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Scripture today: Acts 4:23-31; Psalm
2:1-3, 4-9; John 3:1-8
Now there was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at
night and said, Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For
no-one could perform these signs you are doing if God were not with him. In
reply Jesus declared, I tell you the truth, no-one can see the kingdom of God
unless he is born again. How can a man be born when he is old? Nicodemus asked.
Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born! Jesus
answered, I tell you the truth, no-one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is
born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives
birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born
again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot
tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of
the Spirit. (John 3:1-8)
Baptism
It is clear that the conversation between Christ and Nicodemus was deeply
impressed on the mind and memory of John the Evangelist. Nicodemus had come to
Jesus by night and we may presume that John, “the disciple Jesus loved,”
witnessed the words of our Lord recorded here.
On Nicodemus’s profession of belief, our Lord reveals a fundamental requirement
for entry into the realm and friendship of God. A person must be born again.
It is birth by water and the Spirit. The Church teaches that our Lord is
referring here to Baptism. Baptism by water involves a new birth which bestows
a share in the life of God. The Holy Spirit floods the soul with sanctifying
grace, unites it with God, and breaks the hold of sin. At that instant the soul
becomes an adopted child of God and is saved. However, the inherited
inclination to sin remains, and with it the disorder of man’s natural powers and
his inevitable death. It is thus very possible to fall into sin again and to
lose one’s soul. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit has come, and the seed of
personal holiness has been planted. What is now needed is one’s shoulder to the
wheel — which is to say, an earnest quest for perfection in Christ. With
Baptism, a precious gift is lodged in the soul of the newly-baptized. It is the
gift of grace, which can be used to attain personal holiness, or squandered in a
life of neglect and sin. Needless to say, one of the notable points of
doctrinal cleavage between the Catholic Church and some of the Protestant
reformers concerned this rebirth (or regeneration). The Catholic Church insists
that because of this gift of divine life, the baptized person may grow in heroic
sanctity, with sin being progressively overcome. It requires consistent and
generous co-operation with the action the Holy Spirit. By contrast, many
Protestant Reformers rejected this and maintained that at the new birth, the
mantle of Christ’s merits covers the sins of the one reborn, and God looks on
him with delight in view of the merits of Christ’s saving death. His sins are
forgiven because of what Christ had done, but in himself he remains a sinner.
Becoming holy involves no more than being enwrapped with the merits of Christ,
and this occurs with faith. Man trusts that God forgives him, and with this the
work of holiness is largely done.
Something of this appeared in a statement by an Anglican auxiliary bishop of
Sydney when it was announced in December 2009 that Mary MacKillop would be
canonized by Pope Benedict XVI the following year. He took issue with the
Catholic notion of sanctity. He stated in his website message that “anyone
whose sins have been forgiven by God, through faith in Jesus Christ, is a
saint. Through God’s Holy Spirit, faith in Jesus makes us whole, indeed
‘holy’.” Every Christian ought regard himself as a saint. Now, it is true that
in the Letters of St Paul the true and practising Christian, baptized into
Christ and living his Christian life with fidelity is called a “saint,” as St
Paul uses the word. This simply means that he is “in Christ” and therefore
partakes of the holiness of Christ. He is made holy — not only by faith, as the
Bishop puts it, but by faith and baptism. But time and again St Paul himself
stresses growth in holiness. It is in no way enough, it in no way exhausts the
Christian calling, to be merely forgiven one’s sins. This is the beginning of
the divine life in the soul of man, but this same divine life must grow. The
bishop’s statement would seem to imply that little growth in sanctity is to be
expected in the Christian life. The only important thing, in this
understanding, is God’s forgiveness and being ‘blanketed’ by the merits of
Christ as a result of faith. There is nothing more to be said of the Christian
calling than that the person who believes belongs to God. But no. With the
gift of grace at Baptism the soul’s transformation into the image of Christ
begins. But then a great work of continuing transformation must be sustained,
and it is a daily task. Much growth lies ahead. The Church uses the word
“saint” of the Christian who has attained great personal sanctity. As one
modern saint (J.-M. Escriva) wrote, “Holiness is forged through a constant
interplay of God’s grace and the correspondence of man. As one of the early
Christian writers says, referring to union with God, “Everything that grows
begins small. It is by constant and progressive feeding that it gradually grows
big.” So I say to you, ..the holiness that Our Lord demands of you is to be
achieved by carrying out with love of God your work and your daily duties.” (Friends
of God, 7)
Personal sanctity begins at Baptism. Baptism by water and the Spirit implants
in the soul a new life that constitutes not only the spiritual engine of heroic
sanctity in the midst of an ordinary life, but the constant summons to work at
it. Baptism is the foundation of the universal call to sanctity and to a share
in the mission of Jesus. Let us then maintain a profound appreciation of our
Gospel scene today, with its precious words of our Lord on Baptism. Baptism is
the door to the Kingdom, which is to say entry into union with Christ and to
following generously in his footsteps.
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Scripture today:
Acts 4:32-37; Psalm 93:1ab, 1cd-2, 5; John 3:7b-15
Jesus said to Nicodemus,
"You must be born again from above. The wind blows where it wills and
you hear its sound but do not know where it comes
from or whither it is going. So is with every one that is born of the
Spirit." Nicodemus answered, and said to him: "How can these things be
done?" Jesus answered, "Are you a teacher in Israel and do not know not
these things? Amen, amen I say to you that we speak what we know and we
testify to what we have seen, and you do not receive our testimony. If
I have spoken to you about earthly things and you do not believe, how
will you believe when I speak to you of heavenly things? No man has
ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son
of man who is in heaven. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up in order that whosoever
believes in him may not perish but may have life everlasting.(John 3:7b-15)
The
rebirth
The Church places this Gospel passage before us during the second week of
Eastertide, when we celebrate the rising of our Lord from the dead. It is the
passage in which John gives us our Lord’s conversation with Nicodemus.
Presumably John himself was present at the conversation, and presumably he was
just as fascinated, perhaps initially just as perplexed, as was Nicodemus at
what our Lord was revealing. Our
Lord was telling Nicodemus, a leading Jew, that in order to enter the Kingdom of
God one has to be born again from above. The uncomprehending response of
Nicodemus shows that our Lord was not meaning to use a mere figure of speech.
The term “rebirth” was not just a symbol of a change of attitude. Nicodemus
understood him to be speaking in some sense literally — that a new birth was to
be involved. Hence he was puzzled. “How can these things be done?” On another
occasion when our Lord was speaking in the synagogue of Capernaum (John chapter
6), he taught that his flesh would have to be eaten and his blood would have to
be drunk. From the way he spoke it was clear to the people that he was not
speaking merely symbolically. His real flesh would have to be truly eaten and
his blood truly drunk. Very many left him because, clearly, the same question
was in their minds, “How can these things be done?” It was impossible, too much,
they decided. Interestingly, on that occasion our Lord did not tell them how it
would be done. He simply announced the doctrine that they must eat his flesh
and drink his blood if they were to live forever. He then allowed those who
refused belief to go, for there was no going back from his doctrine. Those
disciples who accepted his word on his authority would eat his flesh and drink
his blood truly, but sacramentally, and under the appearances of bread and
wine. On this occasion in our Gospel today (John
3:7b‑15), our Lord tells Nicodemus that he and any others who wished
to enter the Kingdom of God would have to be born again from above. He explains
later in this chapter — not included in the passage today however — that it is a
spiritual rebirth by water and the Holy Spirit. Our Lord is referring to
baptism, which, just before ascending into heaven, he would charge his disciples
to administer to all the nations.
In situating this Gospel passage in the second week of Easter, the Church is
reminding us that our Lord’s resurrection from the dead is not just something
that affected him alone. His resurrection is brought to each of us by means of
a rebirth. Just as our Lord died and rose again to a new life, so we who come
to him in faith are able to die to the fallen life into which we are born and
rise to a share in Christ’s risen life. It is a new birth from above. Let us
put it this way. We might even refer to our Lord’s resurrection as a new birth
for him. That is to say, his rising from the dead in his humanity was the
beginning — like a rebirth — of a new life for him in his humanity. He had
risen in his flesh, in his body, and he was now new and glorious. His old life
subject to death was gone, having passed away with his death on the cross. In a
sense unique to him who was the protagonist and author of it, in his humanity he
was born again to a new life, his risen life. If we place our faith in him and
receive from the Church his baptism by water, then we shall share in his dying
and rising to a new eternal life. Without undergoing his sufferings, a share in
his risen life has been implanted in our souls, enabling us to put on his mind
in everyday life. This rebirth makes possible a life‑long renunciation of the
old life with its sinful and selfish tendencies and a constant choice of
holiness lived with the mind of Christ. This new birth brought about at our
baptism must be lived out in daily life by the grace and the power of the Holy
Spirit. Our Lord’s teaching that if anyone wishes to be his disciple he must
take up his cross daily and follow in his footsteps must be lived out in daily
life. The cross of obedience to God’s will has to be chosen and embraced
daily. This is now possible because the Christian is empowered and sustained by
the share he has received in Christ’s new and risen life. He has been born anew
and if he is prepared to die to self he will live to God in Christ in this life
and forever hereafter.
Let us place ourselves in the room as Christ speaks to Nicodemus. Let us
imagine the young John looking on and taking in all our Lord’s words. Our Lord
says that we must be born again if we are to enter the Kingdom of God. This
happens in the soul of the one who is baptized in the faith and into the
Church. The work then begins, the work of living according to this new and
risen life, a life of dying to sin and selfishness, and of living in Christ and
according to his mind and his teaching. Let us then take up the work!
