Fourth Sunday of Easter: "I Know Mine and Mine Know Me."

We draw another lesson from Peter’s healing the crippled man, when the Prince of the Apostles tells the crowd, “the stone rejected by you, the builders, has become the cornerstone. . . Nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.” The same words echo in the Psalm, as well as other familiar refrains, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good”. The stirring words of St. John bring great comfort in the second reading: “Beloved, we are God’s children now.” In John’s Gospel, Our Lord describes Himself as the shepherd who protects His sheep against predators who would destroy them. We, the sheep, hear His voice and follow Him. He knows us, too, as we know and trust Him, and as He knows the Father. Christ promises to bring into the fold those sheep who do not yet know Him. He has laid down His life, He tells us, and taken it up again. He continues, saying how He and the Father are bound together.