SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER "C"

SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

Cycle “C”: John 14, 15-21

 Fr. Arthur Tonne tells a delightful story of a Christian gentleman. This gentleman wanted to communicate to soldiers on a military base the love of Christ for every one of them. But by army rule he was prohibited entry to the camp. So, how would he spread the message? He had several thousand hand mirrors delivered as gifts kind courtesy the military chaplain. On the back of the mirror he had printed the message from John 3, 16: “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life.”  Just under this text the gentleman added this message: “If you wish to see whom God loves, turn this around.” Each one saw his own face.

            In effect, Jesus in this Gospel is giving to each of his people a mirror, not made of glass and wood, but made of words. He took pains to hold before them the bold message that he would not leave them orphans precisely because he loved every one of them. Try to recall the setting. The occasion was the Last Supper. The Master had just announced his impending departure. The apostles were thrown into consternation and sadness. Now, being the astute Teacher he was, the Christ had to lift his people off the floor and put them back on their cushions. He promised to continue his relationship with them through a Helper or Advocate. The Helper is of course the Holy Spirit. The Greek word is “Paracletos”, also popularly translated as Comforter. But this Comforter is not one of those people who jump out of an Ambulance when you are hurt; someone who stands about in the wings waiting till we fall on our faces. He is not one of those sympathetic people who slip you a Hallmark “Get well soon” Card and tells you it could have been much worse. The Spirit will, indeed, do all that, but that is only his assignment as a Dutch uncle. The Spirit is more than that.

            The Paracletos, as Jesus understood the term, is one who will hasten to help us when we find ourselves between the rock and the hard place. He will reach out to us much before we fall on our faces. He will be our hero from Hollywood, Bollywood and Tollywood all put together and much more. It is the Spirit who will be leading the cavalry when we find ourselves surrounded by the bad guys of whatever ilk.

            A much used expression among people we live and work with is, “It’s just too stressful. I just can’t cope any longer.” Sometimes students, working and unemployed people talk like that. To their surprise, I tell them that I find myself in similar situations often. And so do you. But then, apart from a drink of cool water or a hot cup of tea, I call upon Jesus, invoking his holy name and begging him to breathe his Spirit into me, like God once did blow into the mouth of Adam after forming his body from the slime of the earth. And more often than not, what had been an intolerable situation eases and sometimes disappears entirely, or, best of all, I am able to live with it. I have learned to live with a lot of pain. My God, if I were looking for peace and comfort I wouldn’t take four conveyances to reach here and celebrate the Eucharist for you, which I thoroughly enjoy. In many areas of my Christian life, I am a fundamentalist. I do hold Jesus to all his promises. I do expect him to deliver. And happily I am seldom disappointed. But I also want to emphasise a point that all sensible people will underline, and that is, that the Helper or Paraclete does not crash parties. He never forces himself on anybody. He waits for an invitation. Then he will come and ring the doorbell with his elbow because his hands will be filled with his gifts. One clever prose-poet sums up the Paracletos in these lyrical words: “Eternally the Holy Spirit is love between the

Father and the Son; but historically the Holy Spirit is love between God and the world.”

            Jesus Christ was not pulling the legs of his apostles when he made them this extravagant promise. Nor are people of faith bluffed into believing that the promise has gone somewhere into limbo as of now. Limbo has been abolished. People of faith, under any stressful circumstances always come up with some faith formula like this: “The Spirit will think up something.” Missionaries and their helpers working under threat and hopeless situations will repeat that quite contentedly and with reassurance. None of them will show fear or panic. They are serene. The Spirit has much to do with that serenity.

            And Jesus, for his part, can depend on such people. He can bank on such people who have gone beyond Good Friday to the Resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit.

The mysteries of Jesus have become our mysteries. Whatever happened to him must happen to us, and that includes his glorious Resurrection. We find the vivid story of Jesus lying close to ours. Jesus makes our story his, turning our life and death inside out to lead us to a happy future that will last forever. He will takes our sinfulness and brokenness and make them into something beautiful. In fact, he is doing it already.

