Go, humble flock and reach where the brave Shepherd has gone before! Fourth Sunday of Easter 26 April 2015

Go, humble flock and reach where 

the brave Shepherd has gone before!

The Good Shepherd window at the Old Cathedral in Vincennes, Indiana. Photo by John William McMullen.

 Fourth Sunday of Easter (Year B) 2014      

 

Today’s first reading finds Saints Peter and John in big trouble for performing a good deed, indeed a miracle, in the Name of Jesus on a Sabbath.

Peter and John saw a beggar in need and in the Name above all Names, the Name of Jesus, they healed him and told him to “rise and walk”. How dare them do such a thing without consulting all the proper religious authorities – and to do such a thing on a Sabbath!

Human beings were created to observe the Sabbath, the authorities said to Jesus. But Jesus said the Sabbath was created for human beings! So Jesus knows what that rejection is like. He was forever in trouble with the religious leaders for healing on the Sabbath.

Peter and John are now in the same trouble as was Jesus the good shepherd.

What is so amazing is not so much the miracle as the hard-heartedness and narrow-mindedness of those who are angry that the crippled man can now walk!

Just like the original shepherd, the shepherds Peter and John, are in trouble for living the gospel message. The church is often criticized for its work with the poor and marginalized.

Some people often only regard the church as the pope and bishops. But we know that the church is far greater than simply the men in who called to be our shepherds.

Yes, the pope and bishops are to shepherd us, and have Jesus as the Good Shepherd as their model to follow, and we are obliged to hear their voice and follow their example.

The good shepherd is one who knows his sheep, protects them, defends them, cares for them, and is willing to lay down his life for them. This is the kind of shepherd the faithful recognize as a servant-leader.

Christ formed the Church as His Living Body on earth and the Soul of the Body of the Church is the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit urges us on to love as Christ loves! Our faith is about authentic relationship with God and with one another.

Our faith in Christ is far more than following a list of rules and knowing what NOT to do. As one of my students said of a fellow teacher: “She is really good at telling me what I cannot to do, but why doesn’t she focus on what I can do? Or let me know when I am doing well?”

We all long for authentic Christian lives as examples to follow. But when we see some Christians more concerned with outward appearances than with the gospel, more concerned about rules than about love and mercy, more concerned with law than about justice, I can see why some people have become disillusioned with the Church or religion.

If a church community ceases to be the living presence of Jesus to a weary world, then it can become an obstacle to faith in Jesus.

So when we gather as church, as the body of Christ, the church as the visible presence of Jesus in the world.

And if we are living that reality, then the Church must be like her Lord, human and vulnerable as was Jesus the Good Shepherd when he humbled himself to share in our humanity. Jesus was rejected and cast away, crucified as a common criminal. In fact he laid down his life in death so that you and I might live!

Yet today we are called to allow ourselves to be shepherded by the Good Shepherd who was rejected.

But most people in Jesus’ day would say that there was no such thing as a good shepherd. They smelled bad, many were thieves, and would run off at the first sign of a wolf or predator, leaving their sheep vulnerable to attack. In other words, they were the outcasts of all outcasts in society. 

But recall that the angels first appeared to the shepherds at Jesus’ birth, he who would be the Lamb of God, so it is an appropriate metaphor, and therefore we cannot so easily dismiss the shepherd image.

Jesus was cast off, but he insists: “I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep.”

Perhaps we think it beneath our dignity to be called sheep, yet Jesus himself humbled himself to share in our humanity and is called the Lamb of God. The last time I checked, a lamb is a sheep. And now he is the Good Shepherd. We are in good hands as His sheep.

We stand for human life. We stand for the underdog. We stand with the vulnerable. We stand for the powerless, the voiceless, the downtrodden, and, yes, we even stand with those who get themselves into terrible situations, for Jesus came to seek and to save what was lost!

There are no disposable stray sheep for the Good Shepherd and so it must be that way for the Church! If we are God's children, and we know that we shall be like him, then each of us must be prepared to shepherd souls into the pasture of God’s Kingdom.

There are no prodigal sons or daughters so far gone that we write them off as losses, there are no lost sheep that we can write off as losses for tax purposes! Christ died and rose for each and every member of the human family!

I know how easy it is to drive around town and see people who look so haggard, so ragged; their face is blemished and they are missing teeth and we say “there’s another meth-head” or “there’s trouble.”

