The Sheep of His Flock - 4th Sunday of Easter Year C

The Sheep of His Flock – 4^th Sunday of Easter Year C

It has become fashionable nowadays to speak of “adult faith” as opposed to a less developed understanding of the faith that we may have had earlier in our lives.  Properly understood, there is nothing wrong in speaking of an adult faith in the sense of growing more deeply in a relationship with the Triune God and the Church.  However, there can be a tendency to overlook or become repulsed by passages in scripture that refer to disciples as children of God or as sheep.  Do those appellations not contradict the whole notion of adult faith that we seek in our lives?

In today’s Gospel text we find Jesus making reference to his followers as sheep.  This passage is an extension of Jesus’ earlier teaching on him being the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep.  Hence, there is a great deal of consolation for the follower of Jesus that we be considered sheep in this sense, for we have a great protector in the Lord Jesus.  What is more, Jesus asserts that he is one with the Father, meaning that our protector is not merely another fallible human being, but is in actuality God himself.  There can be no greater assurance for the believer than to know that God is our protector in the person of Jesus the Lord.

At the same time we cannot forget the fact that Jesus is not just the good shepherd, but is also the Lamb of God.  John the Baptist announces this fact in the beginning of John’s gospel, a fact that comes to full realization in John’s presentation of Jesus’ crucifixion.  In the passion narrative of John, the evangelist has Jesus’ crucifixion coincide with the slaughter of the lambs in the Temple for the Passover celebration.  Jesus, then, as the Lamb of God, replaces the original Passover Lamb.  Whereas the Passover Lamb was sacrificed in order to protect the Israelites from the angel of death, now Jesus the Lamb of God is sacrificed so that all might be protected from the death of sin. 

To be called a sheep by the Lord Jesus, then, is the greatest honor a Christian can receive, for it means that we have been called to share in the ministry and work of the Lord Jesus in his work of redemption.  We are tempted to think that our adult faith qualifies us to be shepherds of the flock of Jesus, but Jesus tells us that in order to be a shepherd we must first be a lamb, i.e. we must die to ourselves and to offer ourselves for the sake of others, even to the point of death.  Just as Jesus the Good Shepherd was called by the Father to be the Lamb of God and die for others, so too we must be sheep and rejoice in being so, for we are called to the ministry of Jesus the Lord.

This ministry involves rejection, just as it did in the life of Jesus on earth.  The first reading recounts the ministry of Paul and Barnabas, who faced ridicule and rejection, but notice that Acts states that they were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.  Very often we see Christians bewailing the opposition the Church faces in proclaiming the Gospel in our age.  Complaint against such opposition has become a cottage industry in itself, and yet it is utterly contrary to the Gospel and the spirit of Christ.  We encounter these readings in the Easter season, for in Easter we find our joy and raison d’etre.  The joy of Easter pushes aside the darkness of Good Friday, for as St. Augustine said, “We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song.”

In being a sheep of Jesus’ flock we know that the Lamb who is in the center of the throne in the vision of Revelation will shepherd us.  If we have been a sheep, then at some point we will have washed our garments in the blood of the lamb, for it is the vocation of every sheep at some point to suffer death so that another living thing may continue to live.  So it is with us, just as it was for the Lord Jesus, who came to be an example to us in fulfilling our human vocation.  We can then rejoice in anticipation of being part of the great multitude that worships the Lamb day and night, for the joy we experience now will be fully realized in heavenly glory.

As we seek to be faithful sheep of the Lord Jesus, we come together in the midst of this Easter season to pray for the grace we need to persevere in fulfilling our human vocation.  “Let us pray to God our helper in time of distress.  God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, though your people walk in the valley of darkness, no evil should they fear; for they follow in faith the call of the shepherd whom you have sent for their hope and strength.  Attune our minds to the sound of his voice, lead our steps in the path he has shown, that we may know the strength of his outstretched arm and enjoy the light of your presence forever.  We ask this through Christ our Lord.  Amen.”