PRAYER (Fr. Jean Jacques Olier, 1608 – 1658, 49 years)

O Jesus, living in Mary

Come and live in your servants

In the Spirit of your holiness

In the fullness of your strength

In the goodness of your virtues

In the perfection of your ways

In the communion of your mysteries

Be Lord over every hostile power

In your own Spirit,

To the glory of the Father.

Amen.

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER "C" Mother's Day

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

Cycle: “C”: Mothers’ Day

John 15, 9 – 17

THE HOMILY:   Mother’s Day began in the United States in 1870. We owe it to Julia Ward Howe, the author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Initially it was named Mother’s Peace Day. It was to be a day when mothers would applaud peace and strive for it. In this age, when gifts of flowers, cards and sweets have taken the place of its first purpose, we would do well to reflect on the thoughts of Ms. Howe in her Mother’s Day proclamation. A few excerpts: “Arise the, women of this day. Say firmly, ‘We shall not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. We shall not have our sons taken from us to unlearn all that we have taught them about charity, peace and patience. We women of this county will be too concerned with the women of another country to allow our sons to be trained to kill theirs. From the heart of the devastated earth, a voice goes up with our own. It says, ‘Disarm, disarm!’”

Mothers’ Day should be observed throughout the world. That so-called celebrated Unknown Author has this marvellous passage. I hope you’ll like hearing it.

“When God was creating mothers, He was deep in his 6^th. Day of overtime. An angel sidled up and said, ‘Lord, you are doing a lot of fiddling around on this one.’ And God answered. ‘Look at the requirement on this order and you’ll understand why. She has to be completely washable but not plastic. Have 180 movable parts, each one replaceable. Run on black coffee and leftovers. Have a kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair. And have six pairs of hands.’ The angel shook his head, ‘Six pairs of hands. That’s not possible even for you, O God.’

‘It’s not the hands that are causing me problems,’ replied the Maker, ‘it’s the three pairs of eyes that mothers are supposed to have.’ Asked the angel, ‘Are the three pairs of eyes supposed to be on the standard model?’ The Lord nodded gravely. ‘One pair that can see through closed doors when she asks, ‘What are you kids doing in there?’ even though she already knows. Another pair in the back of her head that can see what she shouldn’t but what she has to know. And of course the ones here in front that can look at a child who has goofed up, and the look reflects the message, ‘I understand and I love you.’ ‘Lord’, said the angel, touching his sleeve gently, ‘come and rest. Tomorrow...try again.’ ‘I can’t’ said the Lord, ‘I’m so close to creating something so similar to myself. Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick, can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger, and can get a nine year old to stay under the shower for an incredible two minutes.’ The angel circled the model of the mother very slowly and sighed, ‘It’s much too soft, dear God.’ ‘Soft yes, but tough too,’ said the Lord excitedly. You cannot imagine what the mother can do or endure.’ Asked the angel, ‘Can it think?’ ‘Not only think,’ said the Creator, ‘it can also reason and compromise.’ Finally the angel bent over and ran his finger across the cheek. ‘There’s a leak,’ he said triumphantly, ‘I told you that you were trying to put too much into this model. You can’t ignore the stress factor.’ The Lord moved in for a closer look and gently lifted the drop of moisture to his finger where it glistened and sparkled in the light. ‘It’s not a leak’, God said, ‘It’s a tear.’ The angel queried, ‘A tear? What’s that for?’ ‘It’s for joy, sadness, disappointment, compassion, pain, loneliness, and pride.’ ‘You are a genius,’ said the angel rapturously. The Lord looked sombre and said, ‘I didn’t put it there.’ “

Here is a message from a mother of three young adults. “Sound really does travel slower than light. The advice mothers give to their 18 year olds doesn’t reach them until they are about 40.”

The American poetess, Phyllis McGinley, has a verse for mothers and daughters:

Mothers are hardest to forgive.

Life is the fruit they long to hand you

Ripe on a plate. And while you live,

Relentless they understand you.

