POPE FRANCIS ON 4TH SUNDAY OF EASTER B
OR GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY YEAR B
POPE FRANCIS 2021 REFLECTION GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY YEAR B
REGINA CAELI
Saint Peter’s Square
4th Sunday of Easter, 21 April 2024
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Dear brothers and sisters, happy Sunday!
This Sunday, is dedicated to Jesus the Good Shepherd. In today’s Gospel (cf. Jn 10:11-18), Jesus tells us that, “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (v. 11). He highlights this aspect so much that He repeats it three times (cf. vv. 11, 15, 17). But in what sense, I ask myself, does the shepherd give his life for the sheep?
Being a shepherd, especially in Christ’s time, was not just a job, it was a way of life: it was not an occupation which took up a defined amount of time, but it meant sharing entire days, and even nights, with the sheep, living- I would say- in symbiosis with them. Indeed, Jesus explains that He is not a hired man who cares nothing for the sheep (cf. v. 13), but a man who knows them (cf. v. 14): He knows the sheep. This is the way things are, He, the Lord, the shepherd of us all, calls us by our name and, when we are lost, He looks for us until He finds us (cf. Lk 15:4-5). Moreover, Jesus is not just a good shepherd who shares the life of the flock; Jesus is the Good Shepherd who has sacrificed His life for us and, has given us His Spirit through His resurrection.
This is what the Lord wants to tell us with the image of the Good Shepherd: not only that He is the guide, the Head of the flock, but above all that He thinks about every one of us, and that He thinks of each of us as the love of His life. Consider this: for Christ, I am important, He thinks of me, I am irreplaceable, worth the infinite price of His life. And this is not just a way of speaking: He truly gave His life for me, He died and rose again for me. Why? Because He loves me and He finds in me a beauty that I often do not see myself.
Brothers and sisters, how many people today think of themselves as inadequate or even wrong! How many times do we think that our value depends on the goals we achieve, on whether we succeed in the eyes of the world, on the judgments of others! And how many times do we end up throwing ourselves away for trivial things! Today Jesus tells us that we are always infinitely worthy in His eyes. So, in order to find ourselves, the first thing to do is to place ourselves in His presence, allowing ourselves to be welcomed and lifted up by the loving arms of our Good Shepherd.
Brothers, sisters, let us ask ourselves: am I able to find the time, every day, to embrace this assurance that gives value to my life? Am I able to find the time for a moment of prayer, of adoration, of praise, to be in the presence of Christ and to let myself be caressed by Him? Brother, sister, the Good Shepherd tells us that if you do this, you will rediscover the secret of life: you will remember that He gave His life for you, for me, for all of us. And that for Him, we are all important, each and every one of us.
May Our Lady help us to find in Jesus what is essential for life.
Source and copyright: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/angelus/2024/documents/20240421-regina-caeli.html
REGINA CAELI
Saint Peter’s Square
Sunday, 25 April 2021
Dear brothers and sisters, buongiorno!
On this Fourth Sunday of Easter, called Good Shepherd Sunday, the Gospel (Jn 10:11-18) presents Jesus as the true shepherd who defends, knows and loves his sheep.
The “mercenary” is the opposite of the Good Shepherd, the one who does not care about the sheep because they are not his. He does the job only for pay and is not concerned about defending them: when a wolf arrives, he flees and abandons them (cf vv. 12-13). Instead, Jesus, the true shepherd, defends us always and saves us from so many difficult situations, dangerous situations through the light of his word and the strength of his presence that we always experience if we want to listen, every day.
The second aspect is that Jesus, the good shepherd, knows – the first aspect: defend; the second: he knows his sheep and the sheep know Him (v. 14). How beautiful and consoling it is to know that Jesus knows us one by one, that we are not unknown to Him, that our name is known to him! We are not a “mass”, a “multitude” for Him, no. We are unique individuals, each with his or her own story, he knows us with our own story, each with his or her own value, both because they have been created and have been redeemed by Christ. Each of us can say: Jesus, knows me! Each one of us: Jesus knows me! It is true, it is like this: He knows us like no other. Only He knows what is in our hearts, our intentions, our most hidden feelings. Jesus knows our strengths and our defects, and is always ready to care for us, to heal the wounds of our errors with the abundance of his mercy. In Him, the image the prophets had provided of the shepherd of the people of God is completely fulfilled: Jesus is concerned about his sheep, he gathers them, he binds their wounds, he heals their ailments. We can read this in Book of the Prophet Ezekiel (cf Ez 34:11-16).
