Power of Jesus _still at work
Acts 4:Jesus, the name which saves Peter is interrogated by the Jewish authorities. very properly, being asked for an explanation of the healing miracle he had worked, and attributes his saving power to Jesus the Saviour. The stories of the miracles worked by the apostles in the Acts follow very closely and mirror the miracle-stories of the Gospel. There is no doubt that the author is insisting that the power of Jesus, shown in Palestine during his lifetime, is still at work and effective in the Church. Perhaps today, with the pentecostal revival of extraordinary activity in the Spirit, this is again coming to view in the Same way. The early Christians arc almost defined in the Acts as "the people who call upon the name of Jesus" or "the people over whom the name of Jesus is called." The meaning of this becomes clear from the expression "being baptised into the name of Jesus."
By this one puts oneself into the power of Jesus, for Jesus means "saviour," and in Hebrew thought the name is a power. The name Jesus, then, is a protection and mighty support, a real saving force. (Acts 4:8-12) I John 3: We shall be like Him The mediations of this letter on the meaning of God's love and of the relationship of the Christian to God as child to father continue. They reach a new high point in the unbelievable declaration that by being made sons of God we are given a real similarity of nature to God. God's nature is unique and incommunicable, and yet by making us His sons He does give us something of Himself. In just the same way that an earthly son is sometimes almost ludicrously like his father, so we are given to be strengthened and raised above ourselves by being like the Father. The reason given is that we shall see Him as He really is. It must he that the contemplation of God as He really is is itself transforming and a form of communication of the Godhead to us.
(1 Jn 3:1-2) John 10: The Good Shepherd It is not a mtter of woolly lambs in a daisy-filled meadow, In the harsh and rocky semi-wilderness of Palestine the sheep are scraggy and lacking in charm, and shepherding them calls for energy and selfsacrifice, especially in times when wild beasts abounded.
So the simpering image of the shepherd surrounded by obedient and doting sheep will not do. Sheep are a good image for ourselves precisely because they are ugly, headstrong, stupid and apt to get themselves into impossible situations.
The shepherd is a good image for Christ because he is called upon to spend himself without reserve, at frequent cost to his comfort and often through physical exhaustion and pain. In spite of the idiocy of the sheep, they do know that their only hope is in the shepherd, and that his voice is unique, and in this their trust and devotion consists, (Jn 10:11-18) Henry Wansbrough, OSB