4th Sunday of Easter (Year A)
Acts 2:14,36-41 | Psalm 22(23) | 1 Peter 2:20-25 | John 10:1-10
I tell you most solemnly,
I am the gate of the sheepfold. (John 10:7)
As I read, then re-read the above passage and everything after it, it occurred to me that I’d been interpreting it incorrectly all this time, as I imagine many other folks have done before me.
You see, this being Good Shepherd Sunday, I’d always mentally substituted “shepherd” for “gate”, as it just seemed to make more sense. It’s only now that I realize that Jesus really meant to describe himself as the gate through which the shepherds must pass to reach the sheep.
To be more precise, Jesus is the gatekeeper, the “quality assurer” of a sort, ensuring that those who would lead us as shepherds, our priests, are prepared in His character, to dedicate themselves in self-sacrifice to our spiritual well-being, to be in unceasing communion with God, and to find and guide us through the narrow door of faith onto the path of Life.
In a way, I think Jesus is also reminding us that we too should be prepared in His character as Catholics, to sacrifice our cushy comforts for the sake of our disadvantaged brethren, to invert our daily preoccupation in favor of God, and to take others by the loving hand and walk together through the narrow door of faith, and onto the path of Life.
It’s certainly not easy, and our human weaknesses will make us and even our clergy stumble and fall in our daily journey, but with humility and abandonment to Christ, His love will surely prevail in the end.
And all those temptations and other nasty stuff trying to sneak through our gate of faith? Over time, we’ll learn to tell them to take a hike.
Let’s make our heavenly Gatekeeper proud. Amen.