                        And she goes on to say to mothers: “I realise that I have been fulfilled, and I don’t want my readers to think that I’m saying you can all be poets. All I’m saying is that if you really like being a wife and mother, if that’s your basic drive, don’t be upset by characters who say you have to get out and do something. Because I think you hold the future in your hand.”

Now here’s the story of Emilia, entitled “THANK YOU, EMILIA’

Emilia belonged to a middle class family in a European country that was reduced by famine after a long protracted national war. Hunger and epidemics threatened the whole country. Emilia had always been poor in health since childhood, without the possibility of improving it owing to the poor conditions in which she lived. She got married while very young to a textile worker. They went to live in a new village away from home, relatives and acquaintances. Edmund, their firstborn, died shortly afterwards. He was a very handsome boy, a good student, and an athlete. Some years later, Emilia gave birth to a girl child who lived only a few weeks, owing to a bad condition in which the family lived. After 14 years since Edmund’s birth and some 10 years after the death of her daughter, Emilia was in a difficult situation. She was 40 years old and in bad health: serious kidney problems, and her heart was gradually giving way due to a congenital condition. The country’s political situation became increasingly critical as a consequence of the recent ending of World War One.  In those terrible circumstances Emilia became aware of being pregnant again. Now, it was possible for a pregnant woman to have recourse to an abortion, and there were people ready to carry it out. Due to her age and poor health, Emilia’s pregnancy posed a serious threat to her life. She also asked herself what kind of world she could offer her newborn, considering the miserable family condition and the imminence of war. She was unaware that she had only 10 more years to live. World War II exploded a few years later. The father of the unborn baby would lose in his life in that war. Emilia chose to let her baby live and called him Karol. This child is now an elderly man, very alive, and every time he visits some country millions of people shout: “John Paul II, we all love you.”

A million thanks, Emilia !

Emilia, the Pope’s mother is dead, and so are the mothers of many priests.

MOTHER’S MONUMENT

A priest one day made his weary way

Into a graveyard where his mother lay;

And scarcely had he reached the humble mound

Than tears rolled down to bless the hallowed ground.

Beside the humble grave the priest then knelt

To tell the sorrow his heart then felt.

Full many a messenger of sorrow went

To make excuse that yet no monument

Stood guardian o’er his sweet mother’s head,

To honour her who lay among the dead.

And then a voice came gently from the tomb:

“My monument was builded in my womb;

My greatest laurels, greatest praises were won,

The hour when thou became my priestly son.

Go, then, my son, and never more lament

That o’er my grave stands no monument;

For all the souls in heav’n whom thou hast sent

For e’er proclaim thee as my monument.”

PRAYER:

Thank you, God

That you are tender as a mother,

As well as strong as a father.

You give us life,

And care for us

Like a mother

Who will not forsake her children.

We pray for our mothers today,

Putting them into your hands

For time and for eternity;

And we ask your blessing

On all our relationships

In the families of our homes,

Our churches, and our communities.

(Isaiah 49, 15)

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER "C"

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (3)

John 13, 31-35 “Love one another as I have loved you.”

“What the world needs now is love, sweet love.”

With wars and killings so common around the globe, the old refrain makes more sense than was probably intended when the words were written long ago. “Love makes the world go round,” says another. (Or is it money?) Whether it is movies or songs, love is the theme that constantly recurs. English literature almost hangs on it, from Shakespeare to modern novelists. And yet, statistically, with marriages breaking down at a great rate, there seems never to have been a greater need for such a scarce commodity as real love. There are lots of poor imitations of the real thing around. They go by the names of fornication, adultery, child abuse, prostitution. And all of them, falling short of what God intended love to be, have a price to pay. Such things do not build up the other person. They do not build community.

 Such evils only trivialise human relationships and treat the other as object, not as person. Wherever so-called love is self-centred or grasping or manipulative, it’s sure to fail.

