Tag: homilies

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Every Round Goes Higher, Higher. A Reflection on the Feast of the Ascension

In more dioceses than not, the Feast of the Ascension is celebrated this weekend. The liturgist in me regrets the move, but here we are any way. So let’s ascend with the Lord, three days late!

This marvelous feast is not merely about something that took place two thousand years ago. For, though Christ our head has ascended, we the members of his body are ascending with him. Since he was ascended, we too have ascended. In my own life, as a Christian, I am brought higher every year by the Lord who is drawing me up with him. This is not some mere slogan, but something I am actually experiencing. An old song says, I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore. Very deeply stained with sin, sinking to rise no more. But he master of the sea, heard my despairing cry. And from the waters lifted me. Now safe am I. Love Lifted me, When nothing else could help. Love lifted me!

Yes, the feast of the Lord’s Ascension is our feast too, if we are faithful. Let’s look at it from three perspectives.

I. The Fact of the Ascension. – The readings today describe a wondrous event that the Apostles witnessed. The Lord, by his own power is taken to heaven. In so doing he opens a path for us too. The gates of paradise swing open again: Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in! (Psalm 24:7). In Christ, man returns to God. Consider three things about the Ascension:

A. The Reality – Imagine the glory of this moment. Scripture says, As they were looking on, he was lifted up and cloud took him from their sight….they were looking intently in the sky as he was going (Acts 1:9). So impressive was the sight that the angels had to beckon them to get along to Jerusalem as the Lord had said, Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven (Acts 1:11). Yes, it was glorious. Jesus had once said as a summons to faith, What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? (John 6:62). He had also encouraged them saying: Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man (John 1:51) So here is a glorious reality, and a fulfillment of what Jesus had said.

B. The Rescue – In the Ascension, it does not seem that the Lord entered heaven alone. As we have remarked, in his mystical body we also ascend with him. But consider too this remarkable text that affirms that: Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men. In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things (Eph 4:8ff). Yes, the Lord had earlier, just after his death, descended to Sheol and awakened the dead and preached the gospel to them (cf 1 Peter 4:6). And now, for those he had justified, came the moment ascend with Jesus as a “host,” as an army of former captives, now set free. Behold the great procession that enters behind Christ through the now opened gates of heaven: Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac Jacob, Rachel, Judith, Deborah, David, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Malachi, John the Baptist….and one day you! Yes this is a great rescue. Adam and his descendants have not simply been restored to some paradisical garden, they have entered heaven.

C. The Rejoicing – Consider how, this once captive train, sings exultantly as they follow Christ upward to heaven. The liturgy today puts before us a likely song they sang: God mounts his throne to shouts of Joy! The Lord amid trumpet blasts. All you peoples clap your hands, shout to God with cries of gladness, for the Lord the most high, the awesome is the great king over all the earth. God reigns over the nations, God sits upon his holy throne (Psalm 47:6-7). I also have it on the best of authority that they were singing an old gospel song: I’m so glad, Jesus lifted me! Yes I also have it on the best of authority that they were even singing an old Motown song: Your love is lifting me higher, than I’ve ever been lifted before!

Yes, Here are some glorious facets of the Ascension.

II. The Fellowship of the Ascension – We have already remarked that, when Christ ascends, we ascend. Why and how? Scripture says, Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it (1 Cor 12:27). It also says, All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. By baptism we were buried together with him so that Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of God the Father, we too might live a new and glorious life. For if we have been united with him by likeness to his death we shall be united with him by likeness to his resurrection (Rom 6:3ff). So, when Christ died we died. When Christ rose, we rose. When He ascends, we ascend.

But you may say, he is in glory, but I am still here, how is it that I am ascended or ascending? Consider a humorous example about our physical bodies. When I get on an elevator and punch the button for the top floor, the crown of my head gets there before the soles of my feet. But the whole body will get there unless some strange loss of integrity or tragic dismemberment takes place. So in an analogous way it is with Jesus’ Jesus mystical body. In Christ our head we are already in glory. Some members of his body have already gotten there. We who come later will get there too, provided we stay a member of the Body. Yes we are already ascended in Christ our head. We are already enthroned in glory with him, if we hold fast and stay a member of his Body. This is the fellowship of the Ascension.

III. The Fruitfulness of the Ascension – Jesus does not return to heaven to abandon us. He is more present to us than we are to ourselves. He is with us always to the end of the age (cf Matt 28:20). But in Ascending, without abandoning us, he goes to procure so very important things. Consider four of them:

A. Holy Ghost power – Jesus teaches very clearly that he is ascending in order to send us the Holy Spirit: Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you (Jn 16:7ff) He also says, These things I have spoken to you, while I am still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you (Jn 14:25ff). And yet again, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come (Jn 16:13-14). So the Lord goes, that he might, with the Father, send the Holy Spirit to live within us as in a temple. In this way, and through the Eucharist, he will dwell with us even more intimately than when he walked this earth.

B. Harvest – Jesus says, And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me (John 12:32). While the immediate context of this verse is the crucifixion, the wonder of John’s gospel is that is that he often intends double meanings. Clearly Christ’s glorification is his crucifixion, but it also includes his resurrection and ascension. So, from his place in glory, Christ is drawing all people to himself. He is also bestowing grace on us from his Father’s right hand to be his co-workers in the harvest: But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8). Yes, from his place in glory, Christ is bringing in a great harvest, as he said in Scripture: Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.” (Jn 4:35-38). Harvest! And it is the Lord’s work from heaven in which we participate.

C. Help – At the Father’s right hand Jesus intercedes for us. Scripture says, Consequently he is able, for all time, to save those who draw near to God through him, since he lives always to make intercession for them (Heb 7:25). The Lord links his ascension to an unleashing of special power: Amen, amen, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son (Jn 14:12).

It is true, we must not understand asking in the name of Jesus as a mere incantation, for to ask in his Name means to ask in accord with his will. And yet, we must come to experience the power of Jesus to draw us up to great and wondrous things in his sight. Despite the mystery of iniquity all about us, we trust that Christ is conquering, even in the puzzling and apparent victories of this world’s rebellion. We read, In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Though, at present we do not see everything subject to him, yet we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor….so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death (Heb 2:8-9; 14-15). Thus, from heaven we have the help of the Lord’s grace which, if we will accept it, is an ever present help unto our salvation.

D. Habitation – Simply put, Jesus indicates that in going to heaven he is preparing a place for us: In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also (Jn 14:2ff) Yes, indeed, He has the blueprints out, and a hard hat on. He is overseeing the construction of a mansion for each of us that we may dwell with him, the Father and the Spirit forever.

