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The Fourth Sunday of Easter (Year A)

Today is the Fourth Sunday of Easter, and we continue our reading of the Book of Acts of the Apostles, which we have been reading from since Easter Sunday. This book, placed in the Bible right after the Four Gospels (after John’s Gospel, specifically), is actually the second half of one book. Originally, the Gospel of Luke was attached to Acts of the Apostles. The Gospel of Luke came first and then Acts of the Apostles is the rest of the story from St. Luke’s point of view. So, when you’re at home reading your Bible (I know all of you are doing this, right?), read St. Luke’s Gospel then immediately read Acts of the Apostles. In our Bibles, John’s Gospel is placed between the two (in order to put the Gospels together), which artificially separates what was originally together: Luke & Acts.

What’s so interesting about Acts of the Apostles is that in it, Luke uses the same phrases and words for the Church that he used in his Gospel for Jesus. He does this intentionally, in order to show us that the Church is an extension of the Incarnation. That is, in the Catholic Church (which is the same Church as the Church in Acts of the Apostles – only our Church is that old with the pope succeeding St. Peter), the life of Jesus is continued. The Church is truly the Mystical Body of Christ. It is in the Church that Jesus continues to preach, teach, govern, heal, and sanctify.

Jesus established the Church in order to bring all men and women to eternal life: into communion with God the Father through Jesus, the Eternal Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Pope John Paul II put it this way: “God has entered human history so that through his Son, we might be drawn into his own divine life!” Did you catch that? The purpose of the Church is to bring the world to eternal life: the life of the Trinity!

Every year, the Gospel for this Fourth Sunday of Easter is taken from the 10th Chapter of the Gospel of John, which is where Jesus refers to himself as “the good shepherd” (10:11), so this Sunday is also known as Good Shepherd Sunday. Today, we listen to Jesus say: “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” (10:10). Jesus also tells us that the shepherd “walks ahead of [the sheep] and the sheep follow him because they recognize his voice” (10:4). Jesus has walked ahead of us through suffering, through death, and into the new life of the resurrection!

The Church pairs John 10:1-10 with 1 Peter 2:20-25 because Peter speaks of how we are to “follow in his footsteps” by suffering for the good without complaint and living for righteousness. Finally, Peter calls Jesus “the shepherd and guardian of your souls” (v. 25). Our shepherd speaks to us daily in the divine Scriptures. Do we value that voice and adhere to it with our lives?