Fourth Sunday of Easter: Seeking the Source of Goodness

Readings:

Acts 4:8-12

Psalm 118
1 John 3: 1-2

John 10: 11-18

Reflection:

Today Peter exhorts those who have seen the “good deeds” of the Apostles to recognize the source of the goodness: Christ Jesus, in whose name the healings have occurred.  It’s rather remarkable that Peter does not wish to take credit for the healings himself.  He does not set himself up as the amazing miracle-worker; rather, he humbly points to Christ.

It takes being “full of the Holy Spirit” to act with such humility – to recognize goodness, even our own, as coming from Christ.  When we behave badly, we always try to justify ourselves and blame someone else: “I didn’t mean to!” or “So-and-so made me!”  But when we behave well, we’re happy to take credit.  Similarly, when bad things happen to us we always want to know why: who’s to blame, what went wrong.  But when good comes our way, we accept it as if it is our due and often forget to seek its Source.

Recognizing goodness in the world as coming from God is a sign of wisdom: we are able to know the spiritual realities that lie within the things that happen to us and the things that we do.  We are able to see beyond the goods of this world to the true Source of Goodness: Christ Himself.  The world, as John’s letter tells us, does not have this wisdom, but we have it as children of God.  As his flock, we recognize the Source of Goodness, our true shepherd.

How lucky we are to have this wisdom!  Christ contrasts Himself as the Good Shepherd with the “hired man” who works for pay.  Worldly wisdom, which satisfies itself with goods and does not seek the Source of Goodness, tempts us to follow such treacherous shepherds – false shepherds and substitute shepherds, such as the desire for wealth, or acknowledgment, or admiration.  But Christ warns us that when we try to substitute these goods for the Source of Goodness, we will ultimately be betrayed.  In the time of crisis, those false shepherds will abandon us, and we will not know where to turn.  We must seek and cling to the Source of Goodness, the Good Shepherd, Christ Himself, if we are to be safe.

And what does the Good Shepherd teach us about goodness?  That in order to be good we have to be willing to sacrifice goods for the sake of others.  The Good Shepherd is good because He lays down His life – which is a good! – for His sheep.  This self-giving love is the source of all goodness in the world, and if we want to be good we have to participate in that love.  The choice is ours: we can spend our lives seeking goods, snatching them up greedily and hoarding them like misers – or we can spend our lives seeking the Source of Goodness, Who urges us to joyfully share our goods with others out of gratitude and love and the desire to draw all into His goodness.  One path leads to soul-withering selfishness; the other leads to a life-giving expansion of the soul.