Here then are the ways that Christ, by his love is lifting us higher, than we’ve ever been lifted before. Yes, love lifted me, when nothing else could help, Love lifted me.

Photo Credit: Hickory Hardscrabble via Creative Commons

Here’s a modernized version:

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Happiness is an inside job – As seen in Scripture.

In the first reading for Tuesday’s daily mass there is a remarkable description of an event in the life of Paul and Silas. And, even more remarkable than the event itself is their reaction to it. Let’s pick up the story as told in Acts:

The crowd in Philippi joined in the attack on Paul and Silas, and the magistrates had them stripped and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After inflicting many blows on them, they threw them into prison and instructed the jailer to guard them securely. When he received these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and secured their feet to a stake. (Acts 16:22-25)

It is so easy for us to read passages like this and miss the severity of what happened. The two are beaten with rods. Such beatings might vary in some degree, but the overall severity of the passage (e.g. having them cast into the deepest part of the prison and the jailer later having to bathe their wounds) leads to a reasonable conclusion that the beating was also severe. Such beatings lead to deep bruises and contusions, both external and internal bleeding, and often included broken ribs and possible trauma to the kidneys and other internal organs.

After this severe beating, and likely bloody and in severe pain they are ordered bound by leg shackles and cast in the deepest and darkest part of the prison. In this inner part was deep darkness, rats, snakes, mice, vermin. There was likely also dank water, along with urine and feces.

No matter how we look at it, the external dimensions of both the prison and their pain are grave. It would be enough to have the average person in despair, self pity and perhaps, even a semi-conscious state.

Yet what do we find?

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. (Acts 16:26)

Yes! despite an awful beating, severe pain, and terrible conditions, they are singing and praising God. It is loud enough that the other prisoners in other parts of the prison hear them.

And here is a remarkable teaching: happiness is an inside job. Paul and Silas, despite every outside discomfort, and the worst physical pain of bleeding contusions and broken or bruised ribs, have a joy that cannot be taken away. They have a connection to God that cannot be severed.

It is too often the case today that we strive to root our happiness in external matters such as money, esteem, creature comforts and the like. And yet, it remains true that many who have these things in abundance are still unhappy, and, also, that many who lack these things in abundance are happy.

There is something deeper about happiness than mere comfort, riches or externalities. I remember some years ago talking with the personnel director of the diocese about an impending transfer. I told him of my fear that they might send me somewhere where I would not be happy. He told me, “Charles, you have been in four assignments now and have been happy at every one. The fact is, you’re going to be happy wherever you go, because that’s the way you are. Happiness is an inside job.”

I have come to discover he was right, and I’ve never been unhappy wherever they sent me. There’s a joy I have that the world didn’t give to me and the world cannot take away.

Sure, there are moments of sorrow and tension in every life. But deeper down there is a stable serenity that the Lord has given me for which I am exceptionally grateful. And I have come to discover that deep inner place of peace, of joy, and contentment, and I have further discovered it is largely unaffected by external realities.

There is a Greek word: μακάριοι (makarioi) which describes a kind of stable happiness or blessed state. The pagan Greeks used the verb to refer to the happiness of the gods, unaffected by worldly matters. Jesus takes up this verb in the beatitudes: Blessed (μακάριοι – happy) are the poor in spirit, the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. In other words, “Stably blessed and happy are those who have their treasure in heaven, rather than this passing and unstable world.”

Here then is a gift to be sought: the gift of an inner and stable happiness, the gift to be like Paul and Silas, to bless the Lord at all times, what ever the circumstances. This of course is the “normal Christian life.” As Scripture says,

I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. (Psalm 34:1)

And Paul himself says,

Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Cor 4:16-18).

And again he said, Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! (Phil 4:4).

Yes the normal Christian life is to be one of joy, a joy largely unaffected by external events, and accessible even in moments of sorrow where a consolation, difficult to describe is always at work.

Two final things to note of this passage about Paul and Silas, is how their joy and confident disposition affect others. There is an old saying “When I get better, others get better too.” In other words, we have important effects on others around us.

The first thing is to note its liberating power. For the text says, there was suddenly such a severe earthquake
that the foundations of the jail shook; all the doors flew open, and the chains of all were pulled loose (Acts 16:27). It is the role of the Christian to exude a joy and a confidence that liberates others from the prison cells of despair, sin and depression. Do people see you as a person of hope? Does your joy liberate and give confidence?

Secondly note the love that is manifest by Paul and Silas, and how that love moves the jailer to repentance and conversion. The text tells us: When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, thinking that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted out in a loud voice, Do no harm to yourself; we are all here. Now consider that the jailer may well have been one of the men who beat them with rods. And, at a human level, the average person might rejoice to see the jailer try and kill himself. But Paul, not wanting him to lose his life, calls out and, even at possibly being re-imprisoned, seeks to save him. So moved is the jailer by this love and faith, that he seeks immediate conversion. How has your love and reverence for life won the hearts of others?

Yes, happiness is an inside job. Here is a gift to be sought from God: an inner transformation and peace that is stable and largely unaffected by external things. What a gift this is to us, and to others around us. For, when I get better, others get better too.

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On the Paradox of Love and Law – A Reflection on the Gospel for the 6th Sunday of Easter

In the gospel today Jesus cuts right across the modern Western tendency to oppose Love and Law, Law and Joy. Though we oppose them, Jesus joins all three concepts and summons us to a new attitude. Lets take a look.

I. Connections – Jesus says, As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father”s commandments and remain in his love.” “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete.

Note here how the Lord joins three concepts: Love, Law and Joy. This precisely the opposite of what western culture does. The best that Western culture will admit of Law is that it is a necessary evil. While this is the best assessment of it, the more routine assessment is that law is somehow an unloving imposition by the powerful upon the unpowerful, by the hierarchy on the laity, by the (evil, unloving, oppressive, Pharisaical, etc.) Church on decent people.

But whereas the modern world severs law and love, Jesus links them. How do we both experience and show love? Jesus says, we do so by the keeping of the commandments. Jesus sets forth a vision whereby we, having experienced God’s love, desire and rejoice in his commands. We also show love to the Lord, by this very obedience and joyful adherence to his commands. And this loving obedience goes even further by setting forth an abundant joy, by the very keeping of those commands.

Again, this goes completely contrary to modern notions that sever joy from law and oppose them, and that describe God’s love abstractly, and separate from his love. The loving God is somehow “nice” and makes no demands, sets no limits. The “loving” God, according to the world, has few or no rules, he affirms, encourages, accepts, and includes.  Or this is the thinking.

