19 April 2027 · Latin Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malankara Rite · Syro-Malabar Rite · മലയാളം
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” John 10:10
Peter comes back to Jerusalem from Caesarea and finds himself in trouble. The believers of Jewish birth have heard that he went into the house of Cornelius, a Roman centurion, and ate with uncircumcised men. To them this looks like a betrayal of everything God gave Israel: the Law, the food laws, the holy separation of God's people. Peter does not shout them down. He does not pull rank as the chief of the apostles. The text says he “began to explain it to them, step by step.” He tells them about the vision at Joppa: a large sheet let down from heaven, full of animals the Law called unclean, and a voice saying, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” He tells them his own reply, the reply of a faithful Jew: “By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.” And he tells them what the voice said a second time: “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”
Then Peter gives the decisive fact. While he was still speaking in Cornelius's house, “the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning.” It was a little Pentecost in a Gentile house. Peter remembered the word of the Lord: “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” And he ends with a question that silences the room: “If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?” The objectors fall silent, and then they do something beautiful: they praise God. “Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.” This is a turning point in the history of the Church. The Gospel is not the property of one people or one culture. The door is open to all. And it was opened not by argument alone but by listening together to what God was doing. The Psalm puts the longing of every human heart into words: “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.”
In the Gospel Jesus uses a picture every villager understood. At night the shepherds of a village brought their flocks into one walled fold with a single gate, and a gatekeeper watched it. In the morning each shepherd came to the gate and called, and his own sheep knew his voice and came out after him. Jesus says: “He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” Then he changes the image and says something even more astonishing: “I am the gate.” There is one way in to safety and pasture, and it is Jesus himself. “Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.” Thieves come to take; Jesus comes to give. “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” The first reading and the Gospel belong together. The gate that Jesus is cannot be locked against anyone whom the Father calls. Peter learned in Cornelius's house that the gate stands open to the nations. The Church is the fold; Christ is its one gate; and the risen Shepherd still calls each of his sheep by name.
Theme: “I am the gate.”
The vision at Joppa, the Spirit poured out on the Gentiles, and the Shepherd who gives life in abundance.
“for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” Isaiah 56:7
“But a second time the voice answered from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’” Acts 11:9
Apply: When you disagree with someone in the Church this week, tell what you have seen God do, calmly and in order, instead of arguing.
“Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.” Joel 2:28
“If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?” Acts 11:17
Apply: Name one prejudice that keeps you from welcoming someone, and ask the Holy Spirit to remove it.
“As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.” Psalm 42:1
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” John 10:10
Apply: Give the first ten minutes of tomorrow morning to the Shepherd's voice in his word, before any other voice.
The Holy Spirit opened the gate of the Church to every nation, and Peter would not stand in the way.
Christ is the one gate and the Good Shepherd; through him we go in and out and find pasture.
Take-home resolution: This week, welcome one person whom you have kept outside the gate.
Dear friends, Peter is in trouble with his own community. He has eaten with Gentiles. And the Christians in Jerusalem, good and faithful Jews, are upset. How does the chief of the apostles answer? Not with anger. He explains, step by step, what God has done.
He tells them about the vision: a sheet full of unclean animals and a voice saying, what God has made clean, you must not call profane (Acts 11:9). Then he tells them that the Holy Spirit fell on Cornelius and his family, just as on the apostles at Pentecost.
And he asks: who was I that I could hinder God? (Acts 11:17). That question is for us too. How often do we stand at the gate and decide who may come in? How often do we hinder God by our prejudice, our caste thinking, our coldness to strangers?
Notice what the listeners do. They fall silent, and then they praise God. That is the sign of a living Church: when the Spirit shows us something new, we stop arguing and we praise.
In the Gospel Jesus says: I am the gate. There is one way into life, and it is Jesus. And he is a shepherd who knows each sheep by name. He does not come like a thief to take from us. He says: I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10).
Today, let us listen for that voice. And let us keep the gate open, in our homes and our parishes, for everyone the Shepherd is calling. Alleluia. Amen.
Children, a shepherd calls his sheep by name, and they come running because they know his voice. Jesus knows your name too!
Jesus says: I am the gate. When we come to Jesus, we are safe, and he gives us a happy, full life. Let us say: Jesus, I am listening!
Lord Jesus, Good Shepherd and gate of the sheep, you call each of us by name and you came that we may have life in abundance. Open our ears to your voice among all the voices of the world. Give your Church the courage of Peter, who would not hinder the work of the Holy Spirit, and the humility of those who listened to him and praised God. Keep the gate of our hearts open to every person you are calling, and lead us at last to the pasture of eternal life. You live and reign for ever and ever. Alleluia. Amen.