{"id":4267,"date":"2026-04-25T13:49:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T12:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/?p=4267"},"modified":"2026-05-11T10:28:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T09:28:06","slug":"commentary-on-4th-easter-sunday-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/commentary-on-4th-easter-sunday-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary on 4th Easter Sunday (A), 26.04.2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Commentary by Donagh O\u2019Shea OP, www.goodnews.ie<\/a><\/h3>\n

Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u00a0Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Today is known as ‘Good Shepherd Sunday’, and each year the gospel reading focuses on some aspect of Jesus as the Good Shepherd.\u00a0 This year (Year A) it is “I am the gate of the sheepfold” (Jn 10:1-10).\u00a0 Year B: “The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep” (Jn 10:11-18).\u00a0 Year C: “My sheep hear my voice \u2026 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish” (Jn 10:27-30).<\/p>\n

When Jesus said, “All who came before me are thieves and bandits,” he can hardly have meant to include the great prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel\u2026. But there were plenty of his contemporaries who deserved to be described as spiritual thieves and bandits.\u00a0 They are always a plentiful species \u2013 or rather ‘we’, if the hat fits.\u00a0 The expression ‘a wolf in sheep’s clothing’ we owe to Aesop, whose stories have delighted and instructed children and adults alike for 25 centuries.\u00a0 “A wolf found great difficulty in getting at the sheep owing to the vigilance of the shepherd and his dogs.\u00a0 But one day it found the skin of a sheep that had been flayed and thrown aside, so it put it on over its own pelt and strolled down among the sheep.\u00a0 The lamb that belonged to the sheep, whose skin the wolf was wearing, began to follow the wolf in the sheep’s clothing; so, leading the lamb a little apart, he soon made a meal of her.”<\/p>\n

A deceiver has to look like the real thing \u2013 has to look and sound genuine.\u00a0 Otherwise he will deceive nobody.\u00a0 Someone can quote and preach the Gospel to you, making all the right sounds and looking very serious, while robbing you spiritually \u2013 robbing you even of the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit in you: your real wisdom, your understanding\u2026 your fortitude\u2026 your joy\u2026. Jesus gives the Spirit; the deceiver steals it away.\u00a0 You are in far less danger from someone who doesn\u2019t sound in the least like a Christian.<\/p>\n

The genuine shepherd “goes ahead of the sheep and they follow him.”\u00a0 Perhaps that is the key to discernment.\u00a0\u00a0 Does your shepherd go before you into the crises and the mysteries, or does he tell you what to do and then just look on?\u00a0 Would he suffer for you? \u00a0Would he lay down his life \u2013 or even just his pride, or a generous measure of his time?\u00a0 If he is reluctant to do this, then beware of him.<\/p>\n

But Jesus is the Good Shepherd.\u00a0 He goes before us (as shepherds did in those days).\u00a0 A great 20th-century writer said, \u201cNo matter how low you fall in your life, you will meet Jesus coming up from deeper down to meet you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Commentary by Donagh O\u2019Shea OP, www.goodnews.ie Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4270,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4267"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8588,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4267\/revisions\/8588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stmarys-tallaght.ie\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}