READING OF THE DAY First reading from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles ACTS 2:14A, 36-41
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed: “Let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and the other apostles, “What are we to do, my brothers?” Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call.” He testified with many other arguments, and was exhorting them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand persons were added that day.
Second reading from the first Letter of Saint Peter 1 PT 2:20B-25
Beloved: If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace before God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps. He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.
When he was insulted, he returned no insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten; instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY From the Gospel according to John JN 10:1-10
Jesus said: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.” Although Jesus used this figure of speech, the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell them.
So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER Jesus, Good Shepherd and door of the sheep, is a leader whose authority is expressed in service, a leader who, in order to command, gives his life and does not ask others to sacrifice theirs. One can trust in a leader like this, as the sheep who heed their shepherd’s voice because they know that with him one goes to good and abundant pastures. A signal, a call suffices, and they follow; they obey; they begin to walk, guided by the voice of the One whom they feel as a friendly presence, strong and mild at once, who calls, protects, consoles and soothes. (Regina Caeli, 7 may 2017)
FAUSTI - AMEN, AMEN - These are Words of Revelation, by divine authority. Jesus addresses Himself to the Pharisees, blind shepherds to enlighten them. Jesus reproaches the leaders of the people, who stand before Him, that they are not shepherds: they do not enter through the door. The leaders of the people have stolen to God His flock: they are thieves. They are robbers: they oppress and exercise violence. The shepherd, unlike thieves and brigands, enters through the door, because he is at home. Jesus opposes Himself to the chiefs as the only legitimate Shepherd. The Shepherd is the Lord Himself (EZ. 34,11), and His Messiah (EZ. 34, 23) taking His place, usurped by false shepherds. To Him the gatekeeper opens, His sheep hear His voice. The shepherd is recognized as such. Every man recognizes and opens his heart to freedom, love and life, which he knows well how to distinguish from slavery, selfishness and death. The oppressed people recognize those who offer to him a way of escape. The former blind man, who listened to the pastor, was expelled from the temple and came to light. Even Lazarus will hear his voice and come out of the tomb. The people, being oppressed, are sensible to the voice of freedom. When they hear it, they will listen to it gladly. Like YHWH in the exodus, Jesus leads His people towards the promised land. The sheep follow Him, for He Himself is the way that leads to life. He lives the love of the Father and of his brothers and sisters to the full. The false shepherds oppress us with deceitful lies and, when necessary, with violence, terror and fear; the true Shepherd makes us free, able to love and serve, to hope and to dare. Everyone is able to hear the difference between the two voices. The sheep, in front of the thief and the bandit, have the opposite attitude to what they have in front of the shepherd. The judgement on the shepherd's truth is made by the sheep themselves, not by polls or pressure from the bosses. If he follows bad teachers or shepherds ( the 20th century offered us extraordinary examples, different from the previous ones only because of their greater capacity to do damage; what will the new one have in store for us? ) it does so only because it is mentally cloned by those who possess power and configures it in its own image and likeness. Man today is so estranged from himself that God seems to be the only stranger. We hear all the strangest voices, but not that of conscience; we are seduced by whatever merchant wants to buy us, but not by Him who loves us of Eternal Love. Jesus said that the thief / robber does not pass through the door, now He says: I am the door, through which the sheep can go out in freedom and achieve life. He Himself, Word made Flesh, is the Door between earth and heaven. The door is where the prison wall is broken. He who is locked inside can go out; if he does not want to go out, still shines daylight to his eyes. Salvation is not entering the temple like sheep for slaughter, but going out with Him to enter into Him, the Son, who gives us Life and in abundance. He is in fact the loving intelligence of the Father, He saves our humanity, opening it to the light of His truth. For He Himself is the pasture of the flock, the true Bread of Life (6:33-35) which satisfies all hunger and thirst. Now JESUS shows His way of being a Shepherd: He exposes His life in favour of the sheep. Later He will say that He disposes and lays down His life for them. It is the beauty of love that shows itself in action!
KAROL WOJTYLA - Roman Triptych "In the beginning was the Word... and through Him all was done." the whole thing in which we live and move and exist - The Word, the wonderful Word - the Eternal Word, like an invisible threshold of all that has begun to exist, exists and will exist. As if the Word was the threshold.
The threshold of the Word, in which everything was in an invisible way, eternal and divine - behind this threshold events begin!
