Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish

FR MICHAEL BOAKYE YEBOAH

CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE OF KUMASI, GHANA

DO IT RIGHT  

Traditionally, the Fourth Sunday of Easter is known as the Good Shepherd Sunday. As usual, we are given three readings for our Sunday Liturgy. Today, I would like to title my reflection, “Do it Right.” Last week, we read an account on how Peter addressed the people for the first time after the resurrection. In fact, the opening statements of last week’s first reading and today’s first reading look too similar that if care is not taken one may think that it is a repetition.

Peter addressed the crowd based on a sound theology. It is one of the best homilies of the paschal mystery. How could a fisherman without any formal education deliver such a homily? The answer may lie with Acts 4:13 - “…he has been with the Lord.” With the sound theology from the lips of Peter, his words made little impression on his hearers to the extent that two of Jesus’ disciples decided to abandoned the group and return to their village in Emmaus. Though disappointed, Peter didn’t give up.

The following week when the crowd gathered together again to give him hearing; he did not disappoint this time – he made sure he got it right the second time. The theology was sound and authentic like the previous one (last week) but this time, his message made a deep impression on the people. Luke was graphic in his witness. He wrote: “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and the other apostles, ‘What are we to do…’ Peter said to them ‘Repent and be baptized…’”

Peter’s attitude to the work assigned to him by Jesus should be our attitude to life. Some of us can be too weak in spirit that when we embark on something and we fail the first time, we give up easily. That was not the attitude of Peter. When he could not get the right results the first time he gave a post-resurrection speech, he did not give up but rather gave it a try a second time.

The “Do it Right” approach can be applied to today’s Gospel passage. Jesus in today’s gospel states that if one wishes to be part of his sheepfold, then the person ought to enter through the right gate else the person may be deemed a thief and a robber.

Here, what one ought to “do it right” has to do with entering the right gate. The gate is Christ, for Jesus told us that he is the way, truth and the life and no one can come to the Father except through him.

Our forebears lived in ignorance that was why they worshiped idols and offered all kinds of sacrifices to deities. We are blessed to have been nurtured in the Christ way and so there should not be any excuse for a person to seek alternative “gates” in life. The “gate” to the fetish house should not be the gate of a child of God. Jesus makes it emphatically clear that “…I am the gate for the sheep. All who come 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 come so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”

Jesus cannot lie to you. Put your faith in him and it shall be well with you. You may have made some mistakes in the past but now that you are in the know, please get it right. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who leads his flock to greener pastures. May you find fulfillment in following Jesus. Amen. OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP PRAY FOR US.