Every year, the fourth Sunday of Easter is Good Shepherd Sunday, and the readings throughout the week are taken from John 10, where Jesus presents Himself to us as our true and loving shepherd. At the same time, the first readings of the Easter season present us with the history of the early Church, as recounted by Luke in the Acts of the Apsotles. Today's first reading tells of Peter's vision of "unclean" foods sent down from heaven for him to eat. This vision makes clear to Peter that the Church is not only for the Jews but for the "unclean" Gentiles.

To us the universality of Jesus' redeeming death is clear. But it was not always so. Peter met much opposition in opening the Church to non-Jewish peoples. Paul tells us that Peter wavered in the face of opposition from Jerusalem. But in the end he saw clearly that the Good Shepherd loved all these people, and that he - who had been given by Jesus the "keys to the kingdom" - must love and receive them just as Jesus desired. In this way he allowed Jesus to work through him in shepherding all his people.

Peter provides the shepherds of the Church today with a beautiful example. Like him, they must be the instruments in our world of the one and only Good Shepherd. Let us pray for them - and for ourselves, in the small part of the sheepfold which has been entrusted to each of us.