the authority of His name, that power was extended to His Apostles.

Jesus is the stone rejected by the builders that became the cornerstone of God’s new creation. What people regarded as insignificant, even as detestable, even worthy of execution, God has raised on high. Finally, Peter proclaims boldly, “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.” Jesus is our salvation, and no one else. This does not mean that those who have never heard of Jesus cannot be saved, for the law of God is written in the heart of every person. What it does mean is that whoever is saved, is saved by Jesus, and no one else. No other person, no other god, and certainly not ourselves has the power to save us. If we are to be saved, we must turn to Jesus.

Jesus is our Good Shepherd. In his “Commentary on the Gospel of St. John,” St. Thomas Aquinas lists four actions of a Good Shepherd. The first action is that the Good Shepherd knows His sheep. He can call them by name because He knows their names. He is familiar with them. He recognizes His sheep. At our Baptisms, we were each given a name by which Christ knows us. The Book of Revelation says that, at the judgement, we will all be given a name by God only known to us: “To the victor I shall give some of the hidden manna; I shall also give a white amulet upon which is inscribed a new name, which no one knows except the one who receives it.” God knows your name. God knows my name. The second action of a Good Shepherd is that He leads the sheep out. He separates them from those who are evil. He will bring them “out of darkness and gloom” (Ps 107:14). “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are.” We are children of God. The world, St. John reminds us, does not know us. “The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” The world does not know Jesus.

The third action of the Good Shepherd is that He sends His sheep out from the sheepfold for the salvation of others. “Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves” (Mt 10:16). Aquinas says the Good Shepherd does this so that the sheep can make sheep out of the wolves. We are not to keep the good news to ourselves. We are to proclaim it to others, with our lives and with our words, in the hope that others will embrace the good news of Jesus that we have embraced and be saved. “Always be ready,” 1 Peter says, “to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence” (1 Pt 3:15b-16a).  

Finally, the Good Shepherd goes before His sheep as an example of the life of the gospel. “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mt 16:24). Christ goes before us as one who lived a life of perfect obedience to the will of the Father, even unto death. He shows us the way to live such a life. He was the first to die for the truth of God’s love for us, of His desire to be reconciled with us, and of His plan to save us and share with us His very life, His divine nature. We are to follow Him in a life lived for the truth.

But following Christ is not easy, because it entails taking up our cross, just as Christ did. Flannery O’Connor, the great southern Catholic author (and my personal favorite), wrote in a letter to a friend, “What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.”

There are those who believe that putting one’s faith in Jesus will mean a comfortable life, a life where God blesses us for our faithfulness to Him, where He will protect us from illness, failure, poverty, hardship, or tragedy. But Jesus did not promise this. When Jesus, or His Apostles after Him as in today’s first reading, healed others it was for the purpose of proclaiming the gospel. Later in this same chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus tells those who are intending to stone Him, “If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me, but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father” (Jn 10:37-38).

Jesus did not promise an easy life. He did not promise good health, wealth, success at work or in our relationships. He did not promise freedom from fear or even from persecution. What He promised was the cross. If we take up our cross and follow Jesus faithfully, then our burden will be light, because it is a burden that we carry out of love. And if we remain faithful to the end, Jesus promises glory. He promises eternal life. He promises a share in the divine nature, where we are co-heirs with Him to the Father’s kingdom. At our Baptism, we received a name by which Jesus calls us. As victors in the struggle to be faithful, we will be given a new name by which Jesus will call us. “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so you are.” We are the children of God. We belong to Him. We became His on the day we were Baptized. He calls us by name to take up our cross that we may someday share in His glory.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.