 

Mercy and Peace - 2nd Sunday of Easter Year C

Mercy and Peace – 2^nd Sunday of Easter Year C

When we hear and read the Gospels we often find ourselves thinking critically about the disciples in many passages.  How could Peter, who had seen the Lord Jesus in transfigured glory, deny his master three times?  How could all the disciples run away and abandon Jesus to die alone on the cross?  And in today’s Gospel reading, how could Thomas refuse to believe in the risen Jesus after hearing the testimony of so many?  We might be cured of this temptation when we realize that the Gospel writers intended for us to see ourselves as the disciples in the story, i.e. that all of us in one way or another deny Jesus, abandon him, and doubt His identity and resurrection. 

Consequently, it is appropriate that the Church asks us to reflect on the themes of mercy and peace in the Sunday after Easter, for it is precisely these gifts of the Lord Jesus that we need so desperately.  In appearing to the fragile disciples, Jesus imparts to them His peace in the sending forth of the Holy Spirit.  Then he commands them to forgive the sins of the people, thereby connecting the idea of peace with mercy.  It is indeed true that once we have experienced the mercy of God that a sense of peace comes upon us, but more is at stake than the subjective feeling of peace in such moments.  The Lord Jesus has much more to teach us in this episode.

The acts of denial, abandonment, and doubt in the days before the resurrection are acts that we cannot redeem on our own.  In what way could we show God that we have learned the lessons of these falls and will not commit them again?  Each and every one of these men declared their allegiance to Jesus and vowed that they would die for Him, and yet they all failed, as they did so often during Jesus’ public ministry, as we have in our own lives.  Hence, only the free gift of Jesus’ own forgiveness can lift them up from the dregs in which they find themselves.  It is in their acceptance of this gift that leads the disciples to find peace in their own lives.

Now, however, their lives must be committed to the ministry of mercy and reconciliation that they experienced from the Lord Jesus.  By forgiving the sins of others – not just once per year in the annual observance of Yom Kippur, but in the daily practice of mercy in the prayer Jesus taught them – the disciples, and we too, can bring peace to a world disfigured by conflict and strife.  We can do this only by making the entire life and ministry of Jesus our own.

Some people may say that we must also stress God’s justice in addition to His mercy, implying that these two things are somehow distinct or represent a necessary dualism in the world.  However, God’s justice is always directed towards mercy and to bringing the person back to a full relationship with Him.  What is more, the justice of God is not some magical curse inflicted upon a person for breaking the law.  It is the natural consequence of following our own devices instead of God’s will.  The parable of the prodigal son highlights both of these realities – that the degradation of the son was the natural consequence of his own actions, and that this justice of God is directed toward the reconciliation of the son that takes place at the climax of the story.

Throughout Lent we heard the prophetic tradition remind us that God does not desire the death of the sinner but rather in the sinner’s conversion.  We must ask ourselves whether we truly have this desire for ourselves and for others as well.  We have experienced the mercy and peace of God in the death and resurrection of Jesus the Lord.  We are commanded now to be ministers of mercy and peace to others.  The very fact that our world and church remain torn by conflict and wars indicates the extent to which we have not appropriated this mission into our lives.  The fact that people who claim the name Christian have the same rates of divorce, abortion, support for war and capital punishment as the rest of society means that we are those very disciples who deny, abandon, and doubt and whom we look askance at in our reading of the scriptures.

Yet, we must rejoice and give thanks for receiving these gifts of mercy and peace these Easter days.  At the same time, we pray for the ability to live our mission as ministers of mercy and peace more effectively in our lives.  “Let us pray as Christians thirsting for the risen life.  Heavenly Father and God of mercy, we no longer look for Jesus among the dead, for he is alive and has become the Lord of life.  From the waters of death you raise us with him and renew your gift of life within us.  Increase in our minds and hearts the risen life we share with Christ and help us to grow as your people toward the fullness of eternal life with you.  We ask this through Christ our Lord.  Amen.”