April 22: Fourth Sunday of Easter/Good Shepherd Sunday

Elevation

Acts 4:8-12; Ps 118:1, 8-9, 21-23, 26, 28, 29; 1 Jn 3:1-2; Jn 10:11-18

The first reading for this Sunday from the Acts of the Apostles still glows with the impact of the first healing undertaken by the apostles after the resurrection of Jesus. 

Earlier, when Peter and John were entering the Jerusalem Temple to pray, they had encountered a paralyzed man at the gate called “beautiful.” The man was asking for alms but received something much more astounding.  

Peter looked the man in the eye and said: “Look at us. I have neither silver nor gold but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.” Then Peter took the man by his hand and lifted him on his feet and the man, now fully healed, began to walk around and leap and dance with joy.  

When the amazed crowd of pilgrims in the Temple saw what had happened they gathered around the apostles, and Peter, not wanting to miss the moment, preached the Gospel to them.

Recently I came across an article by Daniel Burke, the religion editor for CNN. He described the unanticipated emotion that swept over him when he observed Pope Francis embracing a group of sick and elderly persons in wheelchairs at a papal audience. To his embarrassment, Burke was suddenly moved to tears, but when he looked around at some of his hard-boiled fellow correspondents observing the same scene he noticed that tears were in their eyes, too.  

This prompted him to probe further into this sudden deep emotion, one that swept over him and made him want to do something kind himself. He discovered that social psychologists have a name for this emotion: elevation. It is defined as “a warm uplifting feeling that we experience when we see unexpected acts of kindness, courage or compassion. It often makes us want to help others and become better people.”

The experience of elevation described by psychologists is something that is intrinsic to Christian faith and spirituality. The Gospels are full of stories of Jesus’ compassionate healing that transforms lives and draws to him people in desperate need. 

The Acts of the Apostles describes that same wave of compassion triggered by the example of Jesus spilling over into the lives of his disciples, including the powerful story of Pete and John encountering the man at the gate called beautiful. The Gospel passage for today is Jesus’ discourse about the “Good Shepherd” taken from the Gospel of John. This is the reason, of course, why this Sunday is also called Good Shepherd Sunday. Here Jesus compares himself to the “good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep.” The “hired man” who doesn’t care for the sheep doesn’t risk anything for them. But because the true shepherd loves his sheep, he will care for them, even at the risk of his life.   

A lot of us city dwellers may know very little about shepherds and sheep but we can understand what is meant here. To love someone so deeply that you would lay down your life for them speaks for itself. The persevering love of a mother for her autistic child. The sacrifice of someone risking their life to save another person. The example of a Mother Teresa embracing a dying man. The example of a holy man like Pope Francis kissing the face of man covered with sores. 

When we experience examples of this kind of authentic love, we are “elevated” — deeply moved and, at least for a moment, inspired to be better human beings. Social psychologists properly strive to understand such reactions within the categories of science. But Christians also recognize this as the kind of witness we are called to give as followers of Jesus, the Good Shepherd.  

The second reading for today is from the First Letter of John who speaks of the same reality: “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God.” Driven by that divine love we are called to reach out to others with acts of loving kindness, acts that will “elevate” others.