The text of the gospel of this Sunday is well known (Jn.10:1-10).
Many people noticing the reference will think:
‘This is the gospel of the Good Shepherd.’
This is correct… to a certain extent.
In this section of the text, Jesus speaks of a shepherd in general.
He will present himself as THE shepherd in the verses following today’s text.
But in the text offered to us this Sunday, Jesus makes another affirmation,
less familiar, perhaps, yet revealing something of himself.
He says:
“Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep…
Whoever enters by me will be saved,
and will come in and go out and find pasture.”
A gate, a door, an entrance into somewhere.
A place that leads us from one area to another.
A threshold… an entry into another place, another space…
This is what Jesus is, what he wants to be for us.
He is there for us, with us, to enable us to… move on,
to pass from where we are to where we can become more as God wants us to be.
This is a message very appropriate for the period we live just now –
a period of pandemic due to the Coronavirus which upsets our lives and troubles our minds.
Could it be that God wants this time to be a time of grace –
a God-given time for us to pass from our ordinary lives to that which he has in store for us?
Jesus says it clearly:
“I have come that they may have life,
and have it to the full.”
NOW, more than ever!
Note: Another reflection is available on a different theme in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/4e-dimanche-de-paques-annee-a-2020/
Source: Images: Unsplash