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Scripture today: Acts 5:17-26; Psalm
34:2-9; John 3:16-21
For God
so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten Son so that whoever believes in
him may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent his Son
into the world not to judge the world but so that the world may be
saved through him. The one who believes in him is not judged, but the
one who does not believe is already judged because he does not believe
in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment: that
the light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than
the light, for their works were evil. Every one who does evil hates the
light and does not come to the light so that his works may not be
reproved.(John 3:16-21)
Faith In our
brief and limpid Gospel passage today there are points of capital importance for
the destiny of every man and woman. There are so many people who live out their
short span of life with little thought of God whom they regard as so far away as
to be virtually irrelevant to their lives. Just
recently I had reason to look into the life of a young man who migrated to
Australia well over a hundred years ago. He died in Australia at the age of
33. On his tombstone in a mountain cemetery which has been there for well over
a century, there is the detail that he was a draughtsman. He was an Anglican
but was buried not in the Anglican section of the cemetery, nor in any religious
section, but in the non‑denominational section. It suggested to me that he was
not known to have practised any particular religion in a formal sense. I
wondered what his notion of God was. I suspect (but who knows!) that it may
have been of One who was very distant. So many have thought thus of God, but it
is so very wrong. God is not distant and unconcerned and uninvolved. Our
Gospel passage today serenely tells us that God loved the world. He loves all
of us. He so loved the world, in fact, that he gave us his only begotten Son.
His Son was given to the world to remain with it and to redeem it. How sad it
is if we live out our lives as if this immense fact is of not much importance.
It ought be the bedrock of everything we do and of all our thoughts. There is a
further marvel indicated in our passage today. This divine Saviour whom the
Father has sent to us offers a salvation that is so easy of access. If we
genuinely believe in him we shall be saved. We read that “For God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten Son so that whoever believes in him may not
perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent his Son into the world not
to judge the world but so that the world may be saved through him”
(John 3:16‑21). We must hear the Church’s word
about him and believe in him. Salvation is ours for the asking. What we must
do is come to Jesus and truly put our faith in him.
St John proceeds to emphasize with clarity the simplicity and the
seriousness of this. Having spoken of belief in our Lord and the saving effect
of this faith, he states the result of refusing this belief. The results are
momentous. “The one who believes in him is not judged, but the one who does not
believe is already judged because he does not believe in the name of the only
begotten Son of God.” For the last few centuries there has been in Western
religious culture a tendency to think that it is preposterous to claim that one
will be condemned by God for “one’s opinions.” That is to say, so it is thought,
that it is not conceivable that a good God would condemn a person simply for
refusing to believe in Jesus. Faith is deemed not to be an indicator of moral
life because faith is just “a matter of opinion.” However plausible that
position may seem to modern man with his various assumptions, it is not the
teaching of the Gospel. Faith in Jesus is the moral issue par excellence and it
is somehow at the core of moral goodness. Our judgment by God pivots around our
response to Jesus Christ and his claims. In our passage, St John writes that
the one who believes will have life everlasting, and the one who refuses to
believe will be judged. Of course, as the Church teaches, we ourselves can
never judge the personal guilt of particular individuals for only God sees the
hearts of men. Nevertheless, John is clear about the saving plan of God. In
God’s plan salvation comes from faith in Jesus, and the deliberate refusal of
this faith constitutes a great peril to one’s salvation. St John also gives us
an insight into the foundations of unbelief. It is not just an intellectual
issue (although the action of the intellect is of course involved). It is not
just a matter of opinion. It is primarily a moral issue. Unbelief is due to a
preference for darkness, a choice of the will. “This is the judgment: that the
light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than the light, for
their works were evil. Every one who does evil hates the light and does not
come to the light so that his works may not be reproved
(John 3:16‑21).
Let
us understand the seriousness of the matter of faith. Faith is the foundation —
faith in God and in Christ. Let us draw near to him and stay in his presence,
allowing his person and his words to enter our hearts. By our baptism we have
received the gift of faith, making it so much easier to believe in the person
and the word of Christ. For this we should be profoundly grateful. Let us do
all we can to protect and nourish our faith, enabling it to lead us to sanctity.
Naturalness. Let your lives as Christian men, as Christian women — your
salt and your light — flow spontaneously, without anything odd or
silly: always carry with you our spirit of simplicity.
(The Way, no.379)
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Scripture today:
Acts 5:27-33; Psalm 34:2 and 9, 17-20; John 3:31-36
He who comes from above
is above all. He who is of the earth is earthly and he speaks of the
things of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. He
testifies to what he has seen and heard and no one receives his
testimony. The one who receives his testimony confirms that God is
true. He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not
give the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son and has placed all
things in his hands. The one who believes in the Son has life
everlasting. He who does not believe in the Son will not see life. The
wrath of God rests on him.(John
3:31-36)
The
person of Jesus
In the history of philosophies and religions, people have long distinguished
between the thought of a great teacher and the person of the teacher. For
instance, one may be a great devotee of the thought of Plato or of Aristotle
while giving little attention to their persons, and certainly not regarding
oneself as a devotee of their persons.
Taking a modern example, there are many (especially in Europe) who having
embraced the thought of Friedrich Nietsche (1844‑1900) without in any way being
enamoured of his somewhat hapless person. In the domain of religion, while the
founder of a religion is often regarded as a shining example of what it means to
live that religion, he himself is not at the centre of the religion. He is not
its object. However greatly Mahomet is reverenced he is in no way the object of
the religion of Islam — Allah is. Mahomet is understood by the Muslim as being
merely the messenger of Allah. The case is utterly different with Jesus
Christ. He is the object of the Christian religion, and the Christian must
understand this clearly. When our Lord, newly risen from the dead, appeared to
his disciples on the shore of the Lake, he asked Simon Peter three times “Do you
love me?” Simon had to understand that he, Jesus, was to be the love of his
life. A common mistake is to think that “being a Christian” means living
according to a certain code of morals and behaviour — such as being benevolent
to others. Such persons in effect think that there can be a Christianity
without Christ, and certainly without Christ being the very object of one’s life
and love. Of course, Christ himself points to the Father, but the way to the
Father is by making him, Jesus, the object of one’s love. He who sees me, our
Lord said, sees the Father. The true Christian cannot accept and live our
Lord’s teaching and then proceed to put him in the background of life. No, he
is at the forefront in the first instance, and because of this one accepts his
word and puts it into practice. Why is this? The reason for this is that Jesus
is God.
So it is that in our Gospel passage today our Lord himself is extolled. Jesus
Christ comes from above. He comes from heaven. Mahomet never claimed this, nor
did Buddha, nor did any of the greatest prophets, nor did the greatest
philosophers. Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, but he came from above, from
heaven. God sent him to mankind. He speaks of what he had seen and heard from
all eternity. He speaks the words of God. So he is above all. He is the very
Son of God, and God the Father loves him and has placed everything into his
hands. These are the simple and decisive facts which are set forth in our
Gospel passage today. Jesus Christ is above all and everything has been placed
in his keeping. So whatever be the greatness of this or that ruler in history,
this or that military commander, this or that philosopher, prophet or religious
founder, above all others — literally all others — stands Jesus Christ.
Everything is under his control. All has been placed in his hands. When he
rose from the dead, he told his disciples that all authority in heaven and on
earth had been given to him. His miracles worked by him during his public
ministry were tokens of this full power and authority. The Book of Revelation
shows him to be the Lord of lords and the King of kings. But he does not impose
this authority by force as have so many of the kings of the earth. Until he
comes in glory, his authority is accepted freely and in faith. But an enormous
amount is at stake in this acceptance. It is a matter of salvation or
damnation. St John tells us that “The one who believes in the Son has life
everlasting. He who does not believe in the Son will not see life. The wrath
of God rests on him (John 3:31‑36). The
consequences are clear. The one who believes in the Son enjoys God’s favour.
The one who refuses to believe is the object of God’s wrath. Jesus Christ is
the object of the Christian religion. It is precisely because of our love for
and acceptance of him and all he has claimed to be that we assent to and live
out his teaching. Love for him is the foundation of the Christian life and
way.
So it is that the one who accepts the Christian way must resolve to make Jesus
the object of his heart’s love. I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, our Lord
said. The Father and I are one. We must take the appropriate steps to deepen
our friendship with the living Jesus. This means daily prayer, daily spiritual
reading, reading and hearing the word of God especially the Gospels, living as
true members of the Church, receiving the Sacraments. It is the love of Christ
that must motivate the whole life of the Christian. Christ himself cannot be
other than at centre stage.
'And in a paganised or pagan
environment when my life clashes with its surroundings, won't my
naturalness seem artificial?' you ask me.
And I reply: Undoubtedly your life will clash with theirs; and that
contrast — faith confirmed by works! — is exactly the naturalness I ask
of you.
(The Way, no.380)
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Scripture today:
Acts 5:34-42; Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14; John 6:1-15
After this
Jesus crossed the sea of Galilee, which is that of Tiberias. A great
multitude followed him because they saw the miracles which he did for
those who were sick. So Jesus went up a mountain and there he sat with
his disciples. Now the Pasch, the festival day of the Jews, was near at
hand. When Jesus therefore looked up and saw a great multitude coming
to him, he said to Philip: Whence shall we buy bread for these to eat?
This he said to test him; for he himself knew what he would do. Philip
answered: Two hundred denarii of bread would not be sufficient for each
to have but a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of
Simon Peter, said to him: There is a boy here who has five barley
loaves and two fish; but what is that among so many? Then Jesus said:
Make the men sit down. There was a lot of grass there, so about five
thousand men sat down. Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given
thanks, had them distributed to those who were seated. He did the same
with the fish, as much as they wanted. When all were satisfied he said
to his disciples: Gather up the fragments that remain lest they be
lost. So they gathered up everything and filled twelve baskets with the
remains from the five barley loaves. Now when they saw the miracle
Jesus had worked, the people said: Truly this is the prophet who was to
come into the world. Jesus, seeing that they would come to take him by
force and make him king, withdrew again to the mountain to be by
himself alone.(John 6:1-15)
The
loaves and fishes
I have often thought that we have become so accustomed to the accounts of the
miracles of Jesus that we scarcely advert to the marvel of them. The fact is
that there has been no one in the history of the world who has displayed such
miraculous power over nature as has Jesus Christ.
