15/05/2011 - 4th. Sunday in Easter Season
- Year A
Day of Prayer for Vocations
1Reading Act 2,14.36-41 Psalm 22 2Reading 1 Pt 2,20-25 Gospel Jn 10,1-10
"God has made Lord and Christ, that Jesus whom you have crucified." So
Peter speaks to the people gathered by the noise which accompanied the descent of
the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. To be told "this Jesus whom you crucified"
must have strongly shaken the residents of Jerusalem. Many of them had in fact already
turned away from Calvary beating their chest. Unfortunately, it was late when they
realized that Jesus was put to death unjustly, even madness. Now Peter has the courage
to declare openly their sin.
Humbly they asked him: "What must we do?". And then Peter, firmly, he
replied, "Repent and be baptized every one of you." Here is the indispensable
path for those who crucified Jesus Now we also recognize that they have taken part
in the betrayal and condemnation of the Lord, our daily sin, our selfishness, our
disobedience to God, are they not support the envy of the high priests and the decision
to Pilate? What should we do?
We need to convert and get baptize. We've been already baptized, but we have not
yet been completely converted. Sin s still alive in us, or rather, the roots of
sin are still alive from within, that we nurture every day with our idolatries,
with our pride, with self love and consideration, and wanting to receive the vanity
of men: with these behaviors we do not show that we live as baptized persons. There
are many things that to our eyes are better than God, and we do not give up to them,
and so we do not follow the one who was sent to us to lead us to eternal life. Jesus
is the shepherd who leads his sheep to life, to rest, to safety and to oneness.
The shepherd goes before the sheep to teach the way and lead by example. He thus
realizes the dangers and causes them to be avoided by the sheep. He is the front
to be followed by those looking for real life. Jesus uses another image to present
himself: "I am the door of the sheep". This image complements the other
one of the good shepherd.
The door is the easy way, but above all safe to be in communion and to be protected,
not to be the prey of the thief and the destroyer. Passing through the door means
to be saved. To pass through the door is to enter the Church through baptism: there
are no other ways. "Each one you is to be baptized" :are already baptized:
but does it mean something else? Does my life as a baptized person stands out from
that of those who still do not know Jesus and obey him? Am I in the life of God
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Is it also alive in me the love they have for everyone,
including my enemies?
To be baptized means to die for the frivolous proposals and often dangerous of the
world, to dead to the purely material interests, to die for all that isolate me
from the needs of the poor and of those who suffer . To be baptized means to live
in a different way, looking and searching "the things above, where Christ is.
" And this, even if it means to suffer, as St. Peter tells us today.
To be baptized means to understand one's life as a call, and face it as a answer
to the caller. Jesus call me:: he calls me to be his, to work with him, to make
mine his wishes and his will, his love for all men in need of salvation from sin.
He calls me to give my life to give it forming a family where one live not for themselves
but for him, where love between husband and wife is based on faith in God, where
we imitate the love and faithful obedience of the Divine Persons. He called someone,
many, to give his life to serve the needs of the Church, consecrated to his mission
and his testimony in the world. Today especially we pray for those who are called,
so that they may have the generosity and the joy of saying yes and bring it to to
fruition. This prayer must be alive and present every day, because the Church needs
pastors and significant examples of life given completely to Jesus