Ken Overberg, S.J.

Fourth Sunday of Easter, April 29, 2007

Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. For the people of Israel, shepherd was an important image of their leaders. David, of course, was the great example. But not all shepherd-leaders were good. Early Christians applied the image of the good shepherd to Jesus, as we hear in today’s readings. Even more important, we hear in the gospel of the mutuality of the life of God, the divine life given to us (see Arthur Dewey’s The Word in Time).

As Pastor Bollman told us several weeks ago, our first readings during Easter this year come from the Acts of the Apostles and the Book of Revelation. A little background may help us hear God’s word.

Acts is the second part of a two-volume work; the first is the Gospel of Luke. Written around 85 or even several decades later, Luke-Acts offers remarkable good news—God’s presence and action in Jesus and then in the early church—good news for Jew and Gentile! Acts is not history as we understand history, even though it sounds like it. Acts is Luke’s creative account of disciples’ preaching and traveling, of acceptance and rejection, of the Spirit’s work building up the early community.

Revelation was written near the end of the first century by the unknown person called John of Patmos. Offering hope to seven churches in western Asia Minor (what we call Turkey) that faced persecution from the Roman empire, Revelation uses the apocalyptic style of dramatic visions and images. It spoke to the people of the time about issues of their time. Revelation offers no hidden codes for our day; it does still offer us hope and consolation.

Let’s listen to God’s word!

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Along with the profound insight into Jesus as one with the Father and as God’s presence on earth, the Johannine community also recognized that they too shared in this divine life. Eternal life is life in its fullness, one of the major themes of John’s gospel and a central aspect of our Easter celebration. Life is the prime characteristic of Jesus, who comes to bring people eternal life. Such life does not begin after death, for the one who believes already has eternal life and has already passed from death into life. Eternal life cannot be taken away by death but only by sin and unbelief.

While most contemporary Christians have a strong hope in life beyond death, many fewer would realize that they already possess eternal life.

In John, eternal life describes less duration or unending life than a quality or fullness of life. It is life with and for God that Jesus reveals. Eternal life begins when people through faith and love commit themselves to the kind and quality of life that Jesus embodies.

What shepherd are you following?