The working of miracles was not characteristic of the prophets in general, even
though some prophets did work some miracles (such as Moses, Elijah and Elisha).
The greatest of them, John the Baptist, worked none. Yet in the case of Jesus
of Nazareth the number and range of his miracles were simply astounding. He
cured people of all kinds of sickness. He raised people of various ages from
the dead. He calmed storms. He walked on the sea. He cast out demons from the
possessed. As he was being arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane he silently and
without moving threw back his opponents before freely submitting to their
force. Nobody, nobody in the history of mankind has shown such power over
nature as has he. Jesus Christ is a man of Power, but a Power not only far more
exalted than the power of the great ones of this world, but a power manifesting
holiness and mercy. St Thomas Aquinas once wrote that God shows his power in
acts of mercy, and this is exactly the character of the power of Christ. As man
he shows himself to be all‑powerful, but his power is shown in a holy service of
those in need. Well then, let us turn to our Gospel text today
(John 6:1‑15). It begins with a reference
to the great multitude of people who followed him because of his healings of
those who were sick. He went up the mountain as if manifesting his nearness to
God, indeed as if about to do what God could do. The vast concourse of people
have no food and with a handful of bread and a little fish he proceeds
effortlessly to feed the multitude to their heart’s content. He is powerful.
He is compassionate. He is merciful. He is all‑holy and good. His miracle
once again reveals the greatness and excellence of his person.
There is a detail in John’s account of this amazing miracle. It is his mention
of the liturgical season during which this occurred. It was near the time of
the Pasch. In telling us that this miracle of the feeding of the multitudes
took place near the time of the Pasch, we can assume John is meaning to remind
us of the great Pasch when our Lord would take bread again and bless it and
distribute it to his disciples, but this time not as mere bread as he had with
the multitudes but as his very own body. St John is meaning to point out that
this miracle of the feeding of the multitudes with bread — so like the feeding
of God’s people in the wilderness with manna from heaven — was a sign of the
Eucharist to come. It pointed back to the miracle of the manna from heaven, and
it pointed forward to the miracle of the bread from heaven which is Jesus Christ
himself. Indeed, John’s account of this miracle of the loaves and fishes
happens to be his introduction to our Lord’s long discourse on the holy
Eucharist, as contained in this sixth chapter of his Gospel. The other three
Gospels narrate the institution of the Eucharist during their accounts of the
Last Supper, the celebration of the Pasch on the night before our Lord endured
his Passion. But in this chapter, St John alludes specifically to the Pasch in
our passage today, and he follows this reference up with our Lord’s clear and
copious teaching on the Eucharist. The true bread come down from heaven is not
the mere manna given to their fathers in the desert. It is not the mere loaves
and fishes he distributed to them on this occasion. He himself is the true
bread from heaven they must all eat — not symbolically but in very truth. His
flesh is real food and his blood is real drink. This would be the greatest
miracle of all and would outclass all others in its gift of mercy for it would
involve the gift not only of physical health and life, but the gift of himself,
of him in whom resides every heavenly blessing.
Jesus Christ is the Man of history, the Man on whom each person can totally
rely, the one in whom we can place our entire trust. He lives now in all his
human and divine reality and he is our salvation. He is all‑powerful and his
power reveals his love and mercy. His greatest and most powerful act is the
holy Eucharist when he changes the bread and wine into his body and blood and
gives himself to his disciples. Let us place our faith in him and live
according to his word.
Don't worry if people say you have
esprit de corps. What do they want? A brittle instrument, that falls to
pieces the moment it is grasped?
(The Way, no.381)
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Scripture today: Acts 6:1-7; Psalm
33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19; John 6:16-21
When evening came the disciples of Jesus went down to the
sea, got into a boat and went across for Capharnaum. It was now dark,
and Jesus had not yet come to them. A strong wind blew and the sea
began to stir. They had rowed some twenty five or thirty furlongs when
they saw Jesus walking on the sea and approaching the boat. They were
afraid, but he said to them: It is I. Do not fear. They wanted to take
him aboard and soon the boat reached the shore to which they were going.(John 6:16-21)
Do not fear! There
have been numerous claims of supernatural apparitions in the history of the
Church. Some have been sanctioned by the Church, others have been rejected, and
still others that have not attracted any official pronouncement. Those of
Fatima in Portugal in 1917 are among the most sanctioned by the Church.
As is well known, Mary appeared on several occasions to three children. Two of
them died not long after these appearances, and they have been beatified. The
third child (the eldest) lived out her very long life as a nun and her process
of beatification has begun. Now, there is one detail in one of the apparitions
they received which I would like to mention. They were granted a sense of God
himself, and in their account of this occasion, it was God’s great might which
dominated their experience of him. They had the sense of immensely vast power,
power beyond imagining, irresistible power. If we think of the testimony coming
from various other sources in the history of religion, one fundamental aspect of
man’s experience of the numinous is his sense of its power. This power attracts
him and it greatly awes him. Vulnerable and puny man needs the aid of divine
power and this power is tremendous and fear‑inspiring. Rudolf Otto in his
Idea of the Holy (Das Heilige) (1917) described the human experience
of the divine as a mystery which is “tremendum et fascinans.” God draws
man, because he is “fascinans.” Yet he is “tremendum” — he
terrifies. Man cowers before him, especially if he is alive to his own
sinfulness. Well now, how full God is of surprises! He intervenes progressively
in the history of his chosen people and what is gradually revealed is that, for
all his power, he is kind. He is a God of kindness and protection. He has
revealed his face, and that face is Jesus Christ. Our Gospel today (John
6:16‑21) presents us with Jesus coming to his disciples in the midst of a rough
and stirring sea. He comes in his power and “they were afraid.” What does he
say? “It is I. Do not be afraid.” Jesus, the revelation of the divine, comes to
dispel fear.
The Good News of the God of might and power shows that we are not simply to be
afraid. The Angel Gabriel comes into the presence of Mary and begins by telling
her not to be afraid. Repeatedly our Lord tells his listeners not to be
afraid. When our Lord directs Simon Peter to throw the net out for a catch and
he hauls in a huge quantity of fish, Simon falls to his knees in a holy fear.
Our Lord tells him not to fear and that from then on he will catch men. Our
Lord tells his disciples, “Fear not, little flock, for your Father has given you
the Kingdom.” God became man and put himself on familiar terms with fallen man.
We read in the Gospels that the tax collectors and the sinners were all seeking
the company of Jesus and were wanting to hear him. Those who knew they were
sinners and desired to change received from him the warmest welcome. He was
accused by the scribes and Pharisees of welcoming sinners and eating with them.
This is not to say that a wholesome and filial fear is to be entirely absent.
Elsewhere in the Gospel our Lord says that we are not to fear those who kill the
body and who cannot kill the soul. “Fear him rather,” our Lord continues, “who
can cast both body and soul into hell.” We are to fear sinning against God, for
God is holy and does not admit of sin. After shaming her accusers our Lord said
to the sinful woman, “I do not condemn you. Go, and do not sin any more.” Man
is not to sin, for fear of God. But for the one who recognizes his sins, for
the one who has faith in Christ and in his redemption, God is to be approached
with humble confidence. The natural and overwhelming fear in the presence of a
truly mighty and holy God is not now to be man’s dominant emotion. God as
revealed in Jesus Christ inspires trust. Christ attracts with his love. He
asks for repentance and gives sinful man time, while warning him that the wages
of sin are death. When in the midst of difficulty we think of God and call out
to him, let us think of his face. His face is Jesus Christ, who says to us in
all our difficulties, Do not be afraid. It is I. He will step into our boat,
and in some sense soon we shall find ourselves ashore.
It is natural to fear God because we are sinners and he is holy and
all‑powerful. As a mystery, he is “tremendum .” But he has revealed
himself in history and especially in the person of Jesus Christ. In Jesus he
has shown himself to be love and compassion. He guards and protects, and he
draws us to himself by his love. Let us place our full confidence in him and
make that faith the basis of our life.
Don't worry if people say you have esprit de corps. What do they want?
A brittle instrument, that falls to pieces the moment it is grasped?
(The Way, no.381)
Prayers this week: Let all the
earth cry out to God with joy; praise the glory of his name; proclaim
his glorious praise, alleluia.
(Psalm 65:1-2) God
our Father, may we look forward with hope to our resurrection, for you
have made us your sons and daughters, and restored the joy of our
youth. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the
unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.
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Scripture today: Acts
2:14, 22-33; Psalm Ps 16:1-2, 5, 7-11; 1 Peter 1:17-21; Luke 24:13-35
That very day two
of Jesus’ disciples were going to a town some seven miles from
Jerusalem, named Emmaus. They were discussing all that had happened. It
happened that while they talked it over Jesus himself drew near but
their eyes were closed to recognizing him. He said to them: What are
you discussing as you walk along, and why
so sad? One of them, whose name was Cleophas answered: Are
you the only visitor to Jerusalem who has not known what has happened
here in these last few days? What things, he asked? Concerning, they
said, Jesus of Nazareth who was a prophet, mighty in work and word
before God and all the people. Our chief priests and leaders delivered
him up to death and had him crucified. We had hoped that he was the one
to redeem Israel. Today is the third day since all this happened.