“But you don’t understand, we love each other.” Love seems to be the over-all justification for anything arbitrary or sinful. Popular treatment of sex has slashed away the sense of sin not only in the minds of the young but also of the whole population in general. We may have rid ourselves of the narrow views of the past generation, but I think we have swung the other way in rejecting what the Church teaches on doctrinal and life issues. People say that the Church’s stand is too unbending and lacking in compassion to be taken seriously. They say that Jesus Christ is not to be taken as one who challenges us radically. They say that Jesus is to be taken as one who keeps saying: “Be not afraid,” “my yoke is easy,”  and “I’m meek and humble of heart.” So leave it all to cosy, comfy, fuzzy Jesus. They describe God as someone who forgives anything, even if one hasn’t the time and inclination to apologise. Some people have picked up the conviction that all moral strictures are arbitrary and must change from age to age. They probably were not told that sin and crime came before the moral strictures; that laws were written for people who can’t figure out for themselves what human being can legitimately do and not do; that it was evil for Cain to kill his brother Abel, even though the Ten Commandments hadn’t been published yet.

“But you don’t understand; we love each other.” To those who have had a long and painful experience of it, “love” is a pretty mercurial (shifty) label. It’s hard to be sure if it’s the right one. Love isn’t a feeling. Being-in-love is a feeling. Love is an act of the will to work for the good of the other.

 Love takes over when the feelings fail; when the beloved is even no longer likeable. Only through suffering can love emerge from being-in-love. If it doesn’t, it’s usually off to the divorce court. Real love is very ordinary: doing the daily chores love, putting out the garbage love, visiting the hospital love, cutting down on the drinking love. “By their fruits you will know them.”

In the short span of 33 years, Jesus Christ couldn’t exhaust all the possible avocations available to people. He wasn’t a farmer or philosophy or husband or lawyer. He was probably a woodworker, a stonecutter, a casual labourer, and certainly an excellent teacher. Jesus couldn’t take up all the professions or avocations. But he did something very special and unique: he went to the heart of every calling, the essence of every profession, and that was self-sacrificing love, self-sacrificing love unto death.

 Dear parents, you know exactly what I’m talking about, and there’s where you become like Jesus.

PRAYER: God, our Parent, you are love itself, and all our love comes from you. Our dearest Brother, Jesus, you showed your great love for us in laying down your life on the Cross. Forgives us our failures to love, and pour out your love into our hearts, to enable us love others as you love us.

Amen.

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER "B"

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER “B”

The Vine and the Branches

Introduction: God wants us to turn to him in our need. And that’s exactly what we do, since we are people of faith. We believe in his love and care for us. Our best prayers have more groans than words. Beg God to help you live in his presence everyday of your life. Prayer is the sum of our relationship with God. We are what we pray. St. Francis deSales said, “Every Christian needs half an hour of prayer everyday, except when he is busy; then he needs one hour.”

The greatest prayer is certainly the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which is precisely the prayer of Jesus, in terms of his total self-surrender to his Father. We could do no better than join him in this great action-prayer. Let us first be sorry for our sins and failures and ask God for pardon and strength.

THE HOMILY

“I am the Vine and you my Branches are.”

In the Old Testament the image of the vine was vividly used to describe Israel. Israel was God’s Vine, planted by him personally, and enjoying most favoured status. However, its fruit was disappointing; if is did produce grapes, they were sour. These so-called beloved of God turned out to be stubborn and crooked idolaters, boasting of their hardness of heart and infidelities.

In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus takes up the image and uses it to describe himself. More than that, he is the true Vine.

Every gardener will resonate with the language Jesus uses in this passage. There is a certain amount of pragmatic realism in gardening: a branch that is not bearing fruit is a drain on the life of the vine and needs to be cut off. This is an application of the Principle of Totality. If a particular organ of yours is cancerous and a danger to the whole body, the cancerous member must be excised immediately before the cancer spreads.

On the other hand, a branch that is bearing fruit needs to be carefully pruned and dressed to enable it carry more and luscious fruit.