But the real Jesus is far more complex. He is surely loving, especially of sinners, he encourages, includes the outcast, and so forth. Be he also speaks of sin and rebukes it. He embraces the sinner, but says, “sin no more.” He lays forth a demanding moral vision, even as he shows mercy. In this Gospel, Jesus joins love and law, and says the law brings joy. They are not opposed, they are not either/or, they are both/and.

Yet the modern world insists that love and law are at opposite poles. Consider the remarks of President Obama on Wednesday, describing his reasons for embracing so called gay “marriage.”

…In the end the values that I care most deeply about and she [Michele] cares most deeply about is how we treat other people and, you know, I, you know, we are both practicing Christians and obviously this position may be considered to put us at odds with the views of others but, you know, when we think about our faith, the thing at root that we think about is, not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf, but it’s also the Golden Rule, you know, treat others the way you would want to be treated. And I think that’s what we try to impart to our kids and that’s what motivates me….

To be fair to the President, his remarks are a bit difficult to interpret absolutely, he is speaking off the cuff rather than reading prepared remarks. But that said, he (wrongly) affirms Gay “marriage” by, in essence, evoking just the flawed polarity we have been critiquing. It would seem he is saying that, “Jesus was a pleasant sort of fellow, who loved every one, and all these rules (about sexuality and other things) cannot possibly have come from him. He was an affirmer, an inclusive Messiah who befriended the outcast etc, et al… All he really cared about is that we treat each other nicely, and just as we would never want to be upset, we should not upset or offend anyone by what we say or do.

Now, all these things have some truth. But the fact remains that Jesus was a lot more complex and diverse than just the affirmer in chief who went about saying pleasant things. In fact he often held many very contrary things in tension and balance.

Consider the following portrait from Ross Douthat in his recent book:

Christianity is a paradoxical religion because the Jew of Nazareth is a paradoxical character. No figure in history or fiction contains as many multitudes as the New Testament’s Jesus. He’s a celibate ascetic who enjoys dining with publicans and changing water into wine at weddings. He’s an apocalyptic prophet one moment, a [careful and] wise ethicist the next….He promises to set [spouses and one another and] parents against children,  and then disallows divorce; he consorts with prostitutes while denouncing even lustful thoughts….He can be egalitarian and hierarchical, gentle and impatient, extraordinarily charitable and extraordinarily judgmental. He sets impossible standards and then forgives the worst of sinners. He blesses the peacemakers and then promises that he’s brought not peace but the sword. He’s superhuman one moment; the next he’s weeping….

Douthat goes on to conclude:

The boast of Christian orthodoxy, as codified by the councils of the early Church and expounded in the Creeds, has always been its fidelity to the whole of Jesus…..[Where heresy says which one] Both, says orthodoxy….The goal of the great heresies, on the other hand, has often been to extract from the tensions of the gospel narratives a more consistent, streamlined, and noncontradictory Jesus. [1].

Again note, in this Gospel, how Jesus joins Love, law and joy. This is paradoxical in modern terms, but true in gospel terms. For the president to merely appeal to “love” and the “golden rule” is to appeal to Jesus in an incomplete and “choosey” way.

The fact is, the real Jesus, and the apostles whom he inspired to write the Gospels AND the epistles, opposes Homosexual activity (Rom 1:18ff; 1 Cor 6:6-9; 1 Tim 1:8-11; Lev 18:22; Lev 20:13; Gen 19 inter al.), as well as illicit heterosexual activity (cf Eph 5:5-7; Gal 5:16-21; Rev 21:5-8; Rev. 22:14-16; Mt. 15:19-20; 1 Cor 6:9-20; Col 3:5-6; 1 Thess 4:1-8; 1 Tim 1:8-11; Heb 13:4). He and his inspired apostles and prophets say so plainly, and these authors, apostles and prophets, do so in love.

We do not have time here to set for the whole teaching on homosexual and heterosexual sins. You can read more here: Biblical Teaching on Homosexual Activity.

The point here is to accept that Jesus, who is love, does not hesitate to teach on many moral topics and warn sinners of judgment. He both personally, and through his inspired apostles, does not fail to speak with clarity on anger, greed, malice, neglect of the poor, divorce, fornication, adultery, impure thoughts, homosexual acts, lack of faith, revenge, dishonesty, the sin of human respect, false and worldly priorities, and the list could go on.

It is simply false to say as the President implies and others say that  Jesus is love, and the Golden rule of “be nice” is all that is required. Jesus’ love is more encompassing than moral abstractions and generalities. Such diminished notions of Jesus and the Gospel exist on the right as well in concepts such as the prosperity gospel, and often unquestioning notions of going quickly to war etc.

Not only does Jesus link love to the keeping of the commandments in this text he also says the keeping of the commandments leads to joy.

Of this, I am a witness. God’s law gives joy to my heart. Regarding sexuality, as a priest, I live as a celibate, like Jesus, and my life is very fulfilling. I have been faithful to my celibate commitment without fail as a priest. I have not strayed from proper boundaries, I do not look at pornography, I am not in any way sexually active with women or anyone. In all this I am not repressed, I am not sad or lonely. My life is joyful, I am fulfilled and see my celibacy as a gift. To those who cannot marry, whether because they are homosexual, or young, or have not met the right person, I say God can and still does bless you. Living celibately is fulfilling, and joyful for those who are temporarily and/or permanently called to it.

The Church cannot and will not affirm either Gay “marriage”, homosexual acts or illicit heterosexual acts. In so doing we are not any more unloving, repressed, or sad than Jesus (who is none of these things). Neither can we affirm any other acts or attitudes that the Bible calls sinful. These things are all said and taught in love, and they bring joy to those who will accept them.

The Lord is no liar, and he promises that love, his commandments, and joy are all interrelated. I am a witness that this is true. Thus, note the connection between love, law and joy.

II. The Core – The Lord says, This is my commandment, Love one another as I have loved you. While it is true that the Church, and all of us as individuals, must speak the truth, we must speak it in love. We are not out to win an argument, to overpower, or to merely criticize. We are out to love. It is not helpful, and quite likely harmful, to correct people we do not first love.

Hence the Lord’s command to love one another is at the core of any preaching or teaching task. There are many today who declare that they do not experience love from the Church, only “denunciations.” It is a hard thing for the Church to convey to a large number, to a nation, or to a culture, our love. But to the degree we have failed to convey it, or even have failed to have that love we must repent, and strive ever more to both have love, and express it.

