
I know mine - 27-04-2026
Monday of the Fourth week of Easter
First Reading
Acts 11,1-18.
The Apostles and the brothers who were in Judea heard
that the Gentiles too had accepted the word of God.
So when Peter went up to Jerusalem the circumcised believers confronted him,
saying, "You entered the house of uncircumcised people and ate with them."
Peter began and explained it to them step by step, saying,
"I was at prayer in the city of Joppa when in a trance I had a vision,
something resembling a large sheet coming down, lowered from the sky
by its four corners, and it came to me.
Looking intently into it, I observed and saw the four-legged
animals of the earth, the wild beasts, the reptiles, and the birds of the sky.
I also heard a voice say to me, 'Get up, Peter. Slaughter and eat.'
But I said, 'Certainly not, sir, because nothing profane
or unclean has ever entered my mouth.'
But a second time a voice from heaven answered,
'What God has made clean, you are not to call profane.'
This happened three times, and then everything was drawn up again into the sky.
Just then three men appeared at the house where we were,
who had been sent to me from Caesarea.
The Spirit told me to accompany them without discriminating.
These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man's house.
He related to us how he had seen (the) angel standing in his house,
saying, 'Send someone to Joppa and summon Simon, who is called Peter,
who will speak words to you by which you and all your household will be saved.'
As I began to speak, the holy Spirit fell upon them as it had upon us at the beginning,
and I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said,
'John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the holy Spirit.'
If then God gave them the same gift he gave to us
when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
who was I to be able to hinder God?"
When they heard this, they stopped objecting and glorified God,
saying, "God has then granted life-giving repentance to the Gentiles too."
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 42(41),2-3.43(42),3.4.
As the hind longs for the running waters,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
Athirst is my soul for God, the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?
Send forth your light and your fidelity;
they shall lead me on
And bring me to your holy mountain,
to your dwelling place.
Then will I go in to the altar of God,
the God of my gladness and joy;
Then will I give you thanks upon the harp,
O God, my God!
Gospel
John 10,11-18.
Jesus said: "I am the good shepherd.
A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep
are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep
and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them.
This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me,
just as the Father knows me and I know the Father;
and I will lay down my life for the sheep.
I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.
These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice,
and there will be one flock, one shepherd.
This is why 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 on my own.
I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again.
This command I have received from my Father."
YOUCAT Reflection
33 What does it mean to say that God is love?
If God is love, then there is nothing created that is not carried and surrounded by his infinite benevolence. God not only declares that he is love, he also proves it, "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (Jn 15,13).
No other religion says what Christianity says,
"God is love" (1 Jn 4,8, 16). Faith holds fast to this promise, although the experience of suffering and evil in the world may make people wonder whether God is really loving. Already in the Old Testament God communicates to his people through the words of the prophet Isaiah, "Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. Fear not, for I am with you" (Is 43,4–5a) and has him say, "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have graven you on the palms of my hands" (Is 49,15–16a). This talk about divine love does not consist of empty words; Jesus proves this on the Cross, where he gives up his life for his friends.