Indeed, certain women in our group astonished us. Before dawn they were
at the sepulchre, and not finding his body, came back saying that they
had also seen a vision of angels who said he is alive. Some of our
people went to the sepulchre and found it as the women had said but of
him they found nothing. Then he said to them: You foolish people and
slow of heart to believe what the prophets have said. Had not the
Messiah to suffer thus and so enter his glory? Beginning with Moses and
all the prophets, he expounded to them all that referred to him in the
scriptures. So they drew near the town to which they were heading and
he made as if to go on. But they prevailed on him saying: Stay with us,
because it is towards evening, and the day is now far spent. So he went
in with them. And it came to pass while he was at table with them that
he took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to them. With that
their eyes were opened and they recognized him. But he vanished from
their sight. They said to one another, Were not our hearts burning
within us while he spoke on the road and explained to us the
scriptures? Rising up there and then they went back to Jerusalem and
found the eleven gathered together and those that were staying with
them. Yes, they said, the Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to
Simon. They told them of the things that had happened on the road and
how they had recognized him in the breaking of the bread. (Luke 24: 13-35)
Our Gospel scene
today is the beautiful account of our Lord quietly meeting the two on
their way to the village of Emmaus, some miles from Jerusalem. It is
Easter Sunday, some hours after our Lord had risen from the dead. He
has already appeared to some of the women and now as if a solitary
stranger he joins the two as they walk along the road. There is
plenty of detail and it is easy to imagine. The two disciples are
profoundly despondent at the death of Christ. They had not taken in
what he had taught about the Messiah having to suffer. Their minds were
not enlightened, and so their hopes had been shattered. Years later St
Paul would write, Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. Our
Lord joins them and he asks them what is on their mind. Surprised he
does not seem to know what has happened in Jerusalem, they tell him and
immediately he points out to them that they had not understood the
drift of the Scriptures that the Christ would have to suffer. “Then
beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what
referred to him in all the Scriptures.”
(Luke 24: 13-35) It was a
lengthy, illuminating and profoundly and consoling explanation of the
meaning of the Old Testament. It indicates, of course, that the
Christian understanding of the Old Testament comes from our Lord
himself. Now, while Luke is giving us an historical account of Easter
Sunday, he is also inviting us to see its immediate parallel in our
Christian life. Writing all this decades later under the guidance of
the Holy Spirit, he is not only contributing to the New Testament but
is surely reminding his Christian readers of how our Lord continues to
enlighten the faithful as he did the two on the way to Emmaus. When
does he do this? Whenever the Church’s faithful gather for the Sunday
Eucharist — and Sunday is a reliving of Easter Sunday — the risen Jesus
joins them to enlighten them as to the meaning of the Scriptures. He is
its meaning. This he does during the Liturgy of the Word.
That is to say,
when on Sunday and on any day we gather for Mass the risen Jesus is
there to join us. The two disciples saw him but did not recognize him.
We do not see him visibly but we know that he is really present at Mass
in all his risen reality. The Church our mother keeps reminding us of
this and invites us to enter the Church and to enter into Mass very
alive to his real presence. Christ himself is speaking to us when the
Scriptures are read and then explained and applied in the homily.
Christ is doing for us then what he did for the two disciples on their
way to Emmaus. We are hearing the word of God as spoken by him and if
we give him our full and prayerful attention, our hearts will burn
within us as did theirs. But Luke sees further parallels. As the three
travellers drew near the village, the two disciples prevailed upon
their companion to stay with them as it was approaching evening. He did
so and the three entered. Then, we are told, “while he was with them at
table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him.” Inasmuch as
in his second book the Acts of the Apostles St Luke refers to the
celebration of the Eucharist as the “breaking of bread” (Acts 2:42), it
surely suggests he is reminding us here of the real presence of the
risen Christ at Mass. That is not to say that our Lord at Emmaus
necessarily celebrated the Eucharist. But in using such terms and in
stating that it was then that the disciples recognized him Luke is
reminding us all that it is especially in the celebration of the
Eucharist that we must recognize the presence of the risen Jesus. It is
most especially at Mass that we come to him and he comes to us. He
instructs us there and nourishes us with his teaching. He makes present
there his whole person and all he did for us by his death and
resurrection. The whole mystery of Jesus is present and available to us
at the celebration of the Eucharist. For this reason the Eucharist is
the summit and source of the Christian life and the life of the whole
Church.
It is the Church’s
unshakeable teaching that Jesus Christ is uniquely present in the
Eucharist, truly, really and substantially with his body and blood,
soul and divinity whole and entire. The Eucharist is thus the Church’s
greatest treasure and her greatest gift to her faithful. It comes to
them through the words and actions and ministry of the ordained priest.
Under the appearances of bread and wine the same Jesus who joined the
disciples on their way to Emmaus joins us, instructing us, giving
himself to us, and uniting us to himself in his one sacrificial gift of
himself to the Father.
The
Eucharist
Our Gospel scene today is the beautiful account of our Lord quietly meeting the
two on their way to the village of Emmaus, some miles from Jerusalem. It is
Easter Sunday, some hours after our Lord had risen from the dead. He has
already appeared to some of the women and now, as if a solitary stranger, he
joins the two as they walk along the road. There is plenty of detail and it is
easy to imagine. The two disciples are profoundly despondent at the death of
Christ. They had not taken in what he had taught about the Messiah having to
suffer. Their minds were not enlightened, and so their hopes had been
shattered. Years later St Paul would write, Let this mind be in you that was in
Christ Jesus. Our Lord joins them and he asks them what is on their mind.
Surprised that he does not know what has happened in Jerusalem, they tell him.
With that, he points out to them that they had not understood the drift of the
Scriptures that the Christ would have to suffer. “Then beginning with Moses and
all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the
Scriptures” (Luke 24: 13‑35). It was a
lengthy, illuminating, profound and consoling explanation of the meaning of the
Old Testament. It indicates, of course, that the Christian understanding of the
Old Testament comes from our Lord himself. Now, while Luke is giving us an
historical account of Easter Sunday, he is also inviting us to see its immediate
parallel in our Christian life. Writing decades later under the guidance of the
Holy Spirit, he is not only contributing to the New Testament but is surely
reminding his Christian readers of how our Lord continues to enlighten the
faithful as he did the two on the way to Emmaus. When does he do this? Whenever
the Church’s faithful gather for the Sunday Eucharist — and Sunday is a reliving
of Easter Sunday — the risen Jesus joins them to enlighten them as to the
meaning of the Scriptures. He is its meaning. This he does during the Liturgy
of the Word.
That is to say, when on Sunday and on any day we gather for Mass, the risen
Jesus is there to join us. The two disciples saw him but did not recognize
him. We do not see him visibly but we know that he is really present at Mass in
all his risen reality. The Church, our mother, keeps reminding us of this and
invites us to enter the Church and to enter into Mass as very alive to his Real
Presence. Christ himself is speaking to us when the Scriptures are read and
then explained and applied in the homily. Christ is doing for us then what he
did for the two disciples on their way to Emmaus. We are hearing the word of
God as spoken by him and if we give him our full and prayerful attention, our
hearts will burn within us as did theirs. But Luke sees further parallels. As
the three travellers drew near the village, the two disciples prevailed upon
their companion to stay with them as it was approaching evening. He did so and
the three entered. Then, we are told, “while he was with them at table, he took
bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes
were opened and they recognized him.” Inasmuch as in his second book, the Acts
of the Apostles, St Luke refers to the celebration of the Eucharist as the
“breaking of bread” (Acts 2:42), it surely suggests that he is reminding us here
of the Real Presence of the risen Christ at Mass. That is not to say that our
Lord at Emmaus necessarily celebrated the Eucharist. But in using such terms
and in stating that it was then that the disciples recognized him, Luke is
reminding us all that it is especially in the celebration of the Eucharist that
we must recognize the presence of the risen Jesus. It is most especially at
Mass that we come to him and he comes to us. He instructs us there and
nourishes us with his teaching. He makes present there his whole person and all
he did for us by his Death and Resurrection. The whole mystery of Jesus is
present and available to us at the celebration of the Eucharist. For this
reason the Eucharist is the summit and source of the Christian life and the life
of the whole Church.
It is the Church’s unshakeable teaching that Jesus Christ is uniquely present in
the Eucharist, truly, really and substantially with his body and blood, soul and
divinity whole and entire. The Eucharist is thus the Church’s greatest treasure
and her greatest gift to her faithful. It comes to them through the words and
actions and ministry of the ordained priest. Under the appearances of bread and
wine the same Jesus who joined the disciples on their way to Emmaus joins us,
instructing us, giving himself to us, and uniting us to himself in his one
sacrificial gift of himself to the Father.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church,
no.1373-1375
[Christ’s presence (in the Eucharist) by the power of his word and
the Holy Spirit]
When I made you a present of that Life of Jesus, I wrote as an
inscription. May you seek Christ: may you find Christ: may you love
Christ.
Three perfectly clear stages. Have you tried, at least, to live the
first?
(The Way, no.382)
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Scripture today: Acts 6:8-15; Psalm
119:23-24, 26-27, 29-30; John 6:22-29
The next day the multitude that remained on the other side
of the sea saw that there had been no other boat there but one and that
Jesus had not entered that boat with his disciples, but that they had
gone off alone. Other boats came in from Tiberias near the place where
they had eaten the bread when the Lord gave thanks. When therefore the
crowds saw that Jesus was not there nor his disciples, they took to the
boats and came to Capharnaum seeking Jesus. When they found him on the
other side they said to him: Rabbi, how did you come here? Jesus said:
Amen, amen I say to you, you are looking for me not because you have
seen miracles, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do
not work for food which perishes but for that which lasts for life
everlasting. This the Son of man will give you. For God the Father has
set his seal upon him. So they said to him: What shall we do that we
may do the works of God? Jesus answered, This is the work of God: that
you believe in him whom he has sent.(John 6:22-29)
True
faith
One of the features of the Gospel of St John is its abundance of detail in the
incidents it describes. The author is a witness and one gets the impression
that at times, memories of the events crowd in on the narration even if some of
them are more than are necessary for the point at hand. St
John tells us that following the miracle of the loaves the crowd saw the
disciples setting out across the water without Jesus, and that Jesus himself
withdrew up the hillside all alone to pray. Evening came and a lot of persons
remained in the location overnight (perhaps assuming our Lord was still with
them somewhere up on the hill). But the next morning they found that Jesus was
gone from the area. Where was he, and how had he come to have gone? So, many of
them alighted some visiting craft and went across back to Capernaum where, to
their surprise, they found Jesus with his disciples. Amazed, they asked him how
he had got back? All these lively details John remembered and loved to
include in his fond memories of the Master. It builds up the context for this
extremely important chapter that rises in crescendo as the doctrine of the
Eucharist is introduced and gradually unfolds. In our passage today, John is
showing how the crowds were truly seeking Jesus. They did want to be with him
and to hear him, but the question was, why? What were they really after? Having
eaten to their fill of the loaves and fish the day before, (and remembering the
quality of the wine our Lord had miraculously produced at Cana, we may imagine
how good were the bread and the fish!), they had then wanted to make him a
king. But what was behind all this? Our Lord could see through it all. “Jesus
said: Amen, amen I say to you, you are looking for me not because you have seen
miracles, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not work for
food which perishes but for that which lasts for life everlasting”
(John 6:22‑29). They were seeking Jesus for
the material benefits they hoped to gain and not for what he had really come to
offer, which was life everlasting.