But Christ the Good Shepherd would have us say, “There is one of my least ones. There is one of my children, created in my image and likeness! Ah, he may look like a lump of coal, but he is a diamond in the rough. It is for you to go find him, not judge him.  Go, humble flock and reach where the brave Shepherd has gone before.

Or “There is one of my lost daughters of Eve. I know she looks like a slimy oyster, but within is a pearl of great price. Go seek the pearl, and do not judge. Go, humble flock and reach where the brave Shepherd has gone before.

God our Father, we are the sheep of your pasture, the sheep you have redeemed by your Precious Blood of the Lamb, of God, the True Lamb who has taken away the sins of our world; The Lamb, once slain, who lives forever, your Son Jesus Christ, the True Shepherd of our souls!

Lead us, Lord – no, compel us, Lord – to take your message of mercy to where no one else wants to go; to go out in search of the sheep who think they have no shepherd, the sheep who have lost their way; to the sheep who are in places and situations where they can no longer hear the Shepherd’s voice, and let them know that there is a Good Shepherd who has laid down his life for them, a good shepherd who wishes for them to come home to His pasture where He can tend to them and nourish them.

Go, humble flock and reach where the brave Shepherd has gone before!

What are you willing to live for?

32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C

If you were arrested for being a Christian,

would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Deacon John William McMullen

This past summer our family went to a wedding Mass in a church where there was no air-conditioning. The church was sweltering hot – so hot that I had to remove my suit jacket. Many of the other men also removed their jackets as well. And when it came time for the gospel reading, when I went to stand up, my shirt was stuck to the hot wooden pew – as were the other men's shirts – and it was so hot that the varnish on the pews had become gooey and stuck to our shirts. Don’t get me wrong, I love Mass and I love to sing, but even I must admit that this wedding mass was a grueling experience given the extreme heat.

But then I thought what a small problem to have compared to being persecuted or suffering death for our faith!

Imagine being arrested for being a Catholic Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

When we consider all that the saints and martyrs before us sacrificed and risked to practice their faith, we must admit that ours is a comfortable Christianity. Most of us can openly go to  church any Saturday or Sunday that we want.  Yet many skip church if the Mass conflicts with a sporting event or concert. 

Those who have gone before us were willing to give everything, including their lives, for the sake of the gospel!

Why were they willing to lay down their lives for Christ?

What is it that gave them hope that their deaths would not be the end?

Imagine a world where it is illegal to be a Catholic or Christian. Imagine that it was illegal to go to Mass. Imagine it being illegal to gather for community worship.

Unfortunately, we do not have to imagine this. It is happening right now in parts of the world.

Many of our brothers and sisters in the faith have risked their lives to fulfill their Sunday obligation by attending Mass today! And it seems every weekend a different set of Catholics has been attacked and put to death in Pakistan, Egypt, Somalia, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Mauritania, Mali, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, or other parts of the world.

In North Korea Christians are tortured, imprisoned and murdered; subject to public execution. 70,000 Christians are believed to be incarcerated in various prison camps in North Korea, veritable concentration camps.

And off the coast of the Red Sea in the Eritrean Desert there is a Military Prison camp where the authorities use the metal shipping containers to hold prisoners.

100,000,000 Christians today face interrogation, arrest, torture or even murder because of their faith.

Others face public executions by hangings, firing squads, torture, beatings, whippings, beheadings, stoning to death.* (The Global War on Christians by John Allen).

It is stories like these cause each of us to question ourselves: Would I be willing to die for my faith in Jesus Christ?

Therefore while our brother and sister Christians risk their lives to worship as a community on Sunday, what is our excuse?

For some it’s too much to drive an extra five minutes to Mass

Others have to shop on the weekends.

Still others have sporting events on the weekend.

Or Sunday is their only day to sleep in.

Others are more honest. One person flat out told me:  I really don’t have time for it anymore.

On any given Sunday only about 30% of all Catholics in the U.S. will go to Mass. 

This is astonishing, especially when we look to our ancestors in the faith who were willing to suffer martyrdom – in order to give witness to their faith – and the number of Christians being persecuted and being martyred today. Ours is a faith that millions are and have been willing to die for. 

 

The religious persecution of today is similar to what the Jewish people were experiencing in today’s first reading from Second Maccabees. A family of the Jewish faithful are being tortured to death for their belief in the Lord God, but the Jews died for their faith rather than disobeying God’s Commandments.

And despite the fact that they were suffering injustice, they believed that they would rise again.

Then in today’s gospel, the Sadducees – who did not believe in the existence of the human soul or the resurrection of the dead – come to Jesus and engage him in a ridiculous argument.

