FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER: I AM THE GATE/DOOR

THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER – A: (Acts 2:14a, 36-41; 1Pet 2:20b-25; John 10:1-10)
Theme: Open the door of our life to Jesus and to our neighbors

Reflection:
- In the fourth Sunday of Easter we still walk with the Risen Jesus. Jesus does not leave us alone. He manifests and reveals the truth of Christian Life till we understand it. He opens our hearts to listen and accept his voice. His voice echoes in the every moment and in every event of our life. If we listen to His voice we are people of His Pasture and He is our Shepherd.
- Like that of disciples of Emmaus (last Sunday) who, after recognizing Jesus in the breaking of the bread, have returned to Jerusalem from where they have to give the testimony for the truth they have received, also we, have to move towards opening of the door of our life after entering into the communion with Jesus.

First Reading:
- Still we are in the discourse of Peter, his first testimony, of the Resurrection of Jesus. He stands out in the public to speak of the truth which he himself denied three times for the fear of death. This is the great witness that once we recognize and receive, to the fullness, the truth about Jesus and the mystery of his death and resurrection, we cannot but proclaim it by our words and testify it by our life. The truth itself opens the closed door of our fear and incapacity and makes us enter into the intimacy with the mystery revealed and received.
- The bold announcement of Peter is that Jesus who was rejected and killed, is the one whom God has constituted as the Lord and Christ: the Lord of the universe, who was from the beginning of the world and for whom every was created (Eph 1) and who holds it together; and Christ, the Messiah Promised and Consecrated for the accomplishment of the design of salvation of God for all the humanity. The Jews, and in particular, the Jewish authority, in their blindness to the truth and in their pride and egoism of being the chosen people of God, failed to recognize the fulfillment of their Law, Prophets and the Psalms in Jesus, who is amidst them talking to them and doing wonders for them. Their blindness and their egoism led them to nail truth to the cross and to put the life (I am the Life) to the death. But as both Peter and Paul know well that death has no power over him (Acts 2:24; Rom 6:9), God has raised him from the dead and made him the Lord and Christ.
- “When they (the people) heard this, they were cut to the heart” (v.37): It is very similar to the disciples of Emmaus who felt “were our hearts not burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” (Lk 24:32). When the Word of God (both the Scriptures and the Person of Jesus himself) is being proclaimed and when it is accepted and embraced by good listening, our hearts will be open and minds will see the truth. This happened to the crowd that gathered to listen to the Apostles on the day of Pentecost and even before it happened, as we have already noted, to the disciples who were sadly returning to Emmaus. Yes, indeed, the word of God is so powerful and so truthful that it cuts our beings deep within us and arouse in us the spirit to see the clear connection between what is proclaimed and the person who received heard it, like a double-edged sword. The process of listening is not over with the hearts being burnt with and for the truth. It goes forward to ask how to receive it and how to make it one’s own and how to live it and finally how to enjoy the fruits of it. That is the consequence of the listening to the word proclaimed. The power of the word makes the listener to ask:
- “Brothers, what should we do?” (v.37): this is the authentic fruit of good listening of the word of God proclaimed with power and truth. It creates in us the interest to do something to do to gain it; once the kingdom of God is found as a treasure hidden in a field, or like a pearl of great value, we sell everything we have in order to buy it (Mt 13:44-45). The word of God is the treasure (‘riches of his grace that he lavished upon us’: Eph 1:8) of highest value. It buy and to have it for ourselves we have to do something (selling what we have, returning to buy and having it) and this is what Peter tells them when they asked what should we do.
- “Repent and be baptized and you will receive the Holy Spirit” (v.38):
o Repenting is the process of renouncing and leaving aside what we have and what we possess and especially what we hold on as a great treasure, that is, the treasures of the world and desires of the flesh;
o Being baptized is the process of embracing what we have found. We have found Jesus and his word and to embrace it now we have to enter into his life with the profession of faith, in the sacramental way through the baptism;
o Receiving the Holy Spirit is the process of making the space for the Spirit of love and service and for the desires of the spirit.
- The same thing happens to us every time when we hear the word of God; it has to happen to us; after listening to the word proclaimed we need to ask, “Jesus, what should I do” as an individual and “Lord, what should we do” as the community. These are the questions that we have to often ask ourselves. Immediately the consequence follows: giving up what we have, creating the place or opening the door of our life in faith to embrace Jesus and his word and finally offering ourselves to the action of the Spirit. Unless this happens, the word proclaimed goes in vain and goes fruitless and as Jesus will say in today’s Gospel, without having life.

