Monday, April 27, 2015
4th Week of Easter
1st Reading: Acts 11:1–18 Gospel: Jn 10:1–10s
Jesus said to the Pharisees, “Truly, I say to you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber. But the shepherd of the sheep enters by the gate. The keeper opens the gate to him and the sheep hear his voice; he calls each of his sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, rather they will run away from him because they don’t recognize a stranger’s voice.”
Jesus used this comparison, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, I am the gate of the sheep. All who came were thieves and robbers, and the sheep did not hear them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved; he will go in and out freely and find food.
“The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, but I have come that they may have life, life in all its fullness.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
The Church in the Philippines should find better metaphors in its understanding of Jesus’ pastoral concern for His people. At present the Church uses the metaphor of shepherd on Jesus in relation to his people. But this word is foreign to Filipinos because we are not a sheep country. The metaphor does not elicit the idea of responsibility as powerfully as the word shepherd does to Palestinians.
It does not help that we have translated to word “Shepherd” to our different dialects. “Pastol” (for the Tagalogs) sounds Protestant. “Magbalantay” (for the Cebuanos) sounds too generic because Cebuanos use the term both for tending animals and attending to one’s properties. The Cebuano term “Bakero” would have been the better term because it is the kind of animal-tending where the care-taker accompanies the animal while grazing in the field, sometimes riding on the animal’s back, at other times just sitting under the shade watching the grazing animal. “Bakero”, however, sounds Spanish.
While we hope that our local Church finds a better term, let us celebrate the grace of having a good Shepherd by taking up his challenge to become shepherds to one another. The government is shepherd to the people; parents are shepherds to their children. Children too are called to become shepherds to one another. The right term will not really matter if all become responsible for one another, even to the point of becoming Christ’s presence to his flock on earth. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
May comment ka ba sa column ni Father Dan? May tanong ka ba sa kanya? I-type ang BANDERA REACT <message/name/age/address> at i-send sa 4467.