Fourth Sunday of Easter: April 22, 2018

GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY

For many Christians, the image of Jesus as shepherd is one of the most powerful, inspiring and comforting images in the Gospels. Perhaps more than any other psalm, we have been raised on the words of Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd,” and so we associate it with tenderness, attentiveness and watchful care—which it certainly is. The image has probably become so deeply ingrained in our minds and imaginations that we may not pay attention to some of the important aspects behind Jesus’ imagery.  First of all, “shepherd” was a somewhat ambivalent role in the ancient Jewish world. On one hand, there was a long line of illustrious shepherds in Israel’s history: Abraham (perhaps more a nomadic herder; Genesis 13:2 “Now Abram was very rich in livestock…”); Moses (Exodus 3:1 “Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God”); David (1 Samuel 17:34-35 “David said to Saul, ‘Your servant used to keep sheep for his father; and whenever a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb from the flock, 35 I went after it and struck it down, rescuing the lamb from its mouth’ ”; Psalm 78:70-71 “70He chose his servant David, and took him from the sheepfolds; 71 from tending the nursing ewes he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel, his inheritance”). And so shepherding was, in some ways, a very honorable occupation, with a distinguished lineage. There seem to have been some streams of Jewish spirituality which referred to God Himself as “the Shepherd of Israel” (Genesis 49:24 [Joseph’s] arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, by the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel. 

“I DON’T REALLY BELONG HERE, I AM SIMPLY STAYING HERE.”

Malcolm Muggeridge died in the fall of 1990. He was a highly intelligent man who served at various times in his life as a foreign correspondent, newspaper editor, editor of Punch magazine, and well-known television personality in Great Britain. It was as an adult, rather late in his life, that he finally became a Christian. He wrote of his dilemma as a journalist-turned-believer in his works such Jesus Rediscovered, Christ and the Media, Something Beautiful for God, and his multivolume autobiography, Chronicles of Wasted Time. The “wasted time” he wrote about were those wasted years before he knew Christ as his Savior. Muggeridge frequently spoke and wrote of “feeling like a stranger” in the world. In an interview a few years before his death, Muggeridge was asked if he would be willing to explain that feeling. His answer is worth repeating: “I’d very gladly do so, because I’ve thought about it often. In the war, when I was in North Africa, I heard some lieutenant colonel first use the phrase ‘displaced person.’ That phrase was very poignant to me, but it’s also a very good definition of a person who’s come to see that life is not about carnal things, or success, but is about eternity rather than time . . . I don’t really belong here, I’m simply staying here.” (Charles Swindoll, Maybe It’s Time to Laugh. Cited by Dicky Love in Parables, etc.) Have you made that discovery yet? There is no joy in half-hearted Faith. Many of us have just enough religion to make us miserable. But Christ wants to make our lives a miracle. Those early disciples had trouble believing, first for fear, and then for joy, but when they did believe, it turned their lives and their world upside down. The point is that Muggeridge experienced a radical change in his life after he came to the realization that Christ is real and that Christ is alive. But what he discovered much to his amazement was that his new life was so far superior to his old life that he in no way would ever turn back.

FAITH THAT CULMINATES IN SELF-SURRENDER

  We ask God for the Faith that culminates in self-surrender to Him and leads us to serve those we encounter with love.   Living Faith enables us to see the risen Lord in everyone and gives us the willingness to render to each one our loving service (“Faith without good works is dead” James 2:17).  It was this Faith in the Lord and obedience to His missionary command that prompted St. Thomas to travel to India to preach the Gospel among the Hindus, to establish seven Christian communities (known later as “St. Thomas Christians”), and eventually to suffer martyrdom.  The Fathers of the Church prescribe the following traditional means to grow in the living and dynamic Faith of St. Thomas the Apostle.  a) We must come to know Jesus personally and intimately by our daily and meditative reading of the Bible.  b) We must strengthen our Faith by the power of the Holy Spirit through our personal and communal prayer.  c) We must share in the Divine life of Jesus by frequenting the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist.  St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) presents it this way: “If we pray, we will believe; if we believe, we will love; if we love, we will serve. Only then we put our love of God into action.”