Responsorial Psalm:
- What is the meaning of saying or singing, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”: when we have the Lord as our guide who leads us to the pastures of life, the greenery of the word and the lawn of the Eucharist, we don’t have to fear anything and we do not need anything more. Once we accept and embrace this eternal companion and shepherd of our souls as says Peter in the second reading (1 Pet 2:25), we need not to be occupied and preoccupied with anything else. Paul expresses the fruit and effect of having ‘the Lord as our shepherd’ when he says, “I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil 3:7). It is to the Lord we need to give priority and it is the Lord who has to be the centre of our life. Everything else is secondary. This is what it meaning living what we say and what we sing, the Lord is my shepherd. If we do not live in this way, only our lips say these word but our heart are far away from the Lord as once again God says through the psalmist: ‘they praise me by their lips but their hearts are astray”.

Second Reading:
- Peter analyses how Christ stand out as the model and example for our day to-day life and its contents: though we have daily events that affect our life we need to confront them in the different way as Jesus did. “He did not commit any sin and no wrong is on his mouth; he was insulted but did not respond with insults….”: even Jesus had the moments and situations to fall into temptation and to fall into sin by talking so much of malice but he did not do. The situations are same as they are for us but he acted differently. His way of confrontation is different. He did not give any room for the sin and for the slightest power of the sin. That is what we have to learn from Jesus because He stands out as a great model for leading the life in ‘manner of committing oneself to the will of God’.
- Patience is the final winner: we have to support our suffering with the patience because that is what is pleasing to God and that’s what Christ did by his own passion for us. In fact, we are called to be faithful to our call by accepting and enduring our daily sufferings with the patience, just because we are healed by his wounds (v.25).