That said, the mere fact that we announce God’s law and summon others to it does not make us unloving. There is no doubt that some will take offense, no matter what we say or how we say it. But the anger or hurt of others does not always mean we have done or said something wrong. Jesus, who was sinless, offended many and was a sign of contradiction, then, even as he is now.

But for the Church we must never fail to ask for a deepening love, even for those who hate us, misunderstand us and misrepresent us. The core of Jesus’ teach is “Love one another.”

Jesus goes so far as to say that we must be willing to endure martyrdom in order to lovingly speak the truth to others. He says, No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Are you and I willing to endure hatred, being spit upon, laughed at, being called hateful, bigoted and homophobic, backward, repressed, intolerant and so forth, so that others can hear the truth? Jesus was willing, because he had the kind of love to stay in the conversation, even when many (not all) hated him. What are you willing to bear to proclaim the truth in love?

III. Camaraderie – Jesus also links knowledge of his law to friendship. He says, You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.

Note too another connection Jesus makes that the modern world rarely does. The world thinks of rules and laws and commandments in terms of slavery and subservience. But Jesus links these to friendship. A friend knows what his friend is about, and gladly seeks to understand and support him. Scripture says, Happy are we. O Israel, for what pleases God is known to us (Baruch 4:4)

Yes, true friendship seeks to know and understand the friend and to accomplish what is important to ones friend. Many today call themselves the friend of Jesus, but they give him little more than lip service. A true friend of Jesus is delighted to know his will and accomplish it.

IV. Call – Jesus says, It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.” And thus, in the final lines, we are reminded that the Lord who has chosen us can and will equip us to live his law, to bear fruit in the keeping of the commandments, to be someone the Father can trust with blessings.

To be rebellious and resentful is to be untrustworthy of further blessings. But here again the Lord stresses, the keeping of the commandments is linked to love, and to further blessings.

The commandments bring joy, they are rooted in love and bring blessings. Do you believe this? or will you accept the worldly thinking that opposes love and law, law and joy, law and friendship? The choice is yours, but as for me, I am already a witness that the law is love, it is joy, it is friendship. Yes, I am a witness. How about you?

This song rejoices in the Light of Jesus, the clear Sun (Son) of Righteousness who shows the way to the way to the Father:

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If You Ever Leave Me, I’m Going With You. A Reflection on the Gospel for the 5th Sunday of Easter

In this Easter Season we continue to reflect on how the risen Lord Jesus minsters to us and supplies our needs. Last week we considered him as our Shepherd. This week we learn of how he is the Vine, and we are branches on the Vine, wholly dependent on remaining with him for everything.

The Lord presents us with five basic principles that emerge from our relationship to him as the vine. Lets look at them each in turn.

I. Purpose – The text says, I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit – The purpose of a vine is to bear fruit. And what are the fruits that the Father seeks? Surely Justice, righteousness and holiness are chief among them. The Letter to the Galatians speaks of them in this way: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5:23). Surely we can add virtues and fruits such as generosity, chastity, mercy and forgiveness, zeal for God and His kingdom and so forth. These are among the fruits God seeks and which are the purpose of the Vine, his Son Jesus, who he sent to nourish us so that these fruits would come to pass.

And yet, there are some branches, that though they take nourishment from the vine, do not bear fruit. And not only do they fail to bear fruit, but they often harm the vine by drawing away strength from the fruit-bearing branches.

I know little of grapes, but for many years, I have grown tomatoes and, as the plant grows, I have learned to identify small shoots that emerge base of the vine branches. These are usually called “suckers” since they draw away strength from the main branch where the tomatoes are growing. These suckers are to be plucked for the health and vigor of the plant and the best development of the fruit.

And thus God will often do the same. In our modern age, with our stress on individualism, hearing that God cuts off unfruitful branches strikes us as unmerciful and harsh. But God has in mind not just the individual, but the strength and fruitfulness of the whole vine. Failing to bear the fruit spoken of above, does not just affect the individual, it affects the whole vine. So God, as a loving vine dresser, cuts away the harmful branches. Your life is not just about you. My life is not just about me. We exist in a complex set of relationships wherein God has to have the care of all in mind.

Since the purpose of the vine is to bear fruit, God tends the vine with that in mind.

II. Pruning – The text says, and every [branch] that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.

Most of us who have cared for roses know how important pruning is. Without this careful and necessary cutting, the rose bush grows long and gnarly. The rose bush expends its strength more on the branches, than the flowers. Little by little the flowers become smaller and less beautiful, the leaves too loose their beauty, shape and color and become smaller and more light green. Eventually the rose bush looks little better than a weed.

Now, I suppose if a rose bush could talk it would protest and cry in pain every November, as I descend upon it and cut back its growth to one foot above the ground. But here in May the gorgeous roses in the front yard are a masterpiece, and all the pain of November is forgotten.

But pain and pruning are part of the Christian journey and God knows what he is doing. We often do not, and like the roses in November which cry out in pain and protest, we too look for answers. And yet, no more than I can explain to roses my purpose (they are only rose bushes after all), can God explain to us what he is about (we are but mere mortals with minds too small to see the whole picture).

But just the same, our November pruning gives way to May glory and God the vine dresser knows what he is doing.

Note too that the Lord says his Word “prunes” us. For if we let the Word enter us uncompromised and unabridged we read: For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Heb 4:12). Yes God’s word can humble our pride, cut to the quick our distorted and wrongful thinking, and hold us accountable. It can cut away error and debreed the decayed wounds of sin.

But we must allow the Word of God to be what it is. Too many of us seek a filtered and watered down version of God’s Word. No! Let the undiluted Word go to work of which Scripture itself says: Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? (Jer 23:29).

A pruned vine bears abundant fruit. None of us like pruning, but nothing is more necessary.

III. Persistence – The Text says: Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.

In this short Gospel, the word “remain” occurs seven times. Do you get the point? Remain! The Greek word is μείνατε (meinate) is the plural imperative of the verb meno, meaning, more richly, “to abide.” To abide means to habitually remain or stay somewhere. It speaks of a stability and a persistence.

It is  a clear fact that a branch must always and without fail, stay attached to the vine or it is doomed. Absolutely nothing is possible to a branch (except to wither and die) unless it is 24/7/365 attached to the vine. Nothing could be clearer in this analogy that this truth.

And yet, it seems very unclear to the average disciple of Jesus who so easily walks away, and finds abiding both tedious and difficult. And then we puzzle as to why our spiritual life is tepid, and its fruits lackluster. We can’t have a mediocre spiritual life apart form Christ, the text says we can’t do anything at all but be scattered.

