＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Acts 11: 1-18

News came to the apos­­tles

and the brothers and sisters in Judea that even foreigners had received the Word of God.  So, when Peter went up to Jerusalem, these Jewish believers began to argue with him,  “You went to the home of uncircumcised people and ate with them!”

 So Peter began to give them the facts as they had happened,  “I was at prayer in the city of Joppa when, in a trance, I saw a vision. Something like a large sheet came down from the sky and drew near to me, landing on the ground by its four corners.  As I stared at it, I saw four-legged creatures of the earth, wild beasts and reptiles, and birds of the sky.  

Then I heard a voice saying to me: ‘Get up, Peter, kill and eat!’  I replied, ‘Certainly not, Lord! No common or unclean creature has ever entered my mouth.’ A second time the voice from the heavens spoke, “What God has made clean, you must not call unclean.”  This happened three times, and then it was all drawn up into the sky.

 At that moment three men, who had been sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were staying.   The Spirit instructed me to go with them without hesitation; so these six brothers came along with me and we entered into the man’s house.   He told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house and telling him: Send someone to Joppa and fetch Simon, also known as Peter.  He will bring you a message by which you and all your household will be saved.”

 I had begun to address them when suddenly the Holy Spirit came upon them, just as it had come upon us at the beginning.   Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’  If, then, God had given them the same gift that he had given us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to resist God?”

When they heard this they set their minds at rest and praised God saying, “Then God has granted life-giving repentance to the pagan nations as well.”

 

Ps 42:2-3; 43-:3-4

Athirst is my soul for the living God.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

John 10:11-18

 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.   Not so the hired hand or any other person who is not the shepherd and to whom the sheep do not belong. They abandon the sheep as soon as they see the wolf coming; then the wolf snatches and scatters the sheep.  This is because the hired hand works for pay and cares nothing for the sheep.

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,  as the Father knows me and I know the Father. Because of this I give my life for my sheep.

I have other sheep that are not of this fold. These I have to lead as well, and they shall listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock since there is one Shepherd.

The Father loves me because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.   No one takes it from me, but I lay it down freely. It is mine to lay down and to take up again: this mission I received from my Father.”

 

 Gospel Reflection：

In the Gospel, Jesus calls himself the “Good Shepherd” and declares that he wishes there to one day be “one flock”. It is a reminder to all of us about the expansiveness and all-embracing character of the message of the Gospel, that it was intended by Jesus to be for all people, not just for a few.

It’s always easier to relate to persons who think like ourselves, act like us, behave like us. There are instances, even in the life of the church, when the exclusion of some – because of differences in the way they think or preferences one way or the other – has become a sore spot in the Body of Christ.

There’s line often attributed to St. Augustine: “In necessary things unity, in non –necessary things liberty, in all things charity.” It would be well for us to be guided by these words, especially when we sometimes encounter believers who may think differently or act differently from us.

There are, of course, things about our life of faith that are simply “non-negotiables”, for instance, our belief in the sacredness of life, but (as St. Augustine has intimated) there is also a wide latitude in the life of faith that the exclusion of some should never be something we practice lightly.