Tag: good shepherd

Thursday of the Fifth Week of Easter: Reflection

Jesus said to his disciples, “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.”

Similar to the Our Father, when Jesus says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us,” Jesus says in today’s Gospel reading, “As the Father loves me, so I also love you.” In both of these, Jesus models what a loving relationship should be. Just as the Father loves him and he loves us, that love is the pattern for loving each other.

A reporter answers the who, what, when, where, why, and how of a story. Jesus answers who (the Father and the Son), what (“remaining in my love”), why (“so that your joy might be complete”), and how (“if you keep my commandments”). This is pretty straightforward, and there is no mistaking how to remain in love—stated three times—with the Father and the Son. Thank you, God, for the clarity of the words of your Son.

Your love, God, is an all-embracing love. It is not false in any way; it is not as society can construe all-embracing love, which brings all to a center that cannot hold when it permits all. To love you, Father, calls for obedience to your holy will, to do what is pleasing to you, and to bring others to a center that can hold because that center is truth in the person of Christ.

The Gospel acclamation for today’s reading is “My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord; I know them, and they follow me.” To remain in Jesus’ love today, let me remember to hear his voice while I’m busy or resting. Whether today brings a greater balance of trials than joy, I have no idea. But let me remember why Jesus asks that I keep his commandments: so that my joy might be complete.

USCCB Readings

Monday of the Fourth Week of Easter

“Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate.”

In this Gospel passage from John, Jesus says to the Pharisees that he is the gate for the sheep. Yesterday, in the Good Shepherd Sunday Gospel reading, Jesus tells the Jews gathered around him at the Portico of Solomon that the sheep hear his voice and follow him. So Jesus identifies himself as both shepherd and gatekeeper. Although this is a mixed image, it shouldn’t raise unnecessary questions since just as Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, isn’t it conceivable that he is both gatekeeper (perhaps the Holy Spirit) and shepherd (Son of God)?

God, help me understand that it is the voice of Jesus that I should seek from day to day and as I grow in faith and understanding. Other voices abound—the voice of strangers, the voice of thieves who come to steal my attention, the voice of thieves who come to destroy, the voice of Satan who denies “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious.” Help me, God, hear the voice of your Son and give me the wisdom to know that what I find in him is the truth.

God, you are the Lord of time. In you, I have all the time I need because all time is in your hands. Be with me today as I try to make the best of the gift of time that you give, hearing your voice and going where you want me to go.

Today I want to listen for the voice of the shepherd in making big and small decisions. How will I respond when I’m given a choice between time-wasting activities that steal time from me and destroy my opportunity to participate in what is good and life-giving and a God-given gift?

USCCB Readings

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Fourth Sunday of Easter

“My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”

In just a few words, Jesus summarizes his identity and purpose. Although taken from a different part of John’s Gospel than last week’s Bread of Life readings, Jesus makes clear why he is able to give eternal life to those who believe in him and follow him. He has power over life and death because in his words, “The Father and I are one.”

In those same words, Jesus affirms his place within the Trinity, a person distinct within it yet part of the undivided unity. God, help me recognize how to place myself in the Father’s hands. Help me understand that the place I want to be for eternity is with before the throne of the Lamb. An image of this, an image of martyrs in heaven, is presented in the second reading: “For the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

“My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” How many ways are there to call on the name of the Lord to hear his voice: Abba, Father; Father in heaven; Lamb of God; Word Incarnate; and countless others. Or simply, Jesus. Whatever way I speak the Lord’s name, let it please him and bring him near me so that I can hear his voice.

Today I will let a lot of things slip through my fingers—wishes, desires, possibilities. I will let opportunities go, some of them losses; some, by God’s grace, near misses I might have willed. But I will let them go because the day ends and because I must; I have no choice. But let me ask the Lord to help me stay in his presence or have him come after me, especially after Communion, when I stand before God’s throne and have within me the “body and blood, soul and divinity” of the Lamb, the one who sits at the right hand of God.

USCCB Readings

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