Daily Gospel Reflection
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April 25, 2021
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;
and I will lay down my life for the sheep.
I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.
These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice,
and there will be one flock, one shepherd.
This is why the Father loves me,
because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.
I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again.
This command I have received from my Father.”
The Fourth Sunday of Easter is sometimes called “Good Shepherd Sunday” because the gospel passage reminds us that Jesus is our shepherd. The shepherd is an important metaphor for our savior in the Gospels. One of the most humble professions of Jesus’ day becomes a figure of Jesus’ care for us.
It might seem like an unflattering comparison to think of ourselves as sheep but today’s gospel speaks to the intimacy and trust between the shepherd and the sheep: “I know mine and mine know me,” Jesus says. Like humble sheep, when we hear the shepherd’s voice we trust and we follow.
As I meditated on this passage, I remembered the infancy narrative in the Gospel of Luke. Angels appear to shepherds to announce the birth of Christ (2:8-20). They are the first to hear the Good News of the incarnation, despite the fact of their lowly status– or perhaps because it. They are awestruck by this announcement and they obediently and joyfully make their way to Bethlehem to visit the infant. When they depart, “the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.” They were the first to preach the Good News.
When I hold these two passages together, I see that Jesus is a shepherd to us and we are his shepherds to the world. We might not think of ourselves as worthy of this task, but Luke’s shepherds show us that we must announce the arrival of the one Good Shepherd even if we feel unqualified. We shepherd our families, our communities, and our professions towards the Lord. We must be bold like shepherds and humble like sheep.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, you have given Jesus authority over all your creatures, over each one of us. He exercises his authority by having become one with us in our flesh and blood, in our struggles and hopes. Help us to be so closely united with Jesus that our truest selves will be molded in Jesus’ likeness. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Mark is the author of the earliest record of Jesus’ life and death that we have in Scripture.
Some believe he is the young man who makes an appearance in that Gospel’s account of the arrest of Jesus (Mark 14:51-52)—the young man who was nearly captured but escaped.
Known also as John Mark, he was a follower of St. Peter and makes other appearances in the Scriptural accounts of the early Church (Acts 12:25). He and his mother were important figures in the early Christian community—his mother’s house was a gathering place for followers, for example.
He traveled with Peter to Rome and he also accompanied Paul and Barnabus, who was Mark’s cousin, to Cyprus as they preached the good news. Tradition tells that he established the Church in Alexandria where he served as bishop, founded the first famous Christian school, and was later martyred. Because of the tradition linking Mark to Egypt, he is one of the chief saints of the Coptic Christian Church.
His Gospel was composed sometime around the year 70, and it seems to have been intended for a non-Jewish audience facing persecution. Some ancient writers describe Mark as Peter’s interpreter—that Mark's Gospel was written from Peter's eyewitness account of Jesus' life.
All four of the Gospel writers are depicted with a symbol that comes from imagery in the Book of Revelation (4:7): a lion, a calf, a human, and an eagle. Mark’s emblem is the lion because his Gospel begins with a scene in the desert, and the lion is considered lord of the desert.
The city of Venice, Italy, is said to hold his body, and relics of St. Mark also rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Notre Dame's campus. Mark is depicted in several places on campus, most notably in this painting from the ceiling of the Basilica.
St. Mark, the first Evangelist to write down the story of Jesus's life—pray for us!