We read in the Gospels that our Lord readily worked miracles for those who asked
him and often worked them spontaneously without being asked. It was his
compassion which drove him in doing this. He also wished to show by these
miraculous signs something of who he really was and to intimate the redemption
he would bring. But we notice that our Lord shows a certain ambivalence in the
working of miracles, which is to say a certain reluctance on various occasions
and gradually a stern requirement that publicity not be given to this feature of
his work. Our Lord is reacting to the exclusive desire of the multitudes for
the material benefits that they were deriving from his ministry. They were
being healed and they were being fed. They were even being greatly entertained
we might say, for many were seeking “signs and wonders.” By his miracles our
Lord was endeavouring to elicit from them a genuine faith in his person, a faith
that would be the basis of true discipleship. It was this which was not
forthcoming, and we see this preoccupation in our Lord’s words to them in
today’s Gospel passage. They were not working at attaining faith which was so
indispensable for their salvation. Christ had come to offer eternal life, but
to receive this gift they had to believe in him. That belief in him and in his
word was the most important work in life, the true work that God was asking of
them. “Do not work for food which perishes but for that which lasts for life
everlasting. This the Son of man will give you. For God the Father has set his
seal upon him. So they said to him: What shall we do that we may do the works
of God? Jesus answered, This is the work of God: that you believe in him whom he
has sent” (John 6:22‑29). This was to be a
most critical issue because here now in Capernaum, in the synagogue no less, our
Lord would announce the doctrine of the Eucharist and many of those who had so
much sought him would fail. They would leave him because they lacked faith in
the One whom God had sent.
The
Christian life is founded on faith in the person of Jesus, a faith that leads
one to accept all that Jesus has taught. The work of life is to live by this
faith and to allow God to purify it progressively from all that is not what it
should be. It is Jesus whom we should be seeking and not this or that temporal
benefit which might accompany faith in his person and word. Where is he to be
found? He is found in his body the Church, and within and through the Church he
offers himself, his grace and his word to all who come to him. Let us be his
true disciples and not like the crowds of our passage today.
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Scripture today:
Acts 7:51-8:1a; Psalm 31:3cd-4, 6 and 7b and 8a, 17 and 21ab; John
6:30-35
The people said to
Jesus, "So what sign can you do for us to believe in you? What can you
do? Our fathers ate manna in the desert. As it is written: He gave them
bread from heaven to eat." Jesus said to them: "Amen, amen I say to
you; it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven. It is my Father
who gives you the true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is that
which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." They said to
him: "Lord, give us this bread always." Jesus said to them: "I am the
bread of life: he who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes
in me will never thirst."(John
6:30-35)
Conquest
of death
Some time back I discovered information about the grave of a person who had long
been forgotten by the descendants of his family. He was the brother of the
grandfather of many children and they had no idea that he had lived and died in
their area.
I visited his grave and discovered an impressive monument to him erected by his
parents at the time — more than a century ago. But of course the grave was
entirely neglected. It was an early grave in that hillside cemetery. A tree
was growing in the plot itself, together with large shrubs and weeds. The
inscription on the gravestone was still quite legible and it spoke of the love
of the parents for the young man who had tragically died. There his grave had
remained for more than a century probably unvisited all that time, and quite
probably having had no one pray for him. He had been forgotten. As I looked on
the monument and the gravestone of that young man who had lived his short life
and died over a century before, I could not help but think of the universality
of death and of its finality. Life ends in death and there is no help for it.
Wherever in our experience there is life, there too will be found death. The
inscription on this young man’s tomb — obviously written by his parents — showed
the love for him that was felt and the profound sadness at his death. Life is
the one thing that is truly important and death is the one tragedy that is
insuperable. Is there an answer to it? How can life be regained or retained in
the face of the dark enemy that is ever approaching and which will overtake
every man and woman? Is there any way to face this spectre that looms ever
larger before us as time advances? Yes, there is an answer and the remains of
this young man in his solitary and forgotten grave reminded me of it yet again.
The answer is Jesus Christ. Jesus died too and was placed in the tomb, his
relatives and friends mourning his passing. But unlike all others he came forth
from the tomb, risen with a new life.
In our Gospel passage today (John 6:30‑35),
our Lord speaks of what will give life to the entire world. This ought command
our full attention because the entire world is subject to an inexorable threat,
a threat which will inevitably be realized. Everyone and everything in the
world — everyone and everything! — is subject to the power of death. But Jesus
of Nazareth said that he has brought the answer. He offers a food which gives
eternal nourishment. There have been numerous persons in the history of mankind
who have discovered and then offered great benefits to others, great answers to
serious problems. But who has come presenting the answer to the problem of
death itself, and promising that if this answer is accepted and acted upon, life
will overcome death, a life beyond imagining? That is exactly what Jesus
Christ offered all of mankind. He offered life to the entire world, abundant
life, the conquest of death itself — and not just a resumption of the life we
have experienced, but something far beyond it in richness and joy. I have come
that they may have life, he said, life in abundance. The means to gain it?
The means to gain it is to gain Jesus, to gain his very self. “Amen, amen I say
to you; it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven. It is my Father who
gives you the true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is that which comes
down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him: “Lord, give us
this bread always.” Jesus said to them: “I am the bread of life: he who comes to
me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst” (John
6:30‑35). He tells us that if the world is nourished on him the world will have
true life, a life that will not be subject to death. Then our Lord proved his
promise by rising from the dead. Like the young man I referred to earlier,
Buddha died, Abraham and Moses died, Mahomet died, and all others have died and
there in their graves they remain. All are under the power of death. But not
so Christ. He rose in his body and flesh and to a new and glorious life. It is
this which he offers to the world and the way to it is by faith in him.
The
sign and proof that sharing in Christ’s life overcomes death, is the Assumption
of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The sooner we discover the person of Jesus and
understand that he is the Saviour, the sooner will our lives be on an absolutely
secure footing. Jesus saves from death. If we live in him we shall rise in
him. I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, he said. No one comes to the Father
but through me. Let us then turn to him and listen to him as he utters these
immensely significant words to us. They are words for the entire world. He is
the life and the light of the world.
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Scripture today: Acts
8:1b-8; Psalm 66:1-3a, 4-5, 6-7a; John 6:35-40
And Jesus said to them:
I am the bread of life: he who comes to me will not hunger, and he who
believes in me will never thirst. But I told you, that though you have
seen me you do not believe. All that the Father gives to me will come
to me, and the one who comes to me I will not cast out because I came
down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him that sent
me. Now this is the will of the Father who sent me: that of all that he
has given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again on the
last day. This is the will of my Father who sent me, that every one who
sees the Son and believes in him may have life everlasting, and I will
raise him up on the last day.(John 6:35-40)
Jesus himself our love When
Buddha set out on his search for the key to happiness he was embarking on a
quest which would affect millions of Asians after him. He found, as he thought,
the answer and passed it on to his disciples. They took it up, made it their
own and gradually a great movement of thought formed.
Buddha forged a path, a way, and great numbers followed along that way. But of
course he did not point to himself as the way except as the example for all of
what it means to follow that way. “Buddhism” as we might call it, or the quest
for Nirvana, is greater than Buddha and Buddha would have been the first to
admit this. It was the same with Zarathustra: he had a great doctrine and
pointed beyond himself to what that doctrine referred to. So too with Mahomet.
No Muslim considers Mahomet himself as the object of their religion and as being
himself the source of heavenly blessings. He is, so Islam thinks, the
Messenger. As such he points to Allah as being, so he taught, the source and
object of all. Ah, but it is so very different with Jesus Christ! He came with
a doctrine, and assent to that doctrine is crucial for salvation. He who
believes will be saved, and he who refuses to believe will be condemned, we read
our Lord saying. But the doctrine points to himself. We have in the person of
Jesus Christ at once the most profound humility and the most exalted of personal
claims. In our Gospel today our Lord refers without ambiguity to himself — not
merely to his doctrine but to his very self — as “the bread of life”. “I am the
bread of life: he who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me
will never thirst.” This is why Christianity holds up not just the doctrine of
Christ, not just his body of teaching and his revelation, but his very self for
the world’s contemplation and love. He himself is the love of the Christian
religion and the Church bears witness to his very person before the world. The
authentic Christian is one who is constantly nourished not only by Christ’s
doctrine, but by his very person. He, and not only his message, is the bread of
life.
And so it is that in our Gospel passage today our Lord laments the lack of faith
in him. “ I told you,” he says, “that though you have seen me you do not
believe.” Salvation is to be found in him. “Now this is the will of the Father
who sent me: that of all that he has given me I should lose nothing but should
raise it up again on the last day. This is the will of my Father who sent me,
that every one who sees the Son and believes in him may have life everlasting,
and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:35‑40).