How do we abide with and in the Lord. Scripture distinguishes four ways. We abide and experience union with the Lord through:

  1. HIS WORD – If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. (Jn 15:7)  And again: Anyone who loves me will be true to my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him. (Jn 14:22)
  2. HOLY COMMUNION –  He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. (Jn 6:56)
  3. PRAYER (especially communal prayer) –  For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matt 18:20).
  4. KEEPING HIS COMMANDMENTS – Those who keep his commandments abide in him and He in them. (1 John 3:22)

Yes, abiding is accomplished through prayer, scripture, Sacraments, fellowship and walking uprightly. And this Gospel could not be more clear, abide, abide, abide, abide, abide, abide, abide. Seven times the word is used.

Do you get it? Abide. Persistently abide.

IV. Protection – the text says Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned.

The text here indicates, in a negative way, the kind of protection we have in the Lord if we abide. For what happens to those who do not abide? Note that the text says they wither and that “people” will gather them and throw them into the fire.

The simple fact is that, if I don’t know who I am and whose I am, any one can name me and carry me off. Yes, with out the stability of abiding on the vine, I get all carried away by worldly things, I wither, and die spiritually and the slightest breeze can blow me about. Walk away from Jesus and you get burned.

Only by abiding on the vine and staying connected to Jesus am I protected by this stability. Only with Jesus holding me close can I withstand the winds of this world and avoid the fire that burns. Unless Christ carries me and sustains me, I am carried away by others who cast me into the fire.

Abide, remain, stay, and be protected by Christ.

V. Produce – The text says, If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

Attached to and abiding in the vine we will produce abundant fruit. Note that this is linked to a kind of fruitfulness in prayer that comes from the Father’s good pleasure.

And why is he pleased to answer our prayers if we abide? Because he can trust us with his blessings. In effect He can say, here is someone who is close to my Son, who habitually remains with Him, abides with him. Yes, here is someone I can trust with blessings, here is a wise steward who is in union with my Son. Scripture speaks often of the correlation of wise stewardship and blessings:

  1. Luke 16:10 Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?
  2. Matt 25:21 His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
  3. Luke 12:48 From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

You want more? Use well what you already have. Be someone whom the Father can trust because you stay close and abide with his Son. Be like those who can say with Mother Ruth: Where ever you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay (Ruth 1:16). And be like the man who said to his wife, “If you ever leave me, I’m going with you.”

Abide, Abide, Abide.

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An Image of the Church From the Book of Ruth

Recently I preached a retreat for a good number of women here in our Archdiocese, and I based the the retreat on the Book of Ruth, a beautiful love story that is a kind of allegory for Christ and the Church. More specifically it is also an allegory of the individual’s salvation by Christ and relationship to Him.

The remote background to the text I want to share here is too lengthy to detail here. But a few points will help. The story features three main Characters: Boaz, Ruth and Naomi. Boaz is clearly a picture (or “type”) of Christ. He is Born, and lives in Bethlehem, and he acts, ultimately, as Ruth’s “kinsman-redeemer” by rescuing her from her poverty and paying the price to cancel her debt. This of course is just what Christ, born in Bethlehem, does for us: redeeming us by his blood and canceling our poverty and debt. And Ruth is a picture of the individual soul in need of Christ’s redemption and mercy. Naomi serves several roles in the book, but in the passage we will consider here, she is a picture of the Church, as she advises Ruth in what to do, and draws her to Boaz (Christ), her redeemer.

Consider the following text and then let us she how Naomi pictures the Church.

Naomi said to Ruth, Is not Boaz…a kinsman of ours? Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. Wash and perfume yourself, and put on your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.” “I will do whatever you say,” Ruth answered. (Ruth 3:2-5)

The advice that Naomi gives is quite in line with the instruction that our Mother the Church gives us. For in our poverty, and under the debt of our sin, the Church exhorts us to seek our “Boaz” who is Christ. Observe the advice given by Naomi and consider how it sounds so like our Mother the Church. Namoi advises:

1. Be Firmly Convinced – Naomi says, Is not Boaz…a kinsman of ours? Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. Ruth knows her poverty, her pain and her debt. Naomi does too, and she exhorts Ruth to seek for Boaz, for he is near, and can help. Boaz is wealthy and thus has the power to save her, to draw her out of her overwhelming poverty. He has the capacity, unlike any other to cancel Ruth’s whole debt. She is to seek him at the threshing floor where he is preparing and providing the bread that will sustain her. She must go, firmly convinced that Boaz will love her and save her.

And so too does the Church exhort us: Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near (Is. 55:6). Yes, there is one among us, a near kinsman, who is not ashamed to call us his brethren (Heb 2:11). His name is Jesus and he, as God, has the power to save and cancel our whole debt. Cast your cares on him, for he cares for you (1 Peter 5:7). He is at the threshing floor of his Church preparing a banquet for you in the sight of your foe (Psalm 23:5). And the grain he is winnowing is the Eucharistic Bread of his own flesh. Yes, says the Church, Come to Jesus, firmly convinced of his love and power to save.

2. Be Freshly Cleansed – Namoi says next and simply, “Wash.” In other words, the first step in finding help from Boaz is to be washed, to be freshly cleansed.

So too does the Church draw us to Christ with the exhortation, “Wash,” that is, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). Yes the love of God will be poured forth on us, and the cancellation of our debt will take place as we are washed from our sins.

Here are some other texts wherein the Church, our Naomi, our Mother exhorts us to be Washed:

  1. James 4:8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
  2. 2 Cor 7:1 Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
  3. Is 1:15  Wash and make yourselves clean.
  4. Is 52:11 Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the vessels of the LORD.
  5. Acts 22:16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.
  6. Heb 10:22 Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.


3. Be Fragrantly Consecrated – Namoi says to Ruth “and perfume yourself” In other words: Be nice to be near. Come with an aroma that is sweet and pure.

So too does the Church, our Naomi,  exhort us to to be fragrantly consecrated. The fragrance we are called to is that of a holy life, which we receive in baptism. Like a sweet incense, or perfume, should our life in God be. Consider some of the following texts the Church gives us:

  1. Eph 5:2 – Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God
  2. 2 Cor 2:15 For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.
  3. Song 4:12 [The Groom (Christ) speaks to his beloved]: You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain. Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits, with henna and nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree, with myrrh and aloes and all the finest spices.
  4. Ex 30: 7 Aaron must burn fragrant incense on the altar every morning when he tends the lamps.

