First Reading
Acts 4:8-12
1. Peter says that it was Christ who healed the crippled man. Christ “is the stone rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.” What gave Peter the courage to speak out like this, when before Jesus died he couldn’t even admit that he knew him? Do we receive that same gift when we speak out for truth or goodness?
2. In this reading Peter responds to attempts by the “leaders of the people and elders” to discredit Jesus’ message. Do you see efforts to discredit Jesus’ message in the world today? Can you think of anything besides racial bias that discredits “Love your neighbor”? How can you help bring God’s saving grace to a world/neighborhood in desperate need of healing?
Second Reading
1 John 3:1-2
1. What gifts have you received as a child of God? What gifts have you received today from God?
2. God is always present, hovering like a mother hen. Why does God not just jump right in and save us from all the messes we get into?
Gospel
John 10:11-18
1. Besides suggesting that priests stay close to the marginalized by being “shepherds living with the smell of the sheep,” (Homily for Chrism Mass, March 28, 2013) Pope Francis also said that
The Son of God, by becoming flesh, summoned us to the revolution of tenderness.
How do those statements relate to Jesus calling himself the Good Shepherd?
2. Jesus said, “I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep.” Jesus is applying the unconditional love between himself and his Father to the relation between himself and his own. What does this tell you about how well you are known and how much you are loved? And: for whom would you lay down your life?