As Christians, how do we bear fruit for God? Jesus tells us the secret of fruitfulness: “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me” (vs. 4). To abide in Jesus is really the call of the Christian life. We are called to live our lives and die our deaths in the love of Jesus.

A certain observer has written a line about our spiritual life: “Most of us in the spiritual life talk cream but live skimmed milk.” The point is that spiritually we can be more interesting and refreshing than we are at the moment. What we lack is boldness and smartness.

There is a little story about the genius Michelangelo Buonarotti, the great artist and architect.

 He had a number of pupils under his tutorship. One morning he entered his studio and carefully examined the canvasses of each of his pupils. A few he cautiously complimented. He advised one or two to go back to their day jobs and not to inflict their paintings on an innocent humanity! Finally he came to his star disciple. Without a word, Michelangelo took up a brush, heavy with red paint. Across the picture he wrote the Latin word “amplius,” which translates into English “larger.” The maestro felt that his pupil was playing it too safe. He was not working up to his capacity. He wanted him to start all over again from scratch. The student did, and the result was a masterpiece.

Jesus, our Lord, must often be tempted to write the word “amplius” over the lives of many of us. There is no doubt that we are good as far as we have gone. But we have not gone far enough. Our spiritual canvasses are too small. We are capable of so much more in the spiritual life.

 The lives of our spirit need constant and larger repainting. And the Teacher would inform us that the larger canvasses and brushes are sitting on the racks in front of us. They are ours for the picking.

The great French philosopher Leon Bloy wrote this line: “The greatest tragedy is that each of us is not a saint.” Is there anyone here who would think that Jesus Christ would disagree with that judgement? The same Christ who in today’s Gospel says, “…every branch that does bear fruit my Father prunes to make it bear even more.” More generous, more charitable, a more pure life, greater encouragement to the weak members of the parish.

How much more effective our parish and we ourselves as Catholics could be if everyone here carried his or her share of the responsibilities! Some of you have marvelous contributions in leadership to offer us. Be willing to take risks. Christ needs you and wants you, and so do we.

Some fellow summed up our spiritual quest as follows:

“Aim for the stars and you at least reach the mountain range. But aim only at the mountain and you never get out of the mud.”

                                    The Vine and the Branches

“I am the trusty Vine,

And you my Branches are.

Blest be he who adheres to me:

A branch that spreads afar.

True Vine am I;

So will you be,

If you but cling to me.

But more than cling,

For I shall bring

The sap that fructifies

That branch of mine,

To give sweet wine

For life that never dies.

Whichever branch that bears much fruit

My Father will renew

To feed my sheep more plenti’ly,

And bind them to the root.”

O Holy Vine, O Jesu Lord,

We love and cling to you.

O prune our hearts

And cleanse our minds,

And teach us how to bear you;

That men may taste and savour sweet

Your wine of truth and love,

And praise the Dresser of that Vine

He planted from above.

Amen.

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER "A"

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

Cycle “A”: John 14, 1 – 12

The event in today’s Gospel took place the night before Jesus of Nazareth died an agonizing death for us out of love. Let each of us say to themselves: “Jesus is the only person who has died for me.” (repeat) Today’s gospel smashes all false gods. Relationship with Jesus Christ leads us to the living God, the Father who, I may be permitted to say, is crazy about us, passionate about us, so passionate that he loves us as we are, yet too much to leave us as we are. Jesus is the threshold between a God who is a theory in our heads and a God who is a person in the bits and pieces of our everyday. Jesus is the difference between a God who controls me and a God who walks alongside me. Jesus is the assurance that God understands my struggles; so I am not so afraid anymore; I am set free to do God’s will rather than paralyzed lest I break the law. I am not saying that our lives can go morally unchallenged, that we are free to do whatever we like, whenever we like, and thus hurt others and ourselves. You can believe in an “anything goes” false god who is so loose as to let anyone in; and you can equally believe in that awful false god who, like a heartless slave-driver, sends almost everyone to hell !