4. Be Fitly Clothed – Naomi says to Ruth –  and put on your best clothes.

Here too does our mother the Church advise us to be fitly clothed. And for a Christian, to be fitly clothed is to be adorned in the righteousness that comes to us in Christ, by Baptism. In the Baptismal liturgy the Church says to the newly baptized of the white garment they wear: You have become a new creation and have clothed yourself in Christ. Receive this baptismal garment, and bring it unstained to the Judgment seat of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you may have everlasting life.

In other words, be fitly clothed, wear well the garment of righteousness that Christ died to give you. Scripture too speaks of the garment in which we are to be fitly clothed:

  1. Is 61:10 I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
  2. Rev 19:7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure”– for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

5. Be Fully Committed – Naomi says,  Then go down to the threshing floor, ….until he has finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down.

In other words, Ruth place yourself at the feet of your redeemer. This action of Ruth was a way of saying to Boaz, I put myself under your protection. I am fully committed to you.

And so too the Church bids us to do the same, that we go to the threshing floor, to that place where the threshed and winnowed bread becomes the Eucharist.

Beneath, or near, every Catholic altar is the Cross. And on that Cross are the uncovered feet of Jesus Christ.

The most sacred place on earth is at the feet of Jesus Christ. And to that place, to that altar, beneath the uncovered feet of Christ, the Church, our Naomi, bids us gather each Sunday. The Church says just what Naomi said, “Place yourself at the feet of your Redeemer.”

6. Be faithfully Compliant – Naomi says to Ruth, confidently and succinctly: He will tell you what to do.

And here too the voice of the Church echoes what Mother Mary also said long ago regrading her Son: Do whatever he tells you (Jn 2:5). How can our Naomi, the Church, say anything less or anything else? The Church has one message: Do whatever Christ, your redeemer tells you.

So Naomi is a picture of the Church, Boaz a picture of Christ, and Ruth a picture of the soul in need of salvation.

How does the Story end? Well I am tempted to to tell you to read it for yourself. But since Boaz is a picture of Christ, you already knows how it ends. Ruth, firmly convinced and having been freshly cleansed, fragrantly consecrated, and fitly clothed, fully commits herself to Boaz and is at his feet. Boaz who saw and loved Ruth before she ever saw or loved him (cf Ruth 2:5), arises and takes her as his bride, paying off all her debt, and giving her a new life. Sound familiar? It is the story of salvation if we have eyes to see it.

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If the Lord is our Shepherd, I guess that makes us sheep. A brief meditation on what it means to be the Sheep of the Lord

Yesterday was Good Shepherd Sunday and a chance to meditate on the King of Love, Jesus who is our Shepherd and Lord. But of course there is the clear implication that we then, are compared to sheep.

What is the significance of this? In this meditation I do not propose a deep theological answer to the question of significance, just a pastoral one. A reflection that is, for us both humbling and, I pray, encouraging.

Lets begin with the thought that it’s not all that complimentary that the Lord calls us sheep. Consider that He could have said: we are strong and swift as horses, beautiful as gazelles, or brave as lions! But, instead he said we are like sheep.

No come on reader, get a little indignant with me here! 🙂 The Lord is comparing us, not to the swift eagle, the mighty bear, or the clever and intelligent dog. No, he looks at us as says we’re like sheep. Hmm… While reality may hurt, the truth can liberate. So let us consider four qualities about sheep that may help illustrate, at a pastoral level (pardon the pun) what the Lord is teaching.

1. Sheep are WAYWARD – It means that they just tend to wander off. It just grazes awhile then looks up, and looks around and says, in effect, “Where am I?” A sheep will nibble here and browse there and get lost lost, he doesn’t know how to get back to the sheep fold unless the shepherd goes and brings him back. Sheep just keep on going and don’t come back. Dogs and cats can find their way home, The horse can find the barn, But not the old sheep. It doesn’t know how to get back to the sheep fold unless the shepherd goes and brings him back.

Now don’t tell me that doesn’t describe us. All we like Sheep have gone astray, every one to his own way (Isaiah 53:6). This is how it is with us. We get easily lost. We need the sheep fold of the Church and we need the Shepherd, who is Christ, ministering through his Pope, bishops and priests. Otherwise we just wander here and there.

2. Sheep are WITLESS – That is to say they just plain dumb. Ever hear of a trained sheep? We train dogs and birds, horses and even lions. But the sheep cannot be trained! Now we human sheep like to think we are so smart. Sure we’ve been to the moon and we have all this technical computer stuff. But too many of us aren’t even smart enough to pray every day, get to Church on Sunday, and follow God’s basic directions for life. We’re so witless that we even do things that KNOW harm us. Even the simplest directions from God we either confuse or get stubborn about. We cop an attitude and say “We know a few things too.” That’s right, we do know a very few things. We’re so dumb, we think we’re smarter than God! We think we have a better way than God’s way. No that’s really dumb.

3. Sheep are WEAK– A sheep just has no way to protect himself. The mule can kick, the cat can scratch, the dog can bite, the rabbit can run, and the skunk…you know what he can do. But the old sheep? Without the care of the Shepherd and the sheep dogs, the sheep is history. The wolf comes and all he can do is stand there and get killed.

And so it is with us, if it were not for the care of Jesus the Good Shepherd,  the world, the flesh and the devil have got us cornered. And if it were not for the Lord, and the power of his grace, we would be toast.

We like to think we’re strong. We have armies, we amass political power, monetary power, star-power. It all gives us the illusion that we are strong. But then the slightest temptation arises and we fall. We need the Lord and his grace and mercy or we don’t stand a chance because by our self we are weak and prone to sin.

AND YET…

4. Sheep are WORTHWHILE animals. The sheep is a valued animal. In Jesus’ day many a man counted his wealth by sheep. Sheep give meat and milk, produce lambs and wool. Shepherds made many sacrifices in Jesus’ day to breed, herd, and protect these valuable animals. And so it is with us. We may not feel worthy at times, but apparently we were worth saving because the Lord paid the price of our redemption. He saw the price, and paid it all. And not with any diminishable sum of silver and gold but with his own precious blood (1 Peter 1:18-19).

5. Sheep WALK together – Sheep flock together, and thus are safer. To be a solitary sheep is dangerous. It’s a good way to get devoured. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). The scriptures also say Woe to the solitary man! For if he should fall, he has no one to lift him up (Eccles 4:10). Sheep are not supposed to go off on their own, neither are we.

We are called to part of a flock and to be under the care of a shepherd. Most of us realize this in a parish setting. But in the wider sense, we are under a bishop’s care and ultimately the care of the Pope who is the chief Shepherd and the Vicar of Christ, the Good Shepherd.

