April 26, 2026
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: 49
First Reading: Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven,
raised his voice, and proclaimed:
“Let the whole house of Israel know for certain
that God has made both Lord and Christ,
this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart,
and they asked Peter and the other apostles,
“What are we to do, my brothers?”
Peter said to them,
“Repent and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins;
and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise is made to you and to your children
and to all those far off,
whomever the Lord our God will call.”
He testified with many other arguments, and was exhorting them,
“Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”
Those who accepted his message were baptized,
and about three thousand persons were added that day.
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 23: 1-3a, 3b4, 5, 6
R. (1) The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
He guides me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side.
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Second Reading: 1 Pt 2:20b-25
Beloved:
If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good,
this is a grace before God.
For to this you have been called,
because Christ also suffered for you,
leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.
He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.
When he was insulted, he returned no insult;
when he suffered, he did not threaten;
instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly.
He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross,
so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness.
By his wounds you have been healed.
For you had gone astray like sheep,
but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
Alleluia: John 10:14
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the good shepherd, says the Lord;
I know my sheep, and mine know me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: John 10:1-10
Jesus said:
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate
but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.
But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice,
as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he has driven out all his own,
he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him,
because they recognize his voice.
But they will not follow a stranger;
they will run away from him,
because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.”
Although Jesus used this figure of speech,
the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell them.
So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
I am the gate for the sheep.
All who came 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 came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”
Reflection
Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. Jesus is the Good Shepherd (John 10:11) and we are the sheep. More accurately put, those who believe that Jesus is the Good Shepherd earn the right to be part of His sheepfold. To be clear, the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord completed the work of salvation for all mankind. There is no sin on earth that has not been paid for by the blood of Christ and there is no sin on earth that cannot be forgiven because God’s mercy is limitless, except for the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit: “whoever says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come” (see Matt 12: 31-32). But those who do not humble themselves and ask for forgiveness from the Lord, those who do not believe that Jesus is the Good Shepherd and the only way to the Father, cannot be part of His flock.
Please note that Jesus didn’t come for the sheep inside the flock but for the lost sheep of Israel. Kindly note further that when Jesus said that He came for the lost sheep of Israel, it was also a notice and a warning that He shall build and inaugurate a new Church, under a New Covenant, for a new way of worshipping God, led and administered by His Apostles and a new priesthood. Our Lord, if He had a hundred lambs, will leave the ninety-nine (99) behind just to look for one lamb which is lost.
The Church built by Christ upon Peter is the new flock and the new Israel. Jesus is the Good Shepherd and all those who enter into his sheep pen—which is the Church—become part of the flock. Wherever the Good Shepherd is, so must His flock be and wherever Jesus is, so must Israel be; Israel—the nation and kingdom of God; the Church is the New Israel.
This may look like a radical departure from the old dispensation of Temple worship and the Levitical priesthood but a critical unpacking of this will lead us to the realization that everything that the nation of Israel believed in about God finds perfected continuation by the coming of the Son of Man, the one sent by the Father to fulfill the promised salvation for Israel and the whole world.
God our Father is the Gatekeeper (John 10:3). He alone decides who enters or does not enter through the Gate and into the sheep pen. Jesus is both the Gate (John 10:7) and the Good Shepherd. Let us not forget that Jesus is also the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). The elect who have been destined to inherit salvation and divine sonship have been and are all anointed by the Holy Spirit, who is Lord and giver of life.
At the Last Supper, Jesus prayed to the Father saying: “When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled” (John 17:12).
Question: Lord, of all the images that you could associate with, why did you choose to be the Good Shepherd?
Is it because we are like lambs which are timid, could easily go astray and off the righteous and lighted path? And when we get lost, we become fair game to predators-the forces of evil. Please note that the greatest predator of the Lord’s flock of sheep isn’t a wolf or bear but a snake, the one who is called Ancient Serpent, especially the Books of Genesis and Revelation. This is the reason why we need a Good Shepherd who is unlike any other shepherd we know because He lays down His life for His sheep, lambs which He already considers friends and feeds them with His own body and blood in the Eucharist.
There is a war that has been going on since the dawn of earthly time and it is between the forces of good against the forces of evil. The fight is for the souls of each and every human being. The forces of good are led by Jesus and His heavenly hosts a.k.a. army of angels. The enemy is the Ancient Serpent and his group of fellow fallen angels who rebelled against God before creation.
Make no mistake folks, there is a war going on but hidden from our sight and it is between supernatural forces: good versus evil. It is this force of evil that has been fueling all the sin in the world. The leader of the forces of good is both the Lamb of God and the Good Shepherd, and His name is Jesus, our Savior and High Priest.
Our Lord’s compassion for those who are lost and have gone astray is evident in St. Matthew’s Gospel: “At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matt 9:36).