One evening two Episcopalian ministers were discussing the Immaculate Conception over after-dinner port wine and cigars. One of them said, “It is highly unlikely that Mary said to Bernadette, ‘I am the Immaculate Conception.’”  The other replied dryly, almost on cue, “I wouldn’t be too certain of that, Jack. After all, her Son is on record as saying, ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.’”

You can recall that Jesus had just told his disciples that he was going away, and so he wanted to pick up and reinforce their sagging spirits. Jesus had also informed them that their good companion Judas would shortly betray him. The disciples must have gone into trauma at the news. Their small comfortable world was collapsing; they were in desperate need of some psycho-spiritual tonic and the Physician was offering it to them. The Teacher, besides, had most attractive plans for them; he had not finished with them yet.

The brutally honest Thomas articulated the thoughts of all present: “Lord, we do not where you are going. How do we know the way ?” Thomas wanted a heavily marked road map. His doubts provoked one of the greatest lines Jesus ever said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” That line must have rung a loud bell in the mind of Tom and his peers. And it still so sounds 21 centuries later.

Jesus is the Way to God, the God who loves and nurtures, invites and challenges, intolerant to sin yet loves the sinner, who heals and empowers that we may produce even better fruit. Let us have no doubts about the God of Jesus, no doubts whatsoever.  The German poet Goethe once got very irritated with the sermons of some of the preachers of his church. He shouted in exasperation, “When I go to listen to a preacher, I want to hear of his certainties, not of his doubts. I have enough doubts of my own.”

So let us confidently focus on Jesus, the Way. Suppose you’re driving your car in a strange city and you ask the way of a local man. A local yokel. The fellow thoroughly confuses you in several badly chosen words. You regret you even bothered to ask. But it would be an entirely different game if the man jumped into his own car and shouted, “Just follow me.” Your guide has become the way. You relax and put your car in drive. Happily for us, Jesus does not tell us about the way in tortured language. He informs us confidently that he is the Way, “Follow me, I am the Way.” Many an instructor has told us, “I have brought you the truth as I understand it.” But no instructor was presumptuous to say, “I am the Truth.” None, except One, and that is the reason why we come today to worship him.

The story is told of a man passing a funeral parlour. There in the window stood a bold sign: “Why walk around half-dead ? We can bury you for only $80.00 !” If that be the problem of any  of us here, we would do well to hitch our wagon to Jesus. The same Jesus who said, “I am the Life” will jump start each of us and get us moving at full drive; and not walk around half-dead.

PRAYER (the Mozarabic Sacramentary. This ancient Spanish liturgy is believed to retain traces of early Celtic worship. The Mozarabs were Christian subjects of a Moorish king)

Jesus, our Master, meet us while we walk in the way, and long to reach the heavenly country; so that, following your light, we may keep the way of righteousness, and wander away into the darkness of this world’s night, while you, who are the Way, the Truth, and the Light, are shining within us. We ask this for your own name’s sake. Amen

FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER "C"

                  FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

                     Cycle “C”:  John 10, 27 – 30:

                 The Voice of the Good Shepherd

In the days of Jesus, the domestic animals, especially sheep, were kept in enclosures that were walled all around with no roof and only one door. There could be several flocks belonging to different shepherds in one enclosure or sheep pen. The job of the gatekeeper was to open the gate to the shepherd. Safe within the walls the sheep were protected from attacks by robbers and wild beasts. A shepherd used his voice to lead his own flock of sheep. He led them rather than driving them. He called out only his own sheep. They recognized his voice and followed. Attuned to the tone, pitch and resonance of only his voice, they ran away from any other. Now sheep are not especially renowned for their intelligence; why otherwise would we call somebody a “muttonhead?” Easily led astray and prone to wander, their very survival depended on having a good shepherd.

Jesus adopted this striking imagery to teach us about ourselves. In some ways we may be like sheep, knocked off course, led down dark alleys and listening to voices other than the Lord’s. With so many false signals from the media flying around our heads, recognizing the voice of the Shepherd is crucial to our survival. Jesus, our Good Shepherd, leads us by the voice of conscience, the Word of Holy Scripture, and the teaching of the Church. Let us not cut corners on our integrity in response to false signals.