The Lord Jesus said there is to be one flock and one shepherd (John 10:16). God wants us to be in the protection of the flock with a shepherd watching over us. An old spiritual says, “Walk together children. Don’t you get weary. There’s a great camp meeting in the promised land.” Now too many like to say, “That old Pope doesn’t know this or that.” But again please consider that to wander from the care of the flock and the Shepherd is a mighty dangerous thing.

6. Sheep are WARY– Jesus says, He who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens; the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. (John 10:11-14). Sheep have the remarkable quality of knowing their master’s voice and of instinctively fearing any other voice and fleeing from it.

In this matter real sheep are smarter than most of us. For we do not flee voices contrary to Christ. Instead we draw close and say, “Tell me more.” In fact, we spend a lot of time and money to listen to other voices. We spend huge amounts of money to buy televisions so that the enemy’s voice can influence us and our children. We spend large amounts of time with TV, radio, Internet.

Yes, we can so easily be drawn to the enemy’s voice. And not only do we NOT flee it, but we feast on it. And instead of rebuking it, we turn and rebuke the voice of God and put his Word on trial, instead of putting the world on trial.

The goal for us is to be more wary, like sheep and to recognize only one voice, that of the Lord speaking though his Church, and to flee every other voice.

Just a few thoughts on being compared to sheep. Humbling? Yes! But true, and therefore, liberating and instructive.

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The King of Love My Shepherd Is: A Meditation on the Gospel for Good Shepherd Sunday

On this fourth Sunday of Easter we turn a corner of sorts. Up till now we have been reading of the resurrection appearances themselves. Today we begin to see how the risen Lord ministers to us as the Good Shepherd. In effect, the Lord gives us four basic pictures or teachings of how, as the King of Love he shepherds us. Here than are four portraits of his love:

I. Passionate love – In the text Jesus says, I am the Good Shepherd, a good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Purely gratuitous love is a hard thing to come by in human relationships. In one sense we are too needy to be able to give it purely. In another sense our motives tend to be a mixture of self love and love of the other. This is our human condition that few of us rise above in a consistent way.

But Jesus loves us purely, gratuitously, and for our own sake. His love is passionate in the sense that it is sacrificial.  He lays down his life for us. And he does this while we are still sinners and often alienated from him. He dies for us though we cursed, mocked and ridiculed him.  He loves us and lays down his life us, though he gets nothing out of it.

The hired shepherds on the other hand work for pay, and seek above all else their own good. When there is danger to the sheep, they will not risk themselves to rescue the sheep. Theirs is a service based on pay, and is subordinated to their own needs and safety.

Only one Shepherd died for you – In this world there are many people, politicians, music and movie stars, political parties and organizations that seek our loyalty, our votes, our membership and our dues. They also make us promises in return, even as they want to influence us and exercise leadership over us . None of this is necessarily wrong. People form relationships and seek leaders for any number of reasons. But note this important difference: none of these leaders or “shepherds” ever died for you. Only Jesus died for you.

For there remains this problem, that many Christians give greater loyalty to their political  leaders, to musicians, to movies stars and the like, than to Jesus Christ. Too many tuck their faith under their politics, and give greater credence to what popular figures say, than to what Jesus says in his Word and through his Church.

Only Jesus died for you. Human beings and hirelings too easily bring their own needs and agendas. Only Jesus Christ loves you perfectly, only he died for you. Only he is deserving of the role of Chief Shepherd of your life.

II. Personal love – Jesus says, I know my sheep and mine know me. No one knows you like Jesus Christ, As God he knew you before he ever formed you in your mother’s womb (cf Jer 1:4). He has always thought about you, he created you, knit you together in your mother’s womb, and every one of your days was written in his book before one of them ever came to be (cf Ps 139).

Never been Unloved – No matter what you think you may have done to cancel his love, he knew you would do it before he ever made you. And still he made you. Do not doubt his love for you, or that he knows you better than you know your very self.

And old hymn says,

Perverse and foolish oft I strayed,
But yet in love He sought me,
And on His shoulder gently laid,
And home, rejoicing, brought me.

He also says his sheep know him. And that is both our invitation and our call. We often like to quote the 23rd Psalm “The Lord is my Shepherd” But this is not a slogan, or merely a psalm of consolation. It is a psalm of confession that I am one of the Lord’s sheep. But the Lord says “My sheep know me.” He does not say we merely know about him.

Do you know him? To be in the Lord’s flock is to be in a life changing, transformative relationship with the Lord. To know the Lord is to be seeing our life changed by that very relationship.

III. Persistent love – The Lord says, I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold, These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd. Jesus is not content merely to shepherd a few thousand Jewish disciples in the Holy Land. He wanted his love to spread to the whole world. He wants to embrace, and hold close, every one he has ever made. He wants to call every human person into a saving relationship.

Part of our journey as disciples, as sheep of the Lord is to experience  the call to evangelize. But that call will only take flight when the love of Christ for everyone fills our heart.

Christ has a persistent love to embrace and hold close to him everyone. Do you sense that love? He wants to draw others to him, through you.

IV. Powerful love – Jesus says, I lay down my life, in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, I lay it down on my own. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again.

We see how Jesus does this for himself. But as Lord and Shepherd of our life he does it for us too. Our old self was crucified and died with him. We have also risen with him to new life. And this life is the totally new and transformed life that Christ died to give us.

He has the power to crucify our old and sinful self, and the power to raise it up again. And it is not merely our old self that rises, it is a new, and transformed humanity that the Lord takes up on our behalf. He has the power to do this, for his love powerful.

I am a witness of this, and I pray you are as well: he has the power!

Thus, as King of Love, Jesus, the Risen Lord shepherds us with a love that is passionate, personal, persistent, and powerful. No one loves you more than Jesus with his Father and the Holy Spirit. He is the King of Love and He is your Shepherd. The final line of the beautiful Hymn The King of Love My Shepherd is says,

And so through all the length of days
Thy goodness faileth never;
Good Shepherd, may I sing Thy praise
Within Thy house forever.

Here then. is that hymn, one of my favorite hymns: The King of Love my Shepherd Is. It’s peaceful strains amount to a king of musical onomatopoeia (a word, or in this case a song, that sounds like what it describes).

Here is an another magnificent musical onomatopoeia:

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Just What the Doctor Reordered – A Reflection on the Gospel for the 3rd Sunday of Easter

In the gospel for today’s Mass we see how the Lord Jesus encounters frightened and discouraged men and, in effect reorders their lives. As we shall see he does through what is essentially a liturgical experience with all the basic elements of the Mass. I wrote last week (HERE) about the way the Lord uses the Liturgy to reorient and reorder our lives. Today’s Gospel is another example.

