April 26, 2015

4^th Sunday of Easter B

Acts 4: 8-12; 1 John 3: 1-2; John 10: 11-18

The Gospel is about: laying down our lives! “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” I say so simply… I don’t do that…I don’t lay down my life for anyone. I have no association with sheep. The immediate thought that comes to mind is what was the point of a shepherd laying down his life to protect the sheep if the shepherd died? Am I missing the meaning of Jesus’ message? What is Jesus calling me to be? What is He calling me to become?

All four Gospels use the metaphor of Jesus as the Good Shepherd…and Israel is His ‘flock’. I refer back to Psalm 23…The Lord is my Shepherd” for reflection: … Is the Lord my shepherd? Do I allow Him to lead me or do I NOT like to be beholding to anyone? And Jesus says that He as the ‘shepherd’ lays down His life for me and all. Does this mean that I have to be willing all the time to do the same? This is certainly admirable…but laying down my life, like the martyrs? I always wondered if I would be willing to be a martyr. Before I was ordained, I was fascinated with reading the lives of the North American martyrs especially two Jesuits: Isaac Jogues and Jean de Brebeuf. I never thought that I had the courage to be tortured and be killed.

When I begin to think in this direction then I feel that I must be missing something from the text and teaching of Jesus. In the Holy Land, the picture of grazing sheep is seen outside of the cities…and the shepherd close by. Actually I was fascinated by the sheep dog keeping the sheep all together. The shepherd’s number one job was protection from wild animals and thieves. It seemed that the sheep knew that their welfare depended on staying close. They didn’t have to worry; the shepherd protected them and led them to areas to graze.

I can readily see Jesus using this image and showing the contrast between God and Himself as being the trustful and reliable guides whereas the Pharisees and Scribes, (the hired hands) had no lasting loving commitment to the people they were ‘suppose ‘ to take care of. While they were intense on enforcing the laws and duties, they were not concerned with caring for the sick and helping the lame and defending the powerless members of society. They were concerned with themselves. Am I this way?

It is very interesting to get to the core of what Jesus is saying today. John uses the Greek word to describe the shepherd to ‘lay down his life.’ But the essential meaning of ‘lay down’ is ‘to give…to place…to put.” The shepherds were to be people who daily gave their lives to the flocks, to place their life, to put their life at the disposal of the sheep. There were no days off. The sheep somehow sensed that they could depend on the shepherd in any trouble. Hired substitutes did not function in the same way. They gave SOME of their time and a CERTAIN portion of their skill to the job. But they didn’t give their lives because they just couldn’t love the sheep in the same way the shepherd did.

In my life I have experienced many examples of people living challenging and taxing lives with love: to live daily for another person as to die for that person. THIS is what I feel is the message of the Good Shepherd for myself and everyone today. God sent Jesus to teach…to live…to show God’s love and to save us from not only our sins but from ourselves. That God’s love and His grace is given so that I can continue to GIVE…to PLACE…to PUT my life at the disposal of those God has placed in my life…and I am to LOVE. Each person by virtue of baptism, is called to share the Good news of God’s love and live the Gospel. Each is called to imitate Jesus. THIS means that what we say should be true…our lives should be full of compassion and concern for others.

Living the Word…Scripture Reflections and Commentaries for Sundays and Holy Days says this of today’s Gospel: “A moment’s reflection, however, allows us to grasp Jesus’ point. True leaders, ‘good shepherds,’ are those who seek not their own well-being and flourishing, but the well-being and flourishing of those who are entrusted to their care. While we may not have a lot of contact with shepherds, we can think of many instances of people laying down their lives for others. Any parent who has walked the floor in the middle of the night with a sick or fussy baby knows what it means to lay down one’s life. So too, any child who cares for an aging parent with patience and forbearance knows what it means to lay down’ one’s life. Any employer or supervisor who stays late at the office figuring out how to tweak the budget, or who forgoes a bonus in order not to have to lay anyone off, knows what it means to lay down one’s life. All of these involve a kind of dying to oneself so that others might have life in its fullness.” I am honored to know so many people who do this all the time.

Today is known as “Good Shepherd Sunday.” It is a day that all Christians are is challenged to look into their hearts and judge the generosity of their service to the people around them. I am called to imitate Jesus…each person is called to imitate Jesus. EVERY person possesses the sacred dignity of being a child loved by God, and is called to serve in that capacity, especially to the hurting and those who can’t survive on their own…to care for all who are vulnerable and in need. Am I living my life as a Christian…am I working the way a Christian needs to work?

Kahlil Gibran in The Prophet wrote this about working with love: “All work is empty save when done with love. And what is it to work with love? It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from you heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth. It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house. If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work, and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms from those who work with joy. For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half of man’s hunger. And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wind. Work is love made visible.”

I am called to make God’s love visible so I reflect on:

• Pray the ‘shepherd’ passages: Psalm 23; Ezekiel 34; Micah 5: 3-5; Jeremiah 23: 1-4; Luke 15: 1-7. What deep feelings do these evoke? How can these texts touch my life?
• Gandhi was inspired by the figure of Jesus. Many who are not Christians hear and model the teachings of Jesus. Do I learn from them?
• Look around and see the many ways in which lives are placed at the service of others: parents’ care of children; acts of kindness of co-workers, compassion for those who are ‘like sheep without a shepherd.” Do I learn from them?

Sacred Space 2015 challenges each one

“’One flock, one shepherd.’ God thinks big. The divine project is to gather in everyone at the close of human history.

This makes me look at awkward people in a new way—they are to be my eternal companions! Does it make me look at myself in a new way? Would I make a pleasant eternal companion if I died today?