Therefore, Jesus the Good Shepherd defends, knows, and above all loves his sheep. And this is why He gives His life for them (cf Jn 10:15). Love for his sheep, that is, for each one of us, would lead him to die on the cross. For this is the Father’s will – that no one should be lost. Christ’s love is not selective; it embraces everyone. He Himself reminds us of this in today’s Gospel when he says: “And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd” (Jn 10:16). These words testify to his universal concern: He is everyone’s shepherd. Jesus wants everyone to be able to receive the Father’s love and encounter God.
And the Church is called to carry on this mission of Christ. Beyond those who participate in our communities, there is the majority, many people, who do so only at particular moments or never. But this does not mean they are not God’s children: the Father entrusts everyone to Jesus the Good Shepherd, and he gave his life for everyone.
Brothers and sisters, Jesus defends, knows and loves us, everyone. May Mary Most Holy help us to be the first to welcome and follow the Good Shepherd, to cooperate in the joy of his mission.
SOURCE: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/angelus/2021/documents/papa-francesco_regina-caeli_20210425.html
EMPHASIS MINE.
REGINA CÆLI
Saint Peter’s Square
Fourth Sunday of Easter B, 22 April 2018
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!
The Liturgy of this Fourth Sunday of Easter pursues the aim of helping us rediscover our identity as disciples of the Risen Lord. In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter openly declares that the healing of the cripple, which he carried out and which all of Jerusalem speaks about, took place in the name of Jesus, because “there is salvation in no one else” (4:12). There in that healed man is each one of us — that man is the shape of ourselves: we are all there within — there are our communities: each of us can be healed of the many forms of spiritual infirmity that we have — ambition, laziness, pride — if we agree, with confidence, to put our very existence into the hands of the Risen Lord. “By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth”, affirms Peter, “this man is standing before you well” (v. 10). But who is the Christ who heals? What does being healed by him consist in? What are we healed of? And by means of what attitudes?
The answer to all these questions can be found in today’s Gospel, where Jesus says: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (Jn 10:11). This self-introduction by Jesus cannot be reduced to an emotional suggestion, without any concrete effect! Jesus heals through his being a shepherd who lays down his life. Giving his life for us, Jesus says to each one: ‘Your life is worth so much to me, that to save it I give all of myself’. It is precisely this offering of his life that makes him the Good Shepherd par excellence, the One who heals, the One who allows us to live a beautiful and fruitful life.
The second part of the same Gospel passage tells us how Jesus can heal us and make our life joyful and fruitful: “I am the good shepherd”, Jesus says. “I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father” (vv. 14-15). Jesus does not speak of intellectual knowledge, no, but of a personal relationship, of predilection, of mutual tenderness, reflection of the same intimate loving relationship between him and the Father. This is the attitude through which a living relationship with Jesus is realized: allowing ourselves to be known by him. Not closing up within ourselves; but opening ourselves to the Lord, so that he may know us. He is attentive to each one of us; he knows the depths of our heart: he knows our merits and our defects, the projects we have carried out and the hopes that have gone unfulfilled. But he accepts us as we are, even with our sins, so as to heal us, to forgive us; he guides us with love, so that we can cross even impervious paths without losing the way. He accompanies us.
In turn, we are called to know Jesus. This implies an encounter with him, an encounter which spurs the desire to follow him, abandoning self-referential attitudes and setting out on new paths, indicated by Christ himself and open to vast horizons. When in our communities the desire to live the relationship with Jesus, to listen to his voice and to follow him faithfully cools down, it is inevitable that other ways of thinking and living that are not consistent with the Gospel will prevail. May Mary, our Mother, help us to develop an ever stronger relationship with Jesus. Opening ourselves to Jesus, so that he may enter within us. A stronger relationship: He is Risen. In this way, we can follow him all our life. On this World Day of Prayer for Vocations, may Mary intercede so that many may respond with generosity and perseverance to the Lord who calls us to leave everything for His Kingdom.
