BELONGING
April 21, 2024: A Reflection on the Gospel for the 4th Sunday of Easter
John 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…” (John 10:11-15)
Today is what has come to be called Good Shepherd Sunday, a day in which Jesus gives us a glimpse into his heart, his relationship with his Father and with us as belonging to God as his very dear children.
The human heart yearns to belong. It’s in our spiritual, emotional and psychological DNA to know that we are loved, valued, cared for and respected by another person or persons. In other words, we are in relationship with another in such a way that we love each other and belong to each other. Think family, community, spouse, friend.
In today’s gospel, Jesus opens to us the heart of God and our relationship with the Father. He makes the distinction between a shepherd and a hired person. The true shepherd knows his sheep, cares for them to the extent that he does not run from danger when he needs to protect them. So much so, that he lays down his life for them. And the sheep reciprocate. They recognize his voice and trust him. They won’t follow another voice because they do not belong to that person. The hired person is not a shepherd. There is no sense of belonging between him and the sheep. When danger is imminent, he runs away. There is no connection between himself and the sheep, except the pay.
The second reading from John today expresses this belonging of which Jesus speaks: “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are!” In Jesus, the Son of the Father, we belong God as his children. Through his ‘yes’ to the Father to come among us as a human being, he became our brother. Out of love, he laid down his life for us and received it back from the Father in the Resurrection to be our brother in the heart of the Trinity. We are children of God, loved and cared for. We belong to God and to one another in the One who laid down his life for us and in his resurrection will carry us to the eternal belonging of heaven.