So today we are invited to discover and renew our experience of the shepherding of Jesus. Since most of us live in an urban environment, the image of the shepherd may not particularly evocative for us. Perhaps in the countryside there is a similarity to the biblical shepherd who was in close personal contact with his sheep. He spent his time with his flock, personally protecting them from marauding dacoits and ravaging wolves. The shepherd also led the flock to fresh pasture when food was exhausted. It is not uncommon for visitors to the Holy Land to be excited with fresh when they see Bedouin shepherds leading a long line of sheep down a hillside.

Let me tell you about a certain Fr. Airey, an Australian priest still active in his ministry in his country. Australia is a vast country, and Fr. Airey was appointed to a country parish that had a large estate. So he thought he’d rear sheep in his spare time.

He bought 12 lambs and cared for them personally. Twelve lambs were probably a throwback to the 12 apostles, though I’m not insinuating that the 12 apostles were muttonheads! Fr. Airey even gave names to his twelve sheep, like Bo-Bo and Bunty. But one sad morning a huge flock of a thousand sheep overran his estate. His twelve were caught and lost in the crowd and were carried away by the mass of a thousand sheep. Fr. Airey was naturally disconsolate. Some weeks later another enormous batch of sheep entered his parish grounds. He was horrified, but he got an idea. He walked right into the crowd and began calling out the names of his twelve sheep. “Bo-Bo, Bunty, ScoobyDo, where are you?” Imagine his surprise and joy when every one of those twelve broke through the crowd, came right up to him and began rubbing their snouts and sides on his hands and legs. They recognised their shepherd’s voice!

Today’s Gospel reading opens to us some of the characteristics of our relationship with Jesus, which find echoes in our own experience. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me; and I give them eternal life.”

This is our destiny – to believe in Jesus and receive eternal life from him. Nonetheless, we can be somewhat vague about what eternal life is. Jesus makes eternal life very clear to us: “and this is eternal life that they may know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”(John 17,3). Therefore, eternal life is living in fellowship and communion with the Blessed Trinity – knowing and loving God as our Father; loving and following the Father’s Son as disciples, and being filled with the life, love and power of God, the Holy Spirit. Eternal life is being washed clean in the Blood of the Lamb with all our sins forgiven (Rev. 7,14). Eternal life is living in the presence of the Father and the Son on this earth and then, after our death, in heaven with our brothers and sisters, when we shall be “before the throne of God, and serve him day and night within his temple” (Rev. 7,15). Eternal life is being with God, sheltered within his presence, and never again experiencing hunger or thirst or trials and tribulations (Rev. 7, 15-16). Eternal life is being led by Christ our Shepherd to green pastures and springs of living water. Eternal life is being comforted by God, who wipes away all the tears from our eyes (Rev 7,17). Eternal life is being safe with God forever. As Jesus said, “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” (John 10, 29). 

PRAYER:  Gentle and compassionate Jesus, we are your flock and we believe in you and entrust our future to you. Each one of us thanks you for calling us by our names and giving us an identity and a definite direction to our life. We long to hear your voice, especially in times of pain and distress. And we are confident that with our names carved on the palm of your hand you will never, ever forget us. Amen

FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER "B"

Fourth Sunday of Easter: Year “B”                          

John 10, 11 - 18

PRE-PRAYERING

We are encouraged to pray for the strength and courage to lay down our lives as did the Good Shepherd. We all will die of course, but how we live our days of life will be the measure of our following Jesus. We are encouraged not so much to “die” for Christ, but “live” for Christ.

Most of us are laying down our lives for some person or persons. We pray today for the freedom and joy which it takes to really live while dying to ourselves.

REFLECTION

The temple officials and religious leaders have arrested Peter and John after the healing of the man who was crippled. Many, because of this healing, were coming to believe in their message about Jesus. Peter and John are dragged into the midst of this religious gathering and asked two direct questions about the healing event. They want to know by what “power” and by what “name” was this performed?