BLESSED XVI - THE SHEPHERD (FROM JESUS OF NAZARETH) The image of the pastor, with whom Jesus presents His mission both in the Synoptics and in the Gospel of John, has a long history. The immediate antecedent of Jesus' figurative discourse is naturally found in the Old Testament, in which God Himself appears as the Shepherd of Israel. This image has deeply shaped the piety of Israel and has become a message of consolation and trust especially in times of calamity. Perhaps in Psalm 23 this confident piety is summed up in the most beautiful way: The Lord is my shepherd - "If I walk through the valley of darkness I will fear no evil, for Thou are with me. The image of God the Shepherd is developed more extensively in Ezekiel (Chap 34-37), whose vision, recovered with concreteness in the present, is welcomed in the synoptic parables of the shepherd and in the speech of John of the Shepherd as a prophecy of Jesus' activity. Faced with the selfish shepherds whom Ezekiel meets and denounces in his time, the prophet announces the promise that God Himself will seek His sheep and take care of them (34,13.15.16). Faced with the murmuring of the Pharisees and scribes about His conviviality with sinners, the Lord recounts the parable of the 99 sheep left in the fold and the only one lost, in search of which the shepherd places himself and then loads it on his shoulders all happy and brings it home. With this parable, Jesus says to His adversaries: have you not read the Word of God in Ezekiel? I only do what God, as a true shepherd, has announced: "I will go in search of the lost sheep and bring the lost ones back to the fold"... We can listen here to the words of Psalm 23 as a resonance: "On grassy pastures He makes me rest, to calm waters He leads me ... Before me You prepare a table ... Happiness and Grace will be my companions every day of my life". In an even more immediate way the discourse of the shepherd of Ezekiel there resounds : "I will lead them to good pastures and their fold will be in the high mountains of Israel" (34:14). The Fathers saw in the mountains of Israel and in the pastures on their summits, where there is shade and water, an image of the heights of Sacred Scripture, of the dispensing nourishment of Life of the Word of God. Man lives on the truth and on being loved, on being loved by the Truth. He needs God, the God who comes close to him and explains to him the meaning of life. Of course, man needs bread, he needs the nourishment of the body, but in the deepest sense he needs above all the Word, Love, God Himself. Whoever gives him this, gives him "Life in abundance". And thus he also frees the forces by which man can sensibly shape the earth, he can find for himself and for others the goods that we can only have in reciprocity.
READING OF THE DAY
RispondiEliminaFirst reading from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles
ACTS 2:14A, 36-41
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven,
raised his voice, and proclaimed:
“Let the whole house of Israel know for certain
that God has made both Lord and Christ,
this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart,
and they asked Peter and the other apostles,
“What are we to do, my brothers?”
Peter said to them,
“Repent and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins;
and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise is made to you and to your children
and to all those far off,
whomever the Lord our God will call.”
He testified with many other arguments, and was exhorting them,
“Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”
Those who accepted his message were baptized,
and about three thousand persons were added that day.
Second reading from the first Letter of Saint Peter
1 PT 2:20B-25
Beloved:
If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good,
this is a grace before God.
For to this you have been called,
because Christ also suffered for you,
leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.
He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.
When he was insulted, he returned no insult;
when he suffered, he did not threaten;
instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly.
He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross,
so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness.
By his wounds you have been healed.
For you had gone astray like sheep,
but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY
From the Gospel according to John
JN 10:1-10
Jesus said:
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate
but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.
But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice,
as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he has driven out all his own,
he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him,
because they recognize his voice.
But they will not follow a stranger;
they will run away from him,
because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.”
Although Jesus used this figure of speech,
the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell them.
So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
I am the gate for the sheep.
All who came before me are thieves and robbers,
but the sheep did not listen to them.
I am the gate.
Whoever enters through me will be saved,
and will come in and go out and find pasture.
A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy;
I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
Jesus, Good Shepherd and door of the sheep, is a leader whose authority is expressed in service, a leader who, in order to command, gives his life and does not ask others to sacrifice theirs. One can trust in a leader like this, as the sheep who heed their shepherd’s voice because they know that with him one goes to good and abundant pastures. A signal, a call suffices, and they follow; they obey; they begin to walk, guided by the voice of the One whom they feel as a friendly presence, strong and mild at once, who calls, protects, consoles and soothes. (Regina Caeli, 7 may 2017)
FAUSTI - AMEN, AMEN - These are Words of Revelation, by divine authority.
RispondiEliminaJesus addresses Himself to the Pharisees, blind shepherds to enlighten them.
Jesus reproaches the leaders of the people, who stand before Him, that they are not shepherds: they do not enter through the door. The leaders of the people have stolen to God His flock: they are thieves.
They are robbers: they oppress and exercise violence.
The shepherd, unlike thieves and brigands, enters through the door, because he is at home.
Jesus opposes Himself to the chiefs as the only legitimate Shepherd. The Shepherd is the Lord Himself (EZ. 34,11), and His Messiah (EZ. 34, 23) taking His place, usurped by false shepherds.
To Him the gatekeeper opens, His sheep hear His voice.
The shepherd is recognized as such. Every man recognizes and opens his heart to freedom, love and life, which he knows well how to distinguish from slavery, selfishness and death.
The oppressed people recognize those who offer to him a way of escape.
The former blind man, who listened to the pastor, was expelled from the temple and came to light.