If we see the Son and believe in him life everlasting will be ours and he, the
Son of God and Son of Man, will raise us up in our flesh on the last day. Life
will be ours if seeing him we believe in him. This “seeing” of the Son ought be
a central part of a daily Christian life. It issues in belief. What do I mean
by this “seeing”? In his most philosophical work, A Grammar of Assent,
Cardinal Newman asks if there is a way in which we may be said to “enter with a
personal knowledge into” the thought of God? How can our knowledge of Christ be
real and personal, and not just notional? “Can I believe as if I saw?” (Image
Book, p.96) Without embarking on a discussion of his theory of real assent, in
his answer Newman stresses the exercise of the religious imagination. Now, what
this means is that if we wish to grow in a genuine, real and personal belief in
the person of Jesus, we must day by day look on Jesus, as it were. Everyone who
sees the Son and believes in him, our Lord tells us today, will have life
everlasting. So throughout our lives we must be looking on the Son and
believing in him. How do we do this? We look on him in our daily prayer, in our
prayerful contemplation of his person as portrayed in the Gospels and in our
communion with him. We must be with him in mind and heart, learning to look on
him and love him and believe in him totally. The Christian life entails a great
commitment to personal prayer, a prayer characterised by a gazing on Christ with
faith, hope and love, and as a result of this gaze involving the whole mind,
heart and religious imagination we totally accept his teaching and put it every
day into practice.
Let
us resolve to look on the Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of Man, to see him
and believe in him with all our mind, heart and soul. This sight of Christ is a
seeing in faith and prayer. It is not sight with the eyes, but sight with the
mind and heart, a vivid belief nourished by daily prayer and the reading of the
Scriptures and of all that truly and reliably speaks of the living unseen
Jesus. In this way we continue to look on Jesus and grow in a genuine faith in
him. If we do this he will raise us up
Confused
— I knew you were in danger of making the wrong decision. And
so that you could understand me, I wrote: The devil has a very ugly
face, and since he is so clever, he won't risk our seeing his horns. He
never makes a direct attack. That is why he so often comes in the
disguise of nobleness and even of spirituality!
(The Way, no.384)
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Scripture today: Acts 8:26-40; Psalm
66:8-9, 16-17, 20; John 6:44-51
Jesus said to the crowd:
No man can come to me unless the Father who has sent me draws him, and
I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets:
they shall all be taught by God. Every one who listens to the Father
and learns from him comes to me. Not that any man has seen the Father
except the one who is from God. He has seen the Father. Amen, amen I
say to you: He who believes in me has everlasting life. I am the bread
of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died.
But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which people may eat
and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever
eats of this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I
will give for the life of the world.(John 6:44-51)
Life of
the world
It is well to notice that it is not just to his disciples that Jesus uttered the
words of our Gospel passage today. He did not say these things just to a small
group of intimate devotees, disciples who had arrived at a genuine love for and
ardent devotion to his person and who therefore might be expected to accept
difficult teaching readily.
He said these things to the crowd, to those who were there for a variety of
reasons and who were looking for material benefits (such as good food, having
eaten of the loaves). Our Lord is setting forth before them the incomparable
singularity of his person and of his unique relationship with the Father. So
special is the person of Christ and so central to the plan of God is he that if
anyone truly approaches him, it is in fact, our Lord says, the Father who has
drawn him. The Father draws that person to Christ because Christ is the
Saviour: “I will raise him up on the last day.” The Father is intent on teaching
all, all, about Christ his Son. And so our Lord continues, “It is written in
the prophets: they shall all be taught by God. Every one who listens to the
Father and learns from him comes to me.” So then, the truly religious man and
the one who listens to God comes to Jesus Christ. Our Lord is saying that he is
the centrepiece of God the Father’s plan for the world, and the enlightened and
convinced Christian is prepared not only to think this but to share it with
others. I remember once saying to a teacher of Year 12 Religious Studies (a
subject examinable at Higher School Certificate level in various States of
Australia), that the challenge for a Christian schoolteacher of what is
virtually comparative religion, is to show that Christ is the divinely appointed
way to the Father. He made the point that many would not have the courage to
assert this. In our age of profound intellectual relativism it takes a lot of
inner courage to assent to the proposition that Christ is the only way to the
Father and the one and only Saviour of the world. It takes further courage to
express that conviction and then to attempt to teach it. But that is the
Christian position. Christ is the only Saviour.
Our Lord continues with insistence his exalted claims. He has seen the Father.
“Not that any man has seen the Father except the one who is from God. He has
seen the Father” (John 6:44‑51). Let us
remember, he is saying these things to the crowds. Clearly, the time has
arrived when our Lord chooses to speak quite openly about himself. He has seen
the Father. He accuses the leaders in another part of the Gospel of not having
seen the Father’s form — but he has. He comes from God. Moreover, “He who
believes in me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors
ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that
comes down from heaven, which people may eat and not die. I am the living bread
that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever.” I
invite you to try to think of any other person of great substance and holiness
in the history of the world who spoke like this. He, Jesus, has come down from
heaven. It was plain and obvious that he was a man. They knew he came from
Nazareth and was born and raised in a family whom very many knew. Yet he has
come down from heaven! Moreover, he is the bread which gives life to the world.
Did Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Isaiah or any of the prophets speak like this? Has
any other figure in world history? Anyone who partakes of Christ himself will
not die. He will live forever! Setting aside the further revelation in this
very chapter of John’s Gospel that Christ will give himself to us in the
Eucharist — our Lord’s claimed place in the world and in religion should be a
cause of wonder to any detached observer. Our Lord’s place in the life of the
world is supreme. No words are adequate. Our Lord is not merely saying that
his teaching brings life to the world. No, it is specifically his flesh that is
the bread of life. Just as the heart is central to the life of the body so
Christ’s very flesh is central to the life of the world. From him pours forth
life for the world, a life that will never fail, life everlasting, and this
eternal life comes in his very flesh.
Let
us pause to contemplate the powerful, the gentle, the magnificent person of
Jesus. He is the wonder of mankind, the shining jewel of the ages. In him we
find the bread that nourishes us with eternal life. More precisely, it is his
very flesh that endows mankind with this life. In the rest of his sixth
chapter, John will be more precise about this point, but let us pause to take
our place with Jesus and to give ourselves to him and to his friendship. He is
our love, our life and our only Saviour.
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Scripture today: Acts 9:1-20; Psalm
117:1bc, 2; John 6:52-59
Then the Jews began to
argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to
eat?" Jesus said to them, "Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the
flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will
raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood
is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me,
and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of
the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is
the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and
died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." He said this
while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.(John 6:52-59)
His body and blood Christ
made many startling claims and were it not for his obvious holiness, his moral
stature, his judgment and his astounding miracles, together with the testimonies
to him coming from John the Baptist, the Law and the Prophets, and indeed, from
the heavenly Father himself, who could countenance them? But so it is.
He is entirely credible and therefore his claims of being the Messiah, the Son
of God, and equal to the Father are trustworthy. But now, our Gospel passage
today presents us with what must be counted among his most extraordinary
promises. Who has ever uttered the like? I refer to Christ’s doctrine of the
Eucharist. In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke the doctrine and
institution of the Eucharist is situated where it especially occurred, during
the Last Supper. There, the night before he died and during the Paschal meal
which it transformed and fulfilled, the institution of the Eucharist occurred.
Christ took bread and, by his divine power, changed its substance into the
substance of his own body and did the same with the wine, changing it into his
own blood. Then he gave it to his disciples, commanding them to do this in
memory of him. It was the first Mass and from that point Mass has been
celebrated in the life of the Church and will continue to be celebrated till
Christ comes again in glory. John does not repeat all this in his own account
of the Last Supper. Rather, we learn from St John that what Christ did in the
circle of his Apostles he had actually declared quite publicly well before and
in the most unmistakable of terms. He spoke of it in a synagogue no less, and
we read at the end of the chapter that as a result, many of his disciples left
him. The doctrine was that if they did not eat his flesh and drink his blood
they would have no life in them. It was clear to all that he meant this
literally and he expressed it without proceeding to explain in what manner he
would do it. That it would be done truly but sacramentally was revealed only at
the Last Supper. Well then, let us consider our Lord’s teaching.
Firstly, the life, the divine and abundant life, which our Lord came to grant to
man would come through eating his flesh and drinking his blood. This life that
comes from eating his flesh and drinking his blood is eternal life — it comes
with the promise that Christ will raise up on the last day the one who so eats
and drinks. Does Christ mean this merely as a powerful and rich metaphor,
perhaps symbolizing the profound interiority with which we should accept his
word? No, he means us to understand him literally: “For my flesh is real food
and my blood is real drink”, he says. It is not meant metaphorically but
really, and it is done by the almighty power of God. Our Lord tells his hearers
what will be the effect of this: they will remain in him and he in them. It
will be the greatest possible union and will bring with it a share in his own
eternal life: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in
them.” So intimate a union with our Lord will this bring about, that it will be
similar to his own union with the Father. The one partaking of him will live
because of him and share his life. “Just as the living Father sent me and I
live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven” (John
6:52‑59). In the plan of God for our redemption and sanctification
we are called to feed on Christ as real food and real drink. Christ is
uncompromising: his flesh is to be our food and his blood is to be our drink.
Let us remember that this doctrine was pronounced in the full light of day and
publicly. It led to an abandonment of Christ by many of his disciples, but
there was no going back. His doctrine stood and will stand for all ages and it
is the test of discipleship. Being a disciple of Christ in the sense desired by
him means accepting his offer of his body and blood as our food and drink, which
of course we must receive truly worthily and with a lively faith. It is for
this reason that the Church has always taught that it is the Mass that matters.
In
the solemn intimacy of the Last Supper Christ showed his Apostles how this
stupendous mystery would be effected. It would be done truly but
sacramentally. The flesh of Christ would be eaten and his blood drunk under the
appearances of bread and wine, with the entire substance of the bread and wine
having been changed into his entire person, body, blood, soul and divinity. All
this occurs during the celebration of Mass and the whole Christ is received
during Holy Communion. Furthermore, by Christ’s intention we can only receive
this gift of the body and blood of Christ from the hands of the Apostles and the
priesthood he instituted in them. The Eucharist is the mystery of our faith and
the summit and source of our entire Christian life.
Don't forget, my son, that for you on earth there is but one evil,
which you must fear and avoid with the grace of God: sin.
