Feed the Sheep

Gospel: John 21: 15-19

Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him.  Three times Peter replies in the affirmative, but each time he does so Jesus tells him to feed his sheep.  Loving Jesus is connected to feeding and nourishing other people.  Loving Jesus does not consist in building shrines or engaging in certain liturgical or devotional practices.  It consists solely in caring for other people, in feeding Jesus' lambs wherever we find them and whenever we encounter them.

Some may think that Jesus' lambs is solely those who are Christian, but this is false.  Jesus earlier noted that he had lambs not of this fold that needed feeding and care.  In the ministry of Jesus he went about healing, liberating, and feeding people of all backgrounds - men and women, Gentile and Jew, rich and poor, enemy and friend.  No one was excluded from the care of Jesus; no one was turned away from his table and circle of concern.  

Others see this passage as applying only to Peter and shepherds of the Church.  They often lament when in their narrow view that their shepherds do not feed them.  This too is false.  We are all called to feed and nourish others.  We can find the nourishment we need from all sorts of people.  The ministry of care for others is not hierarchic; it is symbiotic.  Let us take up the task of feeding others, and accept with humility the care we need from others as well. 

An Unanswered Prayer

Gospel: John 17: 20-26

Jesus prayed that his followers all may be one.  How has that worked out? We all claim to want unity, but always on our own terms.  If everyone just thought and acted like I do, everything would be fine.  If these people just belong to our club, accept this credal formula, adopt this particular form of worship, then there will be unity.  That is our idea of unity, framed by issues and criteria remarkably absent from the concerns of Jesus in his words and deeds.  

What if, instead of our perseveration on things Jesus did not care about, Christians actually focused on things he did care about?  What if we were about caring for the sick and addicted, helping the hungry, poor, marginalized, immigrant, refugee, and migrant? What if we were about clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, giving food and drink to the hungry and thirsty, caring for the imprisoned and stranger? What if these things were the focus of unity?

We human beings love to complain to God about our unanswered prayers, and yet here we have the prayer of Jesus that has gone unanswered for two thousand years.  And it is not the fault of God.  It is our fault.  We human beings have failed to make this prayer a reality.  This is God's unanswered prayer that we have failed to answer and fulfill.  Today's Gospel portion gives us much to ponder, much to discern, and much to repent of.  

Of the World

Gospel: John 17: 11-19

Jesus prays that his followers remain in the world but not be of the world.  What does this mean?  To be of the world is to be in the realm of self-interest which leads to the destruction and exploitation of others.  It is about the striving for material gain which is always at the expense of others, as other people are seen as rivals, competition, or at best as transactional agents for our advantage.  It is the brutish world of Hobbesian state of nature, or what Augustine called the city of man  

By contrast the kingdom of God is about the common good and the welfare of all people.  It is about following Jesus in his work of being the mercy and love of God on earth through healing, liberating, and nourishing others wherever we go.  Other people are seen as image and likeness of God, other Christs, temples of the Holy Spirit.  This way of life is what John Paul II called the civilization of love, or what Augustine called the city of God.

Many claim to come in the name of Jesus, but they preach not the city of God but that of the world.  When self-interest, power, and influence over others are the messages of the sermon, that pulpit is that of the world and the evil one.  But where the towel and basin and the fish and loaves are the images of import, here we find the true Gospel, here we find the way to the kingdom of God, here we find the fulfillment of Jesus' prayer for his followers.