Even Lazarus will hear his voice and come out of the tomb.
The people, being oppressed, are sensible to the voice of freedom.
When they hear it, they will listen to it gladly.
Like YHWH in the exodus, Jesus leads His people towards the promised land.
The sheep follow Him, for He Himself is the way that leads to life.
He lives the love of the Father and of his brothers and sisters to the full. The false shepherds oppress us with deceitful lies and, when necessary, with violence, terror and fear; the true Shepherd makes us free, able to love and serve, to hope and to dare.
Everyone is able to hear the difference between the two voices.
The sheep, in front of the thief and the bandit, have the opposite attitude to what they have in front of the shepherd. The judgement on the shepherd's truth is made by the sheep themselves, not by polls or pressure from the bosses. If he follows bad teachers or shepherds ( the 20th century offered us extraordinary examples, different from the previous ones only because of their greater capacity to do damage; what will the new one have in store for us? ) it does so only because it is mentally cloned by those who possess power and configures it in its own image and likeness.
Man today is so estranged from himself that God seems to be the only stranger.
We hear all the strangest voices, but not that of conscience; we are seduced by whatever merchant wants to buy us, but not by Him who loves us of Eternal Love.
Jesus said that the thief / robber does not pass through the door, now He says: I am the door, through which the sheep can go out in freedom and achieve life.
He Himself, Word made Flesh, is the Door between earth and heaven.
The door is where the prison wall is broken. He who is locked inside can go out; if he does not want to go out, still shines daylight to his eyes.
Salvation is not entering the temple like sheep for slaughter, but going out with Him to enter into Him, the Son, who gives us Life and in abundance.
He is in fact the loving intelligence of the Father, He saves our humanity, opening it to the light of His truth.
For He Himself is the pasture of the flock, the true Bread of Life (6:33-35) which satisfies all hunger and thirst.
Now JESUS shows His way of being a Shepherd: He exposes His life in favour of the sheep.
Later He will say that He disposes and lays down His life for them.
It is the beauty of love that shows itself in action!
KAROL WOJTYLA - Roman Triptych
RispondiElimina"In the beginning was the Word...
and through Him all was done."
the whole thing in which we live and move and exist -
The Word, the wonderful Word - the Eternal Word,
like an invisible threshold
of all that has begun to exist, exists and will exist.
As if the Word was the threshold.
The threshold of the Word, in which everything was in an invisible way,
eternal and divine - behind this threshold
events begin!
BLESSED XVI - THE SHEPHERD (FROM JESUS OF NAZARETH)
RispondiEliminaThe image of the pastor, with whom Jesus presents His mission both in the Synoptics and in the Gospel of John, has a long history. The immediate antecedent of Jesus' figurative discourse is naturally found in the Old Testament, in which God Himself appears as the Shepherd of Israel.
This image has deeply shaped the piety of Israel and has become a message of consolation and trust especially in times of calamity.
Perhaps in Psalm 23 this confident piety is summed up in the most beautiful way: The Lord is my shepherd - "If I walk through the valley of darkness I will fear no evil, for Thou are with me.
The image of God the Shepherd is developed more extensively in Ezekiel (Chap 34-37), whose vision, recovered with concreteness in the present, is welcomed in the synoptic parables of the shepherd and in the speech of John of the Shepherd as a prophecy of Jesus' activity.
Faced with the selfish shepherds whom Ezekiel meets and denounces in his time, the prophet announces the promise that God Himself will seek His sheep and take care of them (34,13.15.16).
Faced with the murmuring of the Pharisees and scribes about His conviviality with sinners, the Lord recounts the parable of the 99 sheep left in the fold and the only one lost, in search of which the shepherd places himself and then loads it on his shoulders all happy and brings it home.
With this parable, Jesus says to His adversaries: have you not read the Word of God in Ezekiel? I only do what God, as a true shepherd, has announced: "I will go in search of the lost sheep and bring the lost ones back to the fold"...
We can listen here to the words of Psalm 23 as a resonance: "On grassy pastures He makes me rest, to calm waters He leads me ... Before me You prepare a table ... Happiness and Grace will be my companions every day of my life". In an even more immediate way the discourse of the shepherd of Ezekiel there resounds : "I will lead them to good pastures and their fold will be in the high mountains of Israel" (34:14). The Fathers saw in the mountains of Israel and in the pastures on their summits, where there is shade and water, an image of the heights of Sacred Scripture, of the dispensing nourishment of Life of the Word of God.
Man lives on the truth and on being loved, on being loved by the Truth. He needs God, the God who comes close to him and explains to him the meaning of life. Of course, man needs bread, he needs the nourishment of the body, but in the deepest sense he needs above all the Word, Love, God Himself. Whoever gives him this, gives him "Life in abundance". And thus he also frees the forces by which man can sensibly shape the earth, he can find for himself and for others the goods that we can only have in reciprocity.