We are all called to be shepherds to others.
Because of the war between good and evil, we are all called to be shepherds to others. More accurately put, we are called to be shepherds by obeying, imitating and listening to the voice of our Lord who is the Good Shepherd. We can only be shepherds to others if we have the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus said: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20), it was a call about shepherding others so that they would have the faith and not squander it by choosing sin and evil.
Jesus makes us instruments of His good news and salvation and this is the reason why the faith must be strong in our hearts and minds, with total conviction to be disciples of Jesus so that we too can be instruments of handing the faith to others through our shepherding, all in imitation of Christ our Lord.
Christianity is all about believing in Christ and our faith has to be spread to the ends of the earth by being ambassadors of the faith. People have to see that Christ dwells in us so that they too can believe and see. This is shepherding at the very basic. Preaching Jesus, the Word of God, must be as basic as the air we breathe every day. Remember, shepherding others can be as basic as being a loving father to your family members or a brother to your siblings. It can be as basic as being a good boss or officemate in the office. Everybody needs shepherding because we are creatures who have been broken by sin and can easily lose our way to righteousness.
What makes a shepherd good at his job?
The obvious answers would be to multiply the flock and not to lose any sheep to predatory animals, falling off a cliff, trapped in a thicket or similar situations. In our Lord’s case, it was Him who lost His life because He deliberately or voluntarily gave it up for the sake of His flock; so that those inside it may live forever. It was in giving up His life that enabled Him and the Father to send the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of Life at Pentecost to animate and inspire the Church—the flock of the Good Shepherd, the family and the Kingdom of God.
Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). This laying down of one’s life is the same posture Jesus had when he said at the Last Supper: “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15: 13-14).
This is an all-encompassing quality or attribute of the good shepherd: someone who is willing to lay down his life for the sake of others. Why? A shepherd who is willing to lay down his life for his sheep must have unconditional love for his sheep. We are the sheep who entered the sheepfold. Once inside, we are protected from the enemy for so long as we remain inside. Jesus laid down his life for us to make sure that salvation is available for all mankind and the Church is our vehicle of salvation because in the Church, Jesus is present.
Again, the way into the sheep’s pen is Jesus because He is the only Way to the Father (John 14:6), he is the Good Shepherd and he is the Gate. The Father is the Gatekeeper because only He decides who enters the sheepfold.
In Matthew 15:24, Jesus told the Canaanite (Syro-Phoenician) woman: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel“, because Jesus is a Good Shepherd who looks for the lost sheep. In that episode, the Canaanite woman became part of Jesus’ flock when she exhibited tremendous faith by saying: “But even the dogs eat the scraps from their master’s table.
In the Parable of the Lost Sheep (Matt 18: 10-14), it tells of a shepherd who leaves behind his ninety-nine sheep “on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray.” Those who are in Jesus’ flock but have gone astray will always be pursued by our Good Shepherd because each and every one of us is precious to the Lord.
One Shepherd, One Flock (John 10:16)
There is only one shepherd and it is Jesus. He does not have many flocks. He only has one flock. Salvation is for all of mankind. When Jesus died on the Cross, it was to pay for all the sin of the world and for the benefit of all mankind.
But Jesus has only one flock. This is clear when he said: “And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd” (John 10:16). Therefore, those who believe that Jesus is the Good Shepherd but do not belong to his fold must be brought into the one flock. This highlights and emphasizes the role of the Church which Jesus built on Peter. There is only one Church built by Christ because it was intended to be the one flock of the Good Shepherd. Those who are outside of the flock must be brought in by those who are already in the flock. This is the reason we need to tell the world that Jesus is the Good Shepherd and work at Church unity. The mission order from Christ is to unify His flock towards one communion. Saint Pope John Paul II wrote about his desire to unify the two (2) traditions of the Church, the East and West, stating in his 25 May 1995 Encyclical Ut unum sint (Latin: ‘That they may be one’ [John 17:21]): “…that believers in Christ, united in following in the footsteps of the martyrs, cannot remain divided.”
Remember, the word “church” comes from Greek and it means “to call”. Those who enter the Church are “called” to come in because they have heard the voice of the Good Shepherd when they were still outside and will hear His same voice once inside. Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10: 14-15). There is one Good Shepherd, who is shepherding one flock, because there is one faith which partakes of the one Bread of Life and that bread is the Lamb of God.
The New and Everlasting Covenant was already sealed and in existence since Holy Thursday and it is mediated by the Eternal High Priest between God and the one Church built by Jesus, who is both priest and victim, for the worship of the one true God of us all.
A blessed Good Shepherd Sunday to everyone.
– Gospel reflection by Kuya Rommel Cecilio of SLRP Bible Apostolate Ministry