The Sadducees had a “what you see is what you get” mentality; they believed that this earthly existence is all there is, all that matters.

So in a very real way, the belief in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting clashes with the belief that this life is all there is.

“You’re born, you live, then you die.” Isn’t that what many people say today?

But Jesus points to the age to come, of the resurrected life.

So what is this resurrection of the dead that we believe in, that we profess every Sunday?

I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

 

Do we really look forward to this?

Our fervent hope as Catholic Christians is that we will rise on the last day when Christ will come again.

Our Baptism unites us with the Risen Lord Jesus Christ; and so in a mysterious way we already participate in the heavenly life. Our eternal life begins at our baptism!

And at the Second Coming of Christ, our bodies will be raised in a way that goes beyond our imagination and understanding. Our resurrected bodies will be made incorrupt and they will be rejoined to our souls. All people, the good and the evil, will be raised from the dead on the last day. This will be "the hour when all who are in the tombs will hear [the voice of the Son of Man] and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment" (John 5:29).

St. John of the Cross said that before the believer is really ready to undertake the spiritual journey he or she must be “deeply struck by the shortness of life…and the need for profound repentance from sin and wholehearted surrender to God” (The Spiritual Canticle, Stanza 1;1).

The reality of death gives an urgency to our lives.

So then how should we live—especially in the face of persecution and the threat of death?

“…Our participation in the Eucharist already gives us a foretaste of Christ's transfiguration of our bodies: so our bodies, which partake of the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, but possess the hope of resurrection” (CCC 997).

 

The second century theologian Tertullian wrote: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”

What is it that gave them hope that their deaths would not be the end?

It was and is because of the hope in the Resurrection of the Dead, the resurrection of Jesus Christ; this is what gave them the courage to risk their lives, to die for their faith and this is what gives us the courage to live for Christ.

If we were to die for our friendship with Christ, would there be enough evidence to convict us?

 

Or would we abandon Him as soon as we learn that the church doesn’t have air-conditioning?

 

Go, humble flock and reach where the brave Shepherd has gone before!

Go, humble flock and reach where 

the brave Shepherd has gone before!

The Good Shepherd window at the Old Cathedral in Vincennes, Indiana. Photo by John William McMullen.

 Fourth Sunday of Easter (Year B) 2012         

 

Today’s first reading finds Saints Peter and John in big trouble for performing a good deed, indeed a miracle, in the Name of Jesus on a Sabbath.

Peter and John saw a beggar in need and in the Name above all Names, the Name of Jesus, they healed him and told him to “rise and walk”. How dare them do such a thing without consulting all the proper religious authorities – and to do such a thing on a Sabbath!

Human beings were created to observe the Sabbath, the authorities said to Jesus. But Jesus said the Sabbath was created for human beings! So Jesus knows what that rejection is like. He was forever in trouble with the religious leaders for healing on the Sabbath.

Peter and John are now in the same trouble as was Jesus the good shepherd.

What is so amazing is not so much the miracle as the hard-heartedness and narrow-mindedness of those who are angry that the crippled man can now walk!

Just like the original shepherd, the shepherds Peter and John, are in trouble for living the gospel message. The church is often criticized for its work with the poor and marginalized.

Some people often only regard the church as the pope and bishops. But we know that the church is far greater than simply the men in who called to be our shepherds.

Yes, the pope and bishops are to shepherd us, and have Jesus as the Good Shepherd as their model to follow, and we are obliged to hear their voice and follow their example.

The good shepherd is one who knows his sheep, protects them, defends them, cares for them, and is willing to lay down his life for them. This is the kind of shepherd the faithful recognize as a servant-leader.

Christ formed the Church as His Living Body on earth and the Soul of the Body of the Church is the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit urges us on to love as Christ loves! Our faith is about authentic relationship with God and with one another.

Our faith in Christ is far more than following a list of rules and knowing what NOT to do. As one of my students said of a fellow teacher: “She is really good at telling me what I cannot to do, but why doesn’t she focus on what I can do? Or let me know when I am doing well?”

We all long for authentic Christian lives as examples to follow. But when we see some Christians more concerned with outward appearances than with the gospel, more concerned about rules than about love and mercy, more concerned with law than about justice, I can see why some people have become disillusioned with the Church or religion.

If a church community ceases to be the living presence of Jesus to a weary world, then it can become an obstacle to faith in Jesus.

So when we gather as church, as the body of Christ, the church as the visible presence of Jesus in the world.

