BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (# 24)
Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year B – May 11, 2003
BIBLE READINGS
Acts 4:8-12 // I Jn 3:1-2 // Jn 10:11-18
A news report by Matthew Schofield in The Fresno Bee (Tuesday, April 22, 2003) gives us a tenderhearted picture of postwar Iraq. Here is the account.
Across town, by 10 a.m., the line outside Baghdad Bakery had grown to 1,000 people … People were leaving the bakery with bread, 20 long rolls for 500 dinars, or about 18 cents. Before the war, this couldn’t have happened. Baghdad Bakery made bread only for Saddam Hussein’s Special Republican Guard. Now, the bread was for the city’s poor. Amera Ibraheem counted the baked loaves and placed them in plastic bags. She’s worked for the bakery 30 years. She said people were worried about the bakery’s future. They were down to a three-day supply of flour and had no idea where to find more. But, she added, everyone was committed to keeping the bakery open. As Baghdad fell and the bakery’s Baath Party manager fled with the workers’ salaries, the employees arrived for work. They set up a system in which they would sell the bread inexpensively and share the profits. On Sunday, the manager returned to the factory, escorted by two bodyguards. He demanded all the money the bakery had earned, and the bread. He planned to sell it to the city’s wealthier residents. The workers chased the manager and his guards away, warning them not to come back.
The enterprising employees of Baghdad Bakery, who work to ensure that the much-needed bread would reach the starving poor of the devastated city, have the heart of the Good Shepherd mentioned in the Gospel of John. Their selfless concern to help their own people contrasts with the selfish and detestable attitude of the manager who is bent on fleecing the helpless poor. This news account from war-torn Baghdad helps us understand the relevance of the Gospel reading of this Sunday, called “the Good Shepherd Sunday”. Indeed, this Iraqi situation gives us a glimpse of the antithetical roles mentioned by John in his account: the Good Shepherd who is willing to lay down his life for the sheep and the hired man who works only for pay and has no concern for the sheep.
The evangelist John’s account of the Good Shepherd and the hired man should be seen in the light of Ezekiel 34. In this passage, the prophet Ezekiel announces Yahweh’s indictment of the irresponsible and thieving leaders of Israel, who were feeding themselves upon the flock, rather than shepherding them. So Yahweh would take away from them the flock they have ill-treated and become the shepherd himself. The evangelist John sees all this accomplished in Jesus. The compassionate God has become the shepherd of his people in Jesus, the Messiah and the Son of David.
Jesus is the ultimate Shepherd, exceedingly loved by the Father because he lays down his life for the sheep. His act of total, loving self-sacrifice is in sharp contrast to the miserable shepherding of the false leaders of his time. According to the biblical scholar, Neal Flannagan: “Though the shepherd-sheep metaphor was well known in the Old Testament Scriptures (as in Ez 34), this laying down of the shepherd’s life is something new. It is the characteristic function of Jesus. He is the Good Shepherd especially because of his willing self-sacrifice.” Indeed, Jesus is able to accomplish his role as the Good Shepherd of the Father’s flock because he and the Father are one.
The pastoral ministry of Jesus is inclusive: “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” (Jn 10:16). The motivation for this all-inclusive ministry is his loving and intimate relationship with the Father who has compassionate care for all. The pastoral mission of the Good Shepherd reached its completion on the cross, when he laid down his life for his sheep. His life-giving sacrifice on the cross calls forth the words that he had uttered before the Passion, when some Greeks came to Philip, saying: “Sir, we would like to see Jesus” (Jn 12:20). Jesus’ prophetic words were: “And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself” (Jn 12:32). Upon the cross, the mission of the Good Shepherd to bring into one fold all his scattered sheep was brought to fulfillment. The radical pastoral mission that the Good Shepherd completed on the cross needs to be actualized in the “here and now” by the Church, the flock that the glorified Jesus continues to shepherd.
By virtue of our configuration to Jesus Master-Shepherd in the sacraments of Christian initiation, we assume the responsibility of taking care of the flock and gathering into one all his scattered sheep. As we lovingly and faithfully carry out today Christ’s pastoral mission, let us remember that his care for his sheep is a total ministry. According to Teresa Okure: “Jesus’ care for the sheep is not only in spiritual terms. It applies to all that the sheep need to have life in its fullness, life as God created it with all the real needs that go with it, including light, water, employment, adequate wages, means of transportation and communication, housing and so forth.”
A. How concretely do we incarnate the love and care of Jesus, the Good Shepherd in the here and now?
B. Like the Good Shepherd, are we willing to lay down our life for the “sheep”? Who are the “sheep” that need our special care?
C. With the heart of the Good Shepherd, do we seek to bring into one fold all the scattered “sheep” for more effective pasturing and for greater union among themselves?
(Based on a prayer composed by Blessed James Alberione)
Leader: We thank you, Jesus Good Shepherd, for having come down from heaven to seek out humankind and bring it back to the way of salvation. In you is fulfilled the promise: I will raise up in the midst of scattered sheep a shepherd who will gather them and care for them. The shepherd leads and the sheep follow him because they recognize his voice. You have given your commandments, your counsels, your example. Whoever heeds them is nourished with a bread that does not perish: “My food is the will of the heavenly Father.”
Assembly: Have mercy on those who nourish themselves on falsehood and vanity. Recall sinners to your way. Sustain the wavering; strengthen the weak. May everyone follow you, Shepherd and Guardian of souls. You alone are the Way, you alone have the words of eternal life. I will follow you wherever you go.
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“I am the good shepherd … I will lay down my life for the sheep.” (Jn 10:14, 15)
A. ACTION PLAN: Today is World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Offer special prayers and sacrifices for the increase of priestly, religious and consecrated lay vocations in the Church who will carry out radically Christ’s pastoral mission in the world today.
B. ACTION PLAN: Pray for the suffering people of Iraq who are like “sheep without a shepherd”.