Let’s look at this reordering which Jesus, like a Divine Physician accomplishes. It may be helpful to see it in three stages.

I. Critical Care – As the Gospel opens, we see ten frightened apostles. The text describes them in various ways as terrified, troubled, doubting and questioning. In this sense we can see their lives as disordered, for they are dominated by fear, doubt, and forgetfulness. They are forgetful in the sense that the Lord had told them many times over that he would rise on the third day. They seem wholly to have forgotten this, to a man. Not one recalled, or announced the Lord’s promise. Even now, on the evening of the resurrection, even having heard multiple reports of the Lord’s rising, they still remain deeply confused, doubtful and frightened.

Into this disordered scene, the Lord will appear, and he minister to them a restore them to order. He will perform a kind of critical care for them. And this critical care has all the fundamental elements of the Mass. Consider the following aspects of the Mass that we can see.

1. They are gathered, just as we gather for Mass. It is true, they gather with many struggles and concerns. But they are gathered just as we gather with all our struggles and concerns, joys and victories.

2. The Presence of the Lord and the Greeting by him – Scripture says, Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I with them (Matt 18:20). Sure enough, into this gathering of two or more, our Lord comes, visibly present, and he gives the greeting: “Peace be with you.” So too in our midst does the Lord come, and in the person of the priest or Bishop, he greets us. While only a bishop is permitted to say, “Peace be with you,” the liturgical greeting of the Priest, “The Lord be with you” serves a similar purpose of announcing the Lord’s presence and calling us to a faith in the reality of that presence.

3. Penitential Rite – These gathered men, to whom the Lord appears, need to have their lives reordered and the Lord goes right to work. In a kind of penitential rite, he asks them: Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? In a way, this is what the Lord says to us, through the priest, at the penitential rite. For many  of us have brought troubles and sorrows with us to Mass, yes, sins and struggles. We are encouraged to lay them all before the Lord, to acknowledge our sins and struggles and ask the Lord’s mercy. Contrite and humbled before the Lord we ask his mercy and, receive reassurance as we recall the wounds he suffered for us, and the mercy he shows. Yes, the Lord showed them his wounds, he also shows us.  Lord have mercy! Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy!

4. The Liturgy of the Word – So here we are in the critical care unit, if you will, our lives disordered, and our fears evident. Having bestowed his mercy, the Lord now applies the medicine of his Word. The text says, These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.”” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said to them, ““Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

Thus the Lord not only quotes Scripture, he opened their minds to the understanding of it. He applies and interprets it for them in a kind of homily. And this too is what the Lord does for us. For whatever fears and struggles we have brought, the Word of God has answers for us, reassurance, vision and perspective.

And what is that perspective? It is the Paschal mystery of Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection. Yes, there is the cross, even death, but there is always victory if we stay with the Lord! There are crosses, but the cross wins! It ALWAYS wins!

In effect this is the meaning of every liturgy of the Word. The Lord, through his body the Church, declares his word to us, reminds us of our victory and summons us to live victorious lives, free of sin and fear. And this medicine of the Word, especially received regularly over time, works, along with the sacraments, prayer and fellowship (cf Acts 2:42) to reorder our lives.

5. The Liturgy of the Eucharist – In this case the Eucharist is very stylized, but its contours are still very clear. The Lord, in order to reassure them, says, Have you anything here to eat?”” They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of them.

While it is true that we usually think of the Eucharist in terms of bread, nevertheless, fish too was a very common sign of the Eucharist, and of Jesus, in the early Church.

When the Lord fed the multitudes in a kind of precursor of the Eucharist, he multiplied the loaves AND the fishes.

Perhaps for this reason, the early Church often spoke of the Lord, and also of His presence in the Eucharist, in terms of the symbol of the fish. The Greek word for fish was ΙΧΘΥΣ (Ichthus) which served also as a acronym for Jesus: Jesus Christ Son of God, Savior. In many early depictions of the Last Supper fish are seen on the table, a plate not common to the Passover meal, but placed there by Christians as a sign of the Eucharist.

Thus, Jesus eats in their presence and, in a Eucharistic manner, he eats fish.

And note how this too he does to reassure and reorder their lives away from fear and turmoil, and unto confidence and serenity. This eating is to reassure them that he is not a ghost. For eating pertains to living humans, not to angels, spirits, demons or ghosts.

Further, we read in the 23rd Psalm an important reminder of how the Eucharist is an essential and important sign of the Lords protection and our ultimate victory: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies: you anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over (Ps 23:5). Yes, the Eucharist is both the sign of our victory and an overwhelming experience of it. And through the confidence that comes from the Eucharist, and the strength of this food from on high, we are strengthened and reassured of victory against every enemy and oppression. In this way too the Lord reorders our broken and fearful lives.

6. Ite Missa est – Jesus, having reordered their lives by calming their fears and giving them new visions, says simply, Forgiveness of sins, [is to] be preached…to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

Yes, he sends them forth, having reordered their lives. It is the same for us. Drawing us into the liturgy by gathering us, drawing for our fears, cancelling them by his Word and Sacrament, the Lord now sends us forth with the same command to announce his name to all and to be witnesses of all he has done.

II. Crucial Questions – Just as a personal practice you and I might make it a fruitful thing to get in the habit of answering the questions Jesus asks. It is too easy for us merely to wait and see how the apostles or other biblical figures respond to the Lord. But in the end, it is YOU and I who must answer these questions. And what are the questions the Lord asks? They are two, simple but also questions that cut to the core:

– Why are you troubled?
– And why do questions arise in your hearts?

Answer him. Why? Why are our lives so frequently disordered by fear and doubts? What is the origin of that for you? Do you feed your negativity so that it grows? Do you lack gratitude for the gifts of the past? DO you minimize or forget what God has done for you, and what he has promised? Have you failed to recognize that God sets a table for you in the presence of your enemy the Devil? Have you forgotten his love? Has it ever really dawned on you what he has done for you?

The questions could go on. But the point is, answer the Lord. If he is going to reorder your life, these are questions which we must answer, and realities that we must allow Him to diminish for us. Fear and doubts have to go and only God can do it. And be aware of the Medicine he will use, Prayer, Scripture, fellowship, and the Eucharist (cf Acts 2:42).

III. Commissioning – In every Mass the Lord looks to reorder our lives. Has he done this for you? How? Are you a witness of these things? What testimony do you have of how the Lord has blessed you over the years as you have attended mass and experienced his healing? The Lord wants to send you forth with the message of a new and reordered life. Go tell somebody what the Lord has done for you!