(The Way, no.386)
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Scripture today: Acts
9:31-42; Psalm 116:12-17; John 6:60-69
On hearing what Jesus
taught, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can
accept it?" Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus
said to them, "Does this offend you? Then what if you see the Son of
Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh
counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the
Spirit and life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe." For
Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and
who would betray him. He went on to say, "This is why I told you that
no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them." From this
time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. "Do
you also want to leave?" Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered
him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We
have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God."(John 6:60-69)
The
drama of faith
One of the greatest Christian preachers in the history of the United States was
Archbishop Fulton Sheen. As well as being a master orator in radio, television
and pulpit he was the author of numerous books of substance. Philosophy had
been his academic speciality and I myself was once especially impressed with his
book, The Philosophy of Religion. It has often been thought that because
of the mention in the Gospels of Judas Iscariot’s theft of money from the purse,
it was this fault of avarice that gradually led him away from Christ.
But Fulton Sheen was of the view that it was not his love for money that led to
his abandonment of Christ but his rejection of the doctrine of the Eucharist.
How so? The first mention by Christ of the defection of Judas occurs in chapter
6 of St John’s Gospel. It appears in the very next sentence after our Gospel
passage today. Christ had announced his stunning doctrine of the Eucharist, and
many of his disciples chose not to walk with him any longer. Simon Peter,
speaking for the Twelve, had unambiguously declared his faith in Jesus. But
unbeknown to Simon, there was one among them to whom his profession of faith did
not apply. Our Lord responded to Simon, “Have I not chosen you Twelve? Yet one
of you is a devil!” In his heart, Judas had refused acceptance of the doctrine
of the Eucharist and in spirit was turning from Christ who had called him to be
one of the Twelve. These words of our Lord are not included in our Gospel
passage today: today’s selection falls just short of them but they are assuredly
part of the drama of disbelief that is presented in today’s passage. What our
Lord had said was too much for many of his disciples. Fulton Sheen says that it
was on this occasion when our Lord declared that his flesh must be eaten — not
metaphorically or symbolically but truly — that he lost the masses. We can
imagine their returning to their homes shaking their heads and dismissing our
Lord in their family circles and among their relatives and friends. Perhaps it
was then that the tide began to turn for our Lord.
Of course, some of this is speculation, but what is not of speculation is our
Lord’s dramatic announcement of his new doctrine of the Eucharist, and the
rejection of it by many of his disciples. They rejected it and refused to go
with him any longer. There had been no doctrine like it in the entire history
of God’s people, and no prophet had uttered such a thing. Our Lord, already
powerful in his teaching and in his works, told the people in the full light of
publicity, in the very synagogue of the town he made his base during his
Galilean ministry, that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood if they were
to have the life which God was promising. No, he was not speaking in
metaphors. It was not just a manner of speech, yet another parable as it were.
His flesh was real food, his blood was real drink and the one who fed on him
would live forever. Nothing could be clearer, and nothing more mysterious. It
was, if anything was, the mystery of faith in Jesus of Nazareth. This doctrine
of the Eucharist could only be accepted on the basis that he, Jesus, had uttered
it. The people had observed him teaching and working his astonishing miracles
and had said of him that he spoke as one having authority and not as did the
scribes. It could only be on his authority that such a doctrine could be
accepted. Our Lord did not even make it easier — that is, if it would have been
any easier — by intimating to them how he would do this. He did not mention
that it would be done sacramentally. This would be revealed in time to his
Apostles and effected at the Last Supper. Christ would give them his flesh to
eat and his blood to drink as a sacrament. The Church calls it the Sacrament of
the Holy Eucharist and it is the summit and the source of the entire life of the
Church herself and of every member of the Church. But it requires the constant
exercise of faith in the word of Jesus as transmitted by the witness and
teaching of the Church. This drama of faith is at the heart of discipleship and
our passage today reminds us that many tragically fail.
Let
us place ourselves in the scene of today’s Gospel and watch our Lord as he turns
to us and asks, do you believe what I have said? Or will you too go away? And
with faith in him who is the source of life let us say together with Simon
Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have
come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God”
(John 6:60‑69).
Prayers this week: The earth is
full of the goodness of the Lord; by the word of the Lord the heavens
were made, alleluia.
(Psalm 32: 5-6) Almighty
and ever-living God, give us new strength from the courage of Christ
our shepherd and lead us to join the saints in heaven. We ask this
through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the
unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.
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Scripture today: Acts
2:14a, 36-41; Psalm 23: 1-6; 1 Peter 2:20b-25; John 10:1-10
"Very truly I tell you
Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but
climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who
enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens
the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own
sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own,
he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know
his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will
run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice."
Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand
what he was telling them. Therefore Jesus said again, "Very truly I
tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are
thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the
gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go
out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and
destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."(John 10:1-10)
The only
Gate
Our Gospel passage for today is drawn from the tenth chapter of St John’s Gospel
in which our Lord makes stupendous claims, the greatest of which is that he is
one in being with the Father and is therefore God. He also speaks of himself as
the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for all his sheep.
In our passage today our Lord uses a slightly different image. He tells “the
Jews” that he is the gate of the sheepfold, and that God’s shepherds must pass
through him in all their dealings with the sheep. He is speaking especially to
the Pharisees who claim a special authority to guide God’s sheep to pasture.
But they are opposed to Jesus and, together with the leaders, gradually become
implacably hostile to his teaching and ministry to the people of God. They
refuse to acknowledge him as the gate of God’s sheepfold through which all
shepherds must pass. In fact they come to utterly reject him. Our Lord gives a
solemn warning: “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.” The
one who refuses to accept him as the one and only gate to the sheep but attempts
to enter or to lead the sheep to pasture through some other gate “is a thief and
a robber” (John 10:1‑10). So then, our Lord
is speaking both of himself and of the shepherds of the sheep. In the Letter to
the Hebrews our Lord is presented as our one High Priest through whom we attain
the Father, and our Lord himself told his disciples that no one can come to the
Father except through him. He is the Way to the Father and in him resides the
full Truth and all the Life of the Father. He who sees him, sees the Father.
“The Father and I are one”, he tells the Jews later in this chapter. So all who
tend God’s sheep, his chosen flock, must do so in and through him. In our day
when there has been a laudable growth in interest and appreciation of the
various religions of man, there is the danger of thinking that other gates may
be chosen to reach eternal life. As our Lord says in the Gospel and as the
Church constantly testifies down the ages, it is he, Christ, who brings this
abundant life. He is the only gate to heaven and to God. If others reach
heaven, then even if they are unaware of it, they have passed through the only
gate which is Christ.
Christ also speaks of the shepherds of the flock. Who, in the plan of God are
the shepherds of the flock appointed to lead the sheep to the abundant pasture
that is Christ himself? When the risen Jesus met the Apostles on the shore of
the Sea of Galilee he spoke to Simon. Do you love me, he asked. Yes? Then feed
my sheep. Three times he asked the question and three times he entrusted Peter
with the care of his lambs. He was giving to Peter and his successors the
primacy of care over his flock, and essential to the success of this care was a
personal love for Christ. That is to say, Christ was the gate through which his
ordained pastors must constantly pass. The shepherds appointed by God are those
among Christ’s flock who are ordained to the ministerial priesthood, of which
Peter and the Apostles were the first in time and in rank. Love for Jesus must
distinguish their pastoral service. All the baptized share by grace in the life
of Christ. All the baptized faithful, then, share in his one priesthood in the
ordinary sense of being called to offer to the Father in union with Christ the
sacrifices of their prayers, their work and their life. By these continual
spiritual sacrifices offered in union with the one High Priest especially at
Mass, they make the Church and the world more acceptable to God. In this way
the entire Church is engaged in a vast priestly activity on behalf of the
world. But he, the ordinary member of Christ’s Faithful with what might be
called his ordinary and common share in Christ’s priesthood, is of course not a
designated shepherd of God’s flock as such. The shepherd of Christ’s flock is
the ordained priest, the one who has received the Sacrament of Orders empowering
him with the gifts of the Spirit to lead the flock of Christ to pasture and that
pasture is, of course, Christ himself. His share in Christ’s priesthood is of
an essentially different kind to that of the lay faithful. He acts in Christ’s
person in offering the sacrifice of the Mass, in forgiving sins, in anointing
the sick, in confirming the baptized, in preaching God’s word and administering
the Sacraments, and all of this precisely and distinctively as pastor. In
short, his task is to feed the flock of God with Christ himself. By the power
of the Sacrament of Holy Orders he makes present in his person and activity
Jesus himself, the Good Shepherd and one High Priest.
In
all his dealings with God and with mankind the ordained Catholic priest must
constantly pass through the one gate which is Christ. He may never pass through
another gate, or preach another Christ, another message, nor sound a different
trumpet from that of the Church gathered around the chief pastor, the successor
of Simon Peter to whom Christ entrusted all his lambs, all his sheep. For this
reason Christ’s faithful love the ordained priesthood because they know that
through this ordained priesthood they are led by Christ the Good Shepherd to
their eternal pasture.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church,
no. 1539-1553
(The sacrament of orders in the economy of salvation)
Holy shamelessness is one thing: plain cheekiness, quite another.
(The Way, no.388)
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Scripture today: Acts 11:1-18; Psalm
42:2-3; 43:3, 4; John 10:11-18
I am the good shepherd.
The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired man is
not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming,
he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock
and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired man and cares
nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my
sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father— and I
lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this
sheep fold. I must lead them also. They too will listen to my voice,
and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father
loves me is that I lay down my life— only to take it up again. No one
takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to
lay it down and power to take it up again. This command I received from
my Father.(John 10:11-18)
The Good
Shepherd
There are a number of important things our Lord tells us about himself in
today’s Gospel. In the Old Testament Yahweh God had promised he would raise up
for his flock a good shepherd, one who would truly tend the sheep and lead them
to pasture. Our
Lord tells us that he is that Good Shepherd and that God’s sheep belong to him.
