Discussion Questions
First Reading
Acts 2:14a, 36-41
1. Those listening to Peter’s sermon were “cut to the heart.” Does anything affect you this way? They asked, “Brothers, what should we do?” How do you think you would have responded to Peter’s sermon?
2. Do you know what the word conversion means? Is it a once-in-a-lifetime experience or is it on-going? Explain. Who needs conversion? Name the things that it involves besides a change of behavior.
Second Reading
Peter 2:20b-45
1. Christ’s innocence and lack of vengeance show us what God’s love is like. Where do you find strength to endure your suffering? How can suffering be an occasion of grace? Is the pandemic an occasion of grace for you?
2. In this reading Peter says about Jesus, “When he was insulted, he returned no insult.” Can he be referring to suffering inflicted on a person who does good? Give examples in which this might have been the case. Have you had such an experience? Where do you think Gandhi and Martin Luther King got their ideas of nonviolence?
Gospel
John 10:1-10
1. When flocks were mingled together, each flock would recognize the sound of their own shepherd’s voice and come to him, ignoring other shepherds’ voices. Can you tell which “voice” in your life belongs to the Good Shepherd? Which of the following is your favorite comparison of Christ to the Good Shepherd. Then explain.
• calling by name
• recognition of voice
• following Christ
• not following strangers
• shepherd as gate
2. The Good Shepherd “calls his own sheep by name, … he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him.” According to Pope Francis what is it about the relationship between shepherd and sheep that makes them follow? And where does Christ, the Shepherd, lead his followers?
He knows his sheep. But this does not only mean that he knows many things about us. To know in the biblical sense also means to love. It means that the Lord, “while he reads our inner beings,” loves us. … Jesus seeks a warm friendship, trust, intimacy. He wants to give us a new and marvelous awareness—that of knowing we are always loved by him and, therefore, that we are never left alone by ourselves.
[He knows his sheep.] … They listen, they feel they are known to the Lord and they follow the Lord who is their shepherd. … They go where he goes, along the same path, in the same direction. They go to seek those who are lost (cf. Lk 15:4), they take an interest in those who are far away, take to heart the situation of those who suffer, know how to weep with those who weep, they reach out their hands to their neighbors, carrying them on their shoulders.
Pope Francis, Fourth Sun of Easter
Angelus May 8, 2022
Anne Osdieck