Acts 4:8-12; 1 John 3:1-2; John 10:11-18
The message of today's liturgy shows us the goodness of God. In the first reading, it is revealed in the healing of a lame man from birth, in the letter of John in the fact that we are children of God, and in the Gospel, the goodness of God is proclaimed in Christ's salvific death: "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep "(John 10:11).
The pages of the Bible testify to God's goodness. God clothed Adam and Eve after their sin, closed the door of the Ark behind Noah and his family, and buried Moses. God brought Abraham out of idolatrous Mesopotamia, freed Israel from the land of slavery, saved Daniel from the lions’ den, and three young men from the fiery furnace. When Jesus came to us, God's goodness was revealed to the world in its fullness. The sick were healed, the sinners were forgiven, and the dead were brought to life. However, the greatest testimony of this goodness is the death of Christ on the cross for our salvation. This saving death has opened the heavens for us and given us the grace to become God’s children.
This truth is seen in the miraculous healing referred to by Saint Peter in today's first reading. The lame man from birth could not come along with others to worship God in the Temple, because he was ritually unclean. Thus, he could only beg at the entrance to the Temple. In contrast to those who offered him money, the apostles offered him salvation. After his healing, the man entered the Temple and worshiped God together with the apostles. Peter states that the miracle was the result of Christ’s saving death and resurrection. Because Christ gave his life for the sheep, this lame man “stands here before you healed” (Acts 4:9-10).
The lame man symbolizes all of us. We are born with the wound of original sin and we cannot enter the temple of God. The Apostles symbolize the Church of God proclaiming the Gospel of salvation in the name of Jesus. The miracle is a symbol of salvation that heals the wounds of sin and allows us, together with the community of the Church, to worship God. We enter God's fold by faith and baptism. Being “by nature the children of wrath" (Eph. 2:3), we have become God's children through grace. “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! (1 John 3:1).
“I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also” (John 10:16). The church is a fold made of sheep from the chosen nation of Israel - "of this sheep pen" - and from other nations - "other sheep". Since the beginning of the Church, evangelization has been conducted along two lines: one was directed to Israel and the other to the Gentiles (see Gal. 2:7). Today, we are talking about the first evangelization addressed to people who do not know Christ and about the new evangelization to the de-Christianized nations and cultures. The goal of the first one is to lead to faith in Christ, the purpose of the second one is to awaken that faith again. That is how one flock is being brought about with one shepherd leading us to "springs of living water" (Rev. 7:17). This Shepherd is the Lamb of God, “standing at the center of the throne” in heaven (Rev. 5:6), the crucified and risen Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Lord of history, in whom alone there is salvation (Acts 4:12).