Our Lord stresses some distinguishing characteristics of his being the Good
Shepherd. Firstly, he lays down his life for the sheep and this laying down of
his life is an integral and necessary part of his care for the sheep
(John 10:11‑18). It manifests that they belong
to him — they are his responsibility. He is not like the hired man to whom the
sheep do not belong. Christ cares intensely for each of them and, as with the
flocks of olden days, he the Shepherd knows them individually and they know
him. This is due to the loving choice of Christ and the action of the Holy
Spirit in us. By our baptism we are endowed with the gift of faith which
inclines our minds and hearts to listen to him and to follow him. How sad if
this God‑given and holy inclination is neglected or allowed to die away through
unrepented sin! So strong is this mutual relationship between Christ and each of
us who by faith and baptism are in him, that our Lord gives an extraordinary
parallel. He tells us that just as the Father knows him and he knows the
Father, so too he knows us and we know him. The foundation of this relationship
between us and Christ is the gift of the Holy Spirit to us. Just as the Father
and the Son are united in the Holy Spirit who is their life of love, so too we
are united to Christ by the gift of the Holy Spirit who is the love of God in
person. As Christ says elsewhere in the Gospel, the Father is in me and I am in
him. So too, as St Paul and the New Testament repeatedly states, Christ is in
us and we are in him. This is the mystery now revealed, St Paul writes in one
of his Letters, Christ in you, your hope of glory.
So then, an ineffable bond exists between Christ and each of us his sheep. It
is a bond that has been established by God himself as a supernatural given and
it is grounded in the life of the Trinity itself, in the bond between each of
the three divine Persons. For this reason St Paul writes in one of his Letters
that neither height nor depth, nor anything in all of creation, can come between
us and the love of God in Christ. He is our Good Shepherd and he lays down his
life for us his sheep, and the result of that gift of his life is that we are in
him and he is in us. Furthermore, there are other sheep, our Lord says —
thinking of the ages to come — that are not yet of his fold. They too he must
lead to pasture. “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep fold. I must
lead them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock
and one shepherd.” So it is the divine plan that all men come to eternal life in
and through Christ. He is the way to the Father. The Father and I are one, he
says. I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. For this reason, just before he
ascended into heaven he charged his disciples to go to the whole world and make
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit. God’s dream and plan for the salvation of
mankind is that there be one flock and one shepherd, one Church and one Head of
that Church. There are many Christians who do not see the unity of all
Christians in one fold, in one Church, as being the plan of God. They are
mistaken as to Christ’s intention. There is one only Saviour of the world and
by the power of his freely chosen death and resurrection — his laying down of
his life and taking it up again — that Saviour is the Head and source of unity
of his one flock. They are called to listen to his voice in the one fold under
the one Shepherd. That fold is the Church Christ founded on his Apostles with
Peter at their head. The Church is an essential part of Christ’s work of
redeeming the world.
Let
us entrust ourselves to the keeping of the Good Shepherd who has laid down his
life for us and has taken it up again for our salvation. We, who by baptism
belong to him and to his fold, ought to thank him and promise to live as sheep
who belong to him who is the Good Shepherd. Let us take up the mission of
bringing Christ to the world so that others who are not yet of his fold will
find life in his name by being led to the one fold and the one Shepherd. He is
King of kings and Lord of lords, and the Shepherd of the world and of all men.
Holy shamelessness is a characteristic of the 'life of childhood.' A
little child worries about nothing. He makes no effort to hide his
weaknesses, his natural miseries, not even when everyone is watching
him.
This shamelessness applied to the supernatural life, brings with it the
following train of thought: praise, contempt; esteem, ridicule; honour,
dishonour; health, sickness; riches, poverty; beauty, ugliness...
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Scripture today:
Acts 11:19-26; Psalm 87:1b-7; John 10:22-30
Then came the Feast of
Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple
area walking in Solomon's Colonnade. The Jews gathered round him,
saying, How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ,
tell us plainly. Jesus answered, I did tell you, but you do not
believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me, but you do
not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice;
I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they
shall never perish; no-one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father,
who has given them to me, is greater than all; no-one can snatch them
out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one.(John 10:22-30)
Jesus As I
have observed elsewhere, one of the hallmarks of St John’s Gospel is its ample
use of empirical detail. For instance, in chapter 5 we have the account of the
cure of the sick man at the Pool of Bethzatha. St John begins by giving a few
details: “Now at the Sheep Pool in Jerusalem there is a building, called
Bethzatha in Hebrew, consisting of five porticos”.
Incidentally, we notice that St John places this scene in the present tense: he
does not write that “there was a building called Bethzatha.” but that
“there is a building called Bethzatha.” It might indicate that he wrote
this text prior to the destruction of Jerusalem and not nearly as late as some
textual scholars have maintained. That speculation aside, my point here is
John’s practice of including detail, showing how vivid was his memory of what he
had observed. In our Gospel today from chapter 10 he includes the detail that
it was the Feast of Dedication and that “it was winter, and Jesus was walking in
the Portico of Solomon.” Why mention this seemingly unnecessary detail? I
suspect it was due to John’s fondness for situating the event in the setting he
remembers so well. It emphasises its factuality. It was winter, and perhaps
our Lord was walking up and down the colonnade with his disciples to keep warm —
perhaps, who knows! These small details help us to appreciate constantly that we
are talking here of real history, of hard facts, of situations and interchanges
that were observed. We are talking of a real, flesh‑and‑blood Jesus, of the man
who was God the Son being profoundly engaged with his time and place.
Christianity is a religion grounded not in myth and allegory but in concrete
facts, and the numerous seemingly unnecessary details of the Gospels assist us
in appreciating this. So then, in this place and in this time of the year the
Jews interrupt our Lord in his walking and gather around him to ask the
fundamental question: Who are you? Tell us plainly, are you the Christ?
Our Lord’s answer makes it clear that they are asking this because they refuse
to believe. He has already indicated to them who he is, but they will not
accept it. He has told them and has worked numerous miracles to support what he
has said, but to no avail because they are not part of his flock — and that, by
their own choice. His sheep are those whom God has placed into his hands.
Jesus the Good Shepherd knows his sheep and they know him. They listen to him
and they follow him. We read, “Jesus answered, I did tell you, but you do not
believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, but you do not
believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them,
and they follow me” (John 10:22‑30). So in
the question the leaders ask, we have before us the drama of unbelief and of the
tragedy it entails. Those who listen to Jesus, who know him and who follow him
are the object of his unfailing care and nurture. As his flock they are
absolutely secure from all enemies and no one will be able to snatch them out of
his hand. “I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they
shall never perish; no‑one can snatch them out of my hand.” Our Lord is speaking
in the same way as the God who is Father of all would speak, and this is exactly
what he goes on to claim: that he is indeed one with the Father. “My Father,
who has given them to me, is greater than all; no‑one can snatch them out of my
Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” (John 10:22‑30). The Father is
greater than all, and Jesus is one with the Father. Jesus, then, is greater
than all — as is the Father. He is God, just as the Father is God. We are
speaking here of a God who reveals himself as love, love within the Trinity
itself and love for us his children. Just as the Father loves us tenderly and
will guard us against all dangers and give to us life eternal, so too does
Jesus. In this love for us too, apart from their oneness in being, the Father
and Jesus are one.
In
our Gospel passage today, replete with its concrete detail, our Lord reveals
himself to be one with the Father and equal to him. Together with the Father he
loves and cares for us with unconquerable fidelity. We can rely on Jesus
totally. He is our Good Shepherd and no one can snatch us from his loving
care. Let us entrust ourselves to him completely and resolve to know him more
and more fully, and to listen to him and to follow him with daily obedience.
Laugh at ridicule. Despise the bogey
of what people will say. See and feel God in yourself and in your
surroundings. And you will acquire the holy shamelessness that you need
— what a paradox! — in order to live with the refinement of a Christian
gentleman.
said, Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For
no-one could perform these signs you are doing if God were not with him. In
reply Jesus declared, I tell you the truth, no-one can see the kingdom of God
unless he is born again. How can a man be born when he is old? Nicodemus asked.
Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born! Jesus
answered, I tell you the truth, no-one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is
born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives
birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born
again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot
tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of
the Spirit. (John 3:1-8)
On Nicodemus’s profession of belief, our Lord reveals a fundamental requirement
for entry into the realm and friendship of God. A person must be born again.
It is birth by water and the Spirit. The Church teaches that our Lord is
referring here to Baptism. Baptism by water involves a new birth which bestows
a share in the life of God. The Holy Spirit floods the soul with sanctifying
grace, unites it with God, and breaks the hold of sin. At that instant the soul
becomes an adopted child of God and is saved. However, the inherited
inclination to sin remains, and with it the disorder of man’s natural powers and
his inevitable death. It is thus very possible to fall into sin again and to
lose one’s soul. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit has come, and the seed of
personal holiness has been planted. What is now needed is one’s shoulder to the
wheel — which is to say, an earnest quest for perfection in Christ. With
Baptism, a precious gift is lodged in the soul of the newly-baptized. It is the
gift of grace, which can be used to attain personal holiness, or squandered in a
life of neglect and sin. Needless to say, one of the notable points of
doctrinal cleavage between the Catholic Church and some of the Protestant
reformers concerned this rebirth (or regeneration). The Catholic Church insists
that because of this gift of divine life, the baptized person may grow in heroic
sanctity, with sin being progressively overcome. It requires consistent and
generous co-operation with the action the Holy Spirit. By contrast, many
Protestant Reformers rejected this and maintained that at the new birth, the
mantle of Christ’s merits covers the sins of the one reborn, and God looks on
him with delight in view of the merits of Christ’s saving death. His sins are
forgiven because of what Christ had done, but in himself he remains a sinner.
Becoming holy involves no more than being enwrapped with the merits of Christ,
and this occurs with faith. Man trusts that God forgives him, and with this the
work of holiness is largely done.
Don't be a pessimist. Don't you
realise that all that happens or can happen is for the best?