And if we are living that reality, then the Church must be like her Lord, human and vulnerable as was Jesus the Good Shepherd when he humbled himself to share in our humanity. Jesus was rejected and cast away, crucified as a common criminal. In fact he laid down his life in death so that you and I might live!

Yet today we are called to allow ourselves to be shepherded by the Good Shepherd who was rejected.

But most people in Jesus’ day would say that there was no such thing as a good shepherd. They smelled bad, many were thieves, and would run off at the first sign of a wolf or predator, leaving their sheep vulnerable to attack. In other words, they were the outcasts of all outcasts in society. 

But recall that the angels first appeared to the shepherds at Jesus’ birth, he who would be the Lamb of God, so it is an appropriate metaphor, and therefore we cannot so easily dismiss the shepherd image.

Jesus was cast off, but he insists: “I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep.”

Perhaps we think it beneath our dignity to be called sheep, yet Jesus himself humbled himself to share in our humanity and is called the Lamb of God. The last time I checked, a lamb is a sheep. And now he is the Good Shepherd. We are in good hands as His sheep.

We stand for human life. We stand for the underdog. We stand with the vulnerable. We stand for the powerless, the voiceless, the downtrodden, and, yes, we even stand with those who get themselves into terrible situations, for Jesus came to seek and to save what was lost!

There are no disposable stray sheep for the Good Shepherd and so it must be that way for the Church! If we are God's children, and we know that we shall be like him, then each of us must be prepared to shepherd souls into the pasture of God’s Kingdom.

There are no prodigal sons or daughters so far gone that we write them off as losses, there are no lost sheep that we can write off as losses for tax purposes! Christ died and rose for each and every member of the human family!

I know how easy it is to drive around town and see people who look so haggard, so ragged; their face is blemished and they are missing teeth and we say “there’s another meth-head” or “there’s trouble.”

But Christ the Good Shepherd would have us say, “There is one of my least ones. There is one of my children, created in my image and likeness! Ah, he may look like a lump of coal, but he is a diamond in the rough. It is for you to go find him, not judge him.  Go, humble flock and reach where the brave Shepherd has gone before.

Or “There is one of my lost daughters of Eve. I know she looks like a slimy oyster, but within is a pearl of great price. Go seek the pearl, and do not judge. Go, humble flock and reach where the brave Shepherd has gone before.

God our Father, we are the sheep of your pasture, the sheep you have redeemed by your Precious Blood of the Lamb, of God, the True Lamb who has taken away the sins of our world; The Lamb, once slain, who lives forever, your Son Jesus Christ, the True Shepherd of our souls!

Lead us, Lord – no, compel us, Lord – to take your message of mercy to where no one else wants to go; to go out in search of the sheep who think they have no shepherd, the sheep who have lost their way; to the sheep who are in places and situations where they can no longer hear the Shepherd’s voice, and let them know that there is a Good Shepherd who has laid down his life for them, a good shepherd who wishes for them to come home to His pasture where He can tend to them and nourish them.

Go, humble flock and reach where the brave Shepherd has gone before!

"Lord, I believe; help my unbelief"

Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!

MERCY SUNDAY

My nephew Thomas recommended a book at our family Easter celebration. His pastor Jeff Kinkaid has recommended it to his congregation. The book is called YOU LOST ME by David Kinnaman. It's all about the 18-29 age group that have jumped ship, the church, that is. Many are spiritual, believe in God, but don't see the need for community or church, others have been burned or grew up being told that one cannot and can never doubt anything or else "you’re out." Where is the love and mercy of Jesus?

This weekend we will hear of Thomas the Apostle who absented himself from church community that first Sunday after Jesus’ Resurrection. Can you imagine the joy when the disciples encountered the Risen Christ Jesus?! And perhaps the sadness that Thomas missed him! Where was Thomas? Doing his taxes?  We do not know.

Anyway, Thomas refuses to believe the other disciples when they inform him that Christ Jesus has been raised. He says he won’t believe it until he himself can experience the risen crucified one for himself.

The following Sunday as the disciples are gathered for weekly worship, Jesus again appears to the community and Thomas is present. Thomas is greeted by Jesus with "Peace". Jesus doesn't scold him for his unbelief. Christ is not afraid of human doubts. He extends peace. Again, it is an opportunity for an invitation to faith, and Thomas exclaims: “My Lord and my God.”

Jesus then says, "Peace be with you."  "As the Father has sent me, so I send you."  And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained."

