HOMILY SUNDAY EASTER 04 – A
Jesus – Shepherd and Gate
(Acts 2:14a, 36b-41; Psalm 23; 1 Peter 2:20-25; Jn 10:1-10)
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Do you have a picture of Jesus hanging on the wall in your home? If so, and most do, what image is it? Many have the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Surely some have Jesus as the Good Shepherd.
Jesus gave himself many titles while he was among his disciples and ministering to the people of his day. Today, we see him identified as Lord and Messiah, and as both Gate and Shepherd.
Our response to these titles of Jesus should be twofold: to believe in, and worship him as Lord and Messiah, and to follow him as the Gate and the Good Shepherd.
St. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, proclaims Jesus as Lord and Messiah in the first reading. He could not have chosen more appropriate titles to proclaim on that initial proclamation of the Risen Jesus. As Messiah Jesus is the anointed one sent to save us from our sins. As Lord he wants to be the centre of our lives and transform us into his own likeness. Our response is to truly believe in him with all our hearts as Lord and Messiah, worship him and allow him to forgive us, heal us and transform us.
As Gate and Shepherd, we need to study both realities at the time of Jesus. There were two types of sheep-fold in Palestine: the first, in the village, was a communal sheepfold with a strong door opened by a chief shepherd’s key; the second, in the fields, was simply a circular enclosure made of a wall of rocks with an opening at one end. The shepherds worked together at night – one watching while the others slept, or one sleeping in the gate to assure the safety of the sheep. That shepherd who slept in the opening became both the shepherd and the gate. Then each morning, the shepherds would call their sheep out to graze.
Building on that reality, Jesus is both gate and shepherd and the only Way; those who come any other way are thieves – Kleptes (used of Judas), a sign of not caring for the poor. Jesus, who knows his sheep, lays down his life for us and gives us access to the Father – abundant life through repentance, forgiveness and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
False shepherds did not have the best interests of the owners nor the sheep at heart, and would be careless in how they handled the sheep. In fact, the title Good Shepherd is a bit of an anomaly, like an honest used car salesman in our culture. Jesus, however, is different. As the Good Shepherd, he truly cares for the sheep, knows each of us by name, and loves us unconditionally. As the Gate, he is the way into the kingdom of the Father, reveals the Father to us, and allows us access to the Father.
This title of Jesus is all about relationships, mirroring the relationship of the sheep who recognize the shepherd’s voice, and the shepherd who knows the sheep by name. Jesus’ death on the cross reveals his love for the Father, and the Father’ love for us. We get our identity from him, as shepherd and gate – we are those who recognize ourselves as those for whom he died, and who now respond to his voice as his sheep.
The implications for us of all these titles of Jesus – Lord, Messiah, Good Shepherd, Gate are manifold and described in the readings. St. Peter first of all calls us to believe with all our hearts in Jesus as Lord and Messiah.
There is a story of a man who asked his friends if they believed that he could push a wheelbarrow over Niagara Falls. When they replied no, he told them to watch him do it. Then he asked them again if they believed he could do it, and they replied yes, they had seen him do it. At those words, he told them that if they really believed he could do this, get in, who will be the first? he would give them a ride. The difference between intellectual belief, and trusting in Jesus enough to get into his wheelbarrow, is the kind of faith that St. Peter is speaking of.
He then asks the people to repent. That means metanoia, a change of direction, a major change or letting go of anything in our lives that might still separate us from following Jesus more closely. Good spirituality is all about letting go. We are to let go of any sin by especially confessing them and celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation. Then we are to let go of any painful emotions such as anger and resentment by forgiving anyone who has hurt us, and to let go of any defects of character such as false pride, stubbornness and self-righteousness, by humbly asking God to heal us and remove these from our personalities and lives.
To follow Jesus as the Good Shepherd means first of all to develop a prayer life that is based on listening to his Word and worship. This could be bible study, centering prayer leading to contemplation, and celebrating the Eucharist with the community of believers. It means essentially loving and serving one another as a way of expressing who we are – the sheep, followers of Jesus. It boils down to the Great Command: know and love God, know and love each other, and know and love ourselves.
An avid skier went to Banff to visit her sister who lived there, and to ski. Sunday morning, she refused the invitation to accompany her sister to church because she had come to ski. That afternoon, she broke her leg skiing. The next Sunday, unable to ski with her leg in a cast, she went with her sister to mass. That Sunday there was a visiting priest from Palestine who told a story in his homily about how a shepherd would break the leg of a wayward lamb, then carry it on his shoulder. The lamb would develop such a close bond to the shepherd that it would never wander away again. The girl, sitting in the bench with her leg in a cast, got the message. Not that God goes around breaking legs, but that she realized that she was the wayward lamb. She started attending church, studying the bible, went on to take theology and eventually became a lay theologian serving the church. She is one who truly lived the readings of today.
The Eucharist that we celebrate now is a shepherd’s meal, based on the original Passover in Egypt that was eaten standing up, tunics tied for travel, with unleavened bread and the flesh of the Passover Lamb. The angel of death at that meal passed over the homes where the blood of a lamb was smeared. How much more so will the flesh and blood of Christ that we receive, the true Lamb of God, destroy our sin and sinfulness if we put our faith in him and let him into our lives.
So may our celebration empower us to believe in and worship Jesus as Lord and Messiah, and follow him more closely as the Good Shepherd and the Gate into the Kingdom of the Father.