What we hear in today’s First Reading is Peter’s explanation and direct confrontation with the leaders. The “name” and the “power” are the same. Jesus, crucified by these same leaders, but who the very God of Israel has raised has also raised this man who had been crippled, to health. The elders are the “builders” and they have rejected Jesus who is the “Cornerstone” of salvation. This is a scriptural image referring to a line from Psalm 118. Peter affirms Jesus as the One and Only source for salvation, given to the world by the God of these religious leaders of Israel.

Peter and John have done a “good deed” and in keeping with the ways of Jesus, good deeds done in His name, can result in opposition and fear-based persecution. From its earliest days, the Church and the followers of Jesus have been called out, knocked down, and done in by those forces of darkness and fear. It follows then that when there is persecution of the Church, the Church must be doing something good.

For the next several Sundays of this Easter season we will be hearing some familiar themes from the Gospel of John. Jesus makes many imaginative “I am” statements. “I am the light.” “I am the bread of life.” “I am the living water.” “I am the way, the truth and the life.” When the guards come out to meet Him in the Garden, they are asked about whom they seek. Jesus says simply, “I am.”

In today’s Gospel we hear Jesus say twice “I am the good shepherd.” John has Jesus continue Jesus’ discussion and confrontation with the Pharisees after His having healed a man who was born blind. This man, who was blind, first heard the voice of Jesus and through believing in that voice came to believe and that was his new way of seeing.

The Pharisees are blinded by what they see and so are impaired of hearing and do not believe. Hearing and believing become the central message of Jesus’ saying that he is the “Good Shepherd”. It is the shepherd’s voice that is important and the sheep are not ignorant, but attentive and responsive. Jesus is telling those who can hear and want to hear important aspects of just what the Shepherd does for His flock.

In other chapters John has presented Jesus as teacher, finder, healer, feeder and forgiver. In this reading, Jesus is presented as the Shepherd Who will lay down His life for his flock. He will stay faithful to whom He is while the “hired” or the Pharisees turn away and have turned away from their vocation of tending their “flock”. Jesus is very direct with His listeners who do not want to hear, but they obviously do. He announces that He will stay faithful to Himself and His mission and thereby to the “flock”, because of the love of his Father. The Pharisees hear that they are interested only in their being paid and so have made that their mission and not guiding their “flock” with care.

Jesus claims that He is living this through, because the Father loves Him and desires that all of God’s people become one holy family with the Father. This ultimate uniting will depend on the mission of Jesus being continued through the verbal and non-verbal preaching and living of His Voice, the Good News.

Each time John presents Jesus as saying “I am”, John is also saying that Jesus claims His followers as those who can also say with confidence, “I am” and “we are”. In this section we are not sheep, but listeners who learn the tenor and timbre of his voice and message. We have learned and continue to learn the other voices within and around us. They can sound so inviting, comforting, and of Grace. They just might truly be, but it takes a long time to be so in tune with the Voice of Jesus, that we need experiences of life and prayer to figure out the difference. Our egos need attention but not constant indulgence. Our fears are to be respected, but not adored. Our cultures’ ways are to be influential, but not conformed to entirely.

Most of us, upon listening to our own recorded voices, wonder if that is really us! What we sound like to others is not the exact way we sound like to ourselves. People who are visually impaired learn quickly who is who by their footsteps, pace, noisiness as well as their voices. Jesus is telling us that He will keep calling in the same voice and when we begin to follow, he will keep speaking. There will always be other voices, from within ourselves and from outside. How will we ever learn to recognize His voice as different from our self-centred voices! One sure way, (I know you are not going to like this), is to trust the adventure of mystery. It seems that is part of his voice pattern. The Good Shepherd seems to be calling always to his sheep to follow him into the unfamiliar, the pastures, yonder, over there, and of His fidelity. The Pharisees did not like it either, but the man who was cured from his blindness came to like it.

“The Good Shepherd is risen! He who laid down his life for his sheep, who died for his flock, he is risen, alleluia.”