Sound like we have some forgiving to do (Forgive as I have forgiven you) and then if we retain sins, then they are retained - and this affects us (just as much it does for those we do not forgive). And this being Mercy Sunday, let us pray we hearken to the Master's words: Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy (Mt 5.7).

People are most often tortured for their lack of forgiveness or willingness to forgive others their sins… often these people refuse to forgive others… even though they themselves have been forgiven or have asked forgiveness for the same kind of sins. Some (many?) experience physical ailments when they will not forgive or who hold grudges.

How many times did our Blessed Lord forgive someone who was physically crippled, paralyzed, withered, bent over, and when they were forgiven (we would hope they also then forgave any grievances) and then they got well.

(Do not confuse these with the exorcisms where a demon caused the illness, although I am sure demons enjoy it when we hold grudges or refuse to forgive, but that is a different topic).

So I imagine the early Christian community described by Luke in the Acts of the Apostles is an enormous response to the Lord's Mercy! Look at how those Christians love one another!  Real or imagined, the Church (Christianity) has an enormous PR problem. Real or imagined, the church is viewed as hypocritical, judgmental, and irrelevant by many.

Many of the 18-29 yr olds feel - real or imagined - that the Church left them behind, one said, the way church is done was "damaging my relationship with God." Another wrote "The church was not a safe place to ask questions or hospitable places to express doubts. 

Granted, we are not going to change the truth of the Gospel nor can we, but the question for us to wrestle with is how are we going to present the eternal truths of Christ and the church to a digitalized culture.

Many want to do the faith and not be hearers only, many are spiritual and experience God, but feel disconnected to the institutional church and the "talking heads" (the authors words, not mine).  Disciples cannot be produced or made like consumer goods; they are hand-made, one at a time, one relationship at a time. NOTE that Jesus singled THOMAS out and called him to himself. It is a beautiful grace-filled scene. And Jesus didn't judge him. He simply called him to experience His wounds and to believe. Thomas exclaims “My Lord and My God.”

Faith formation is so needed. So many of our people are already halfway out the door, Christmas and Easter Christians only, and I can only imagine the kids who do not attend church regularly.

The Church cannot be an insular society that turns its back on the world and dwell in the "upper room". No, Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you,” and “Go make disciples....” It is an awesome task and a great privilege! But we cannot wait.

Our culture demands seemingly "mindless conformity in exchange for belonging," (David Kinnaman, the author of YOU LOST ME), but Jesus calls for a kingdom centered community.

I'll end with Kinnaman's research: He says there are three categories of those lost: the NOMADS, they walk away from the Church, but still consider themselves to be Christian; then are the PRODIGALS who lose faith and no longer consider themselves Christian; lastly are the EXILES who are still invested in their faith, but feel stuck between the church and the culture.

So when Luke relates in the ACTS of the APOSTLES that: "The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common. With great power the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was accorded them all. There was no needy person among them...." (Acts 4:32-35), now that is a Church we can believe in! But are we willing to BE CHURCH?

Oftentimes, those who doubt are the ones who truly want to believe. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!

In Mark 9:17-29, Jesus is approached by a man whose son was possessed by a demon: "Teacher, I have brought to you my son possessed by a mute spirit. Wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive it out, but they were unable to do so.” He said to them in reply, “O faithless generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I endure you? Bring him to me.” They brought the boy to him. And when he saw him, the spirit immediately threw the boy into convulsions. As he fell to the ground, he began to roll around and foam at the mouth.

Then he questioned his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” He replied, “Since childhood. It has often thrown him into fire and into water to kill him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” Jesus said to him, “‘If you can!’ Everything is possible to one who has faith.” Then the boy’s father cried out, “I do believe, help my unbelief!”

Jesus, on seeing a crowd rapidly gathering, rebuked the unclean spirit and said to it, “Mute and deaf spirit, I command you: come out of him and never enter him again!” Shouting and throwing the boy into convulsions, it came out. He became like a corpse, which caused many to say, “He is dead!” But Jesus took him by the hand, raised him, and he stood up.

When he entered the house, his disciples asked him in private, “Why could we not drive it out?” He said to them, “This kind can only come out through prayer and fasting.”

Let us pray and fast that all those who feel lost and alienated and have wandered away from Christ's church community may find Christ's merciful presence once again in his disciples, as Jesus has called us to be His Body here on earth.

May the Church of Christ be as Christ the Good Shepherd and mercifully seek and fnd the lost sheep and restore them to the fold.

Lord Jesus, have mercy on us!