Gospel Reading:
- The figure of ‘the gate’ or ‘the door’:
o The door is the entrance through which has an access to what is inside the room.
o The door opens the ‘possibility’ to the other mode of being.
o The door is not the finality but paves the way to the finality.
- The self revelation of Jesus: ‘I am the door’
o Jesus does not stop just telling I am the door, but there is, continuity: He is the entrance to have an access to the life inside, the love and communion of the Trinity. What happens to the one who enters through this door? He receives the salvation and that’s what Jesus reveals telling that he, “who enters through me will be saved” (v.9); and therefore, the finality of this entrance is the salvation.
o This door opens the possibility of freedom, ‘comes and goes’ (v.9): one who is inside has, always, the freedom of coming and going. But this freedom leads to the Christian mission: comes in to learn from the life of Jesus and goes out to give testimony to what has been experienced, that’s what we find peter doing in the first reading: he comes out and stand out to proclaim what he has experienced with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
o This door opens the possibility of secure life, ‘finds the pasture’ (v.9): one who enters inside can, always, be sure of the nourishment; he needs not fear of hunger; the green pastures are always available and in plenty; in fact, Jesus himself is the bread of life and wine of salvation; once we enter into the life of God through the door of Jesus, we always have the nutriment of our soul, that is, the word proclaimed and the bread broken;
- The figure of ‘sheep’:
o In the history of Israel the imagery of ‘sheep and shepherd’ is very familiar and prophets often used this expression to reveal the rapport and relationship between God and his chosen people Israel. God is the shepherd and his people, who listen to him, are the sheep for God promises them that if they would listen to his commandments, He would be their God and they would be his people.
o Therefore, the responsibility of the sheep: listening and following:
 Firstly, to listen to the shepherd and to make out his voice (v.3);
 Secondly, to follow him (v.4);
- Jesus, the shepherd and his sheep: the love of calling and leading to the good pastures:
o Jesus calls them (v.3): calling is a first action of the creator; In the beginning, God has called all the creation into existence; therefore, call is an invitation to be something; Even here Jesus, as the shepherd calls the sheep in to the life and communion of God.
o Calls them by name (v.3): one who has full knowledge of the person and one who loves only calls by name; God, out of his immense love, calls each one of us by name; It is not difficult and impossible for him to call each one by name because his love for each one is unconditional and unlimited; in fact, He reveals it through the prophet Isaiah, “See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands” (Is 49:16); Even Jesus tells that each one of our hair is counted. He remembers us by name and calls us by name; this shows how important we are for him and how much he loves us;
o He leads them out (v.3): leading the sheep out of the place where they are; the sheep is in the wrong place; the sheep is in the desert where there is no good pastures and so starving of hunger and thirst; the sheep, the people before the coming of Jesus, is in the hands of thieves and bandits, who were robbing, killing and destroying their life with false witnesses and false attractions; now Jesus, call them out of this slavery of falsehood and out of bondage of evil powers. He calls them out of the evil teaching and over burdens of the Jewish authority;
o He goes ahead of them (v.4): the shepherd goes in front of the sheep so that the sheep is very clear about the path and the way; the shepherd goes ahead preparing the way; if there are thorns and stones he clears them; if there is crooked and rough way he makes it smooth and straight; this is what shepherd who goes ahead does; this way, the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled in Jesus Christ for whom the way is prepared, “prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth and all the flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:4-6), and now Jesus himself prepares this way for the salvation of his people.
o This is the love of the shepherd for the sheep: He CALLS them by NAME and LEADS them OUT. He calls us into sharing of his life and leads us out of the deceptive life of false shepherds.
- the presence of false teachers and false gods is always there: before and after Jesus there are thieves and bandits:
o What do these thieves and bandits (false teacher and false gods) do? As Jesus himself says they ‘steal and kill and destroy’ (v.9). What do they steal, kill and destroy? They steal the authentic conscience and they kill the spirit of goodness and finally they destroy the very life leading them into the eternal damnation.
o What does the good shepherd, instead, do? As Jesus himself says, he ‘leads them out of this falsehood and gives life and life in abundance’ (v.10).
o Jesus is not talking certainly about the all those who have come before him because there are many prophets who have come and announced God’s word; he talks about those who have come in the name of God but leading the people out of God’s fold and they are false teaches (thieves) and false gods (bandits). There is one instance in Acts of the Apostles of this (5:35-39);
o They are there certainly also after Christ who use and preach in the name of Jesus but do everything in the contrary. They by their erroneous doctrines and by their misuse of authority lead the people out of relationship of God and thus throwing them into the hells of fire.
o The sheep, the people of God, has to be very careful about these thieves and bandits and about not following them; otherwise, they lose their very life.
o The sheep knows well the ‘voice of the shepherd’, the authentic Church, and there it has to listen attentively and follow it with commitment and dedication, so that, it may have life and life in abundance.

Conclusion
- Jesus is the way, the truth and the life: He is the Way (the door or the gate) to enter into the Truth (the love and communion of God with humanity in Christ and in Spirit) and thus to have the Life, the fullness of Life.
- He himself calls us by name and leads us to the good pastures of the word (liturgy of the scriptures) and of the bread (liturgy of the Eucharist) and we who are to be good sheep, have to LISTEN to him and FOLLOW him.
- Once we listen and follow him who is ‘our shepherd’ we do not want anything else and we consider everything else as secondary and as nothing and makes him our prior good and example.
- This is the only ‘WAY’ or the ‘DOOR’ or the ‘GATE’ through which we enter into Life and Life in abundance.
- Our responsibility is to ask Jesus every time: “Lord, what must we do” and the listen to his will and his will be our task;
- Our task today and from today is to ‘OPEN THE DOOR OF OUR LIFE TO JESUS AND TO OTHERS’.