Following the recitation of the Regina Caeli, the Pope added:
[…]
As I mentioned earlier, on this Fourth Sunday of Easter the whole Church celebrates the Day of Prayer for Vocations. The theme is: “Listening, discerning, living the call of the Lord”. Let us thank the Lord because he continues to inspire in the Church stories of love for Jesus Christ, in praise of his glory and in service to his brothers and sisters. Today, in particular, let us give thanks for the new priests whom I ordained a short while ago in Saint Peter’s Basilica. And let us ask the Lord to send many good labourers to work in his field, as well as to multiply vocations to consecrated life and to Christian marriage. As I said, I have ordained 16 priests today. Of these 16, four have come here to greet you and bestow the blessing with me. [Four newly ordained priests take their places beside the Pope at the window] […]
SOURCE: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/angelus/2018/documents/papa-francesco_regina-coeli_20180422.html
EMPHASIS MINE.
REGINA CÆLI
Saint Peter’s Square
Fourth Sunday of Easter B, 26 April 2015
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning,
This day, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, called “Good Shepherd Sunday”, invites us each year to rediscover, with ever new astonishment, how Jesus defined himself, reading it again in the light of his passion, death and resurrection. “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (Jn 10:11): these words are wholly fulfilled when Christ, freely obeying the will of the Father, is immolated on the Cross. The significance that He is “the Good Shepherd” thus becomes completely clear: He gives life, He offered his life in sacrifice for us all: for you, for you, for you, for me, for everyone! And for this reason He is the Good Shepherd!
Christ is the true shepherd, who fulfils the loftiest model of love for the flock: He freely lays down his own life, no one takes it from Him (cf. v. 18), but He gives it for the sheep (v. 17). In open opposition to false shepherds, Jesus presents himself as the one true shepherd of the people. A bad pastor thinks of himself and exploits the sheep; a good shepherd thinks of the sheep and gives himself. Unlike the mercenary, Christ the pastor is a careful guide who participates in the life of his flock, does not seek other interests, has no ambition other than guiding, feeding and protecting his sheep. All of this at the highest price, that of sacrificing his own life.
In the figure of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, we contemplate the Providence of God, his paternal solicitude for each one of us. He does not leave us on our own! The result of this contemplation of Jesus the true and good Shepherd, is the exclamation of poignant astonishment that we find in the Second Reading of the day’s Liturgy: “See what love the Father has given us…” (1 Jn 3:1). It is truly a surprising and mysterious love, for by giving us Jesus as the Shepherd who gives his life for us, the Father has given us all of the greatest and most precious that He could give us. It is the purest and most sublime love, for it is not motivated by necessity, is not conditioned on accounting, is not attracted by a self-interested desire for exchange. Before this love of God, we feel immense joy and we open ourselves to recognizing how much we have freely received.
But it is not enough to contemplate and give thanks. It is also necessary to follow the Good Shepherd. In particular, those whose mission is to be a guide in the Church — priests, bishops, popes — are called to take on not the mentality of manager but that of servant, in imitation of Jesus who, in emptying himself, saved us with his mercy. Also called to this way of pastoral life, that of a good shepherd, are the new priests of the Diocese of Rome, whom I had the joy of ordaining this morning in St Peter’s Basilica.
Two of them are here to thank you for your prayers and to greet you … [two newly ordained priests appear at the window beside the Holy Father].
May Mary Most Holy obtain for me, for the bishops and for the priests of the entire world, the grace to serve the holy People of God through joyous preaching of the Gospel, heartfelt celebration of the Sacraments, and patient and gentle pastoral guidance.
SOURCE: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/angelus/2015/documents/papa-francesco_regina-coeli_20150426.html
EMPHASIS MINE.
See as well:
4TH SUNDAY OF EASTER YEAR B (Good Shepherd sunday B)
MASS PRAYERS AND READINGS in https://catholicsstrivingforholiness.org/4th-sunday-of-easter-b-mass-prayers-and-readings/
4TH SUNDAY OF EASTER YEAR B HOMILY REFLECTION HERE , HERE AND HERE.
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