JESUS said, I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
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Last week we saw how the resurrection of Our Lord, a completely new event in the history of the world, instituted a new reality in which man no longer is bound by sin, death, fear, and shame. We saw how the resurrection was the culmination of a biblical narrative in which Jesus recapitulates the sin of Adam and Eve and reunifies man with God. Man had been separated from God but when God became Man, he healed human nature and lifted it up into divinity. The Apostles who were, like Adam and Eve, in hiding from fear of death now were given true Peace and the power over sin by Jesus Christ.
All of this can be summarized by the phrase often used by the Church Fathers: grace does not destroy nature but perfects nature. When the Second Person of the Trinity bound his nature to human nature at the Incarnation, human nature was not destroyed or so radically changed that it became unrecognizable. In fact, when Jesus walked on earth as fully God and fully man, he was fully recognizable–as a man! Human nature had indeed changed, but it was fulfilled–perfected–rather than destroyed or disfigured.
Like we saw last week, this new state of being that Jesus Christ instituted is a new reality. And this reality continues to this very day as the life of the Church. Christ commissioned the Apostles in the Upper Room with the commission he had received from His Father and ordained them with the Apostolic power of absolution. Later, at Pentecost, he gives these same men the full power of the Holy Spirit, by which action the Church is instituted.
In the Church we live out the new reality which Christ instituted. It is a life where grace perfects nature. This process, however, is not mechanistic. By that I mean that the Church is not like an engine to a car that is built and so long as it has gas, it continues to run and perform the same action again and again and again.
Rather it is an organic process, one that involves the blooming of creation. Jesus often used organic metaphors to describe the Church! It is like a seed or a tree or yeast. The animating force within the church is the Holy Spirit which Jesus gave to the Apostles and continues to give to us through the sacraments. God has bound Himself to the sacraments so that when we celebrate the Mass or when we baptize a child, the words are truly effected. A seed that is planted and taken care of will blossom and grow into a towering tree. Likewise, faith that is planted and taken care of, will blossom into a beautiful life.
This evening we baptized the newest member of our parish. According to the liturgy, Teddy now has what he could not achieve by his own nature: a spiritual regeneration by which the stain of sin has been washed away and Teddy became a living member of Christ’s Holy Church. While we used formal words and actions to perform the baptism, this transformation is not like a costco membership–its not something external and mechanistic. Rather, the Spirit of the Living God moved upon the waters and regenerated Teddy’s human nature. Teddy’s own birth just a little while ago was a wonderful event but even more wonderful is now this new birth in which he has been taken from the grips of death and made part of Christ’s own family. The Holy Spirit has worked in his soul this very day and purified it.
This happened to each and every one of us at our baptisms, and God continues to nourish us through the other sacraments He has bound Himself to in the life of the Church. The guiding metaphor we have this week, of course, is Christ as the Good Shepherd–that He nourishes and cares for us as a shepherd. As St. Paul says, we were as sheep going astray–sheep who could not help themselves, but have now been returned to our True Shepherd. The key to living in the Church is to follow our Shepherd, Jesus Christ. This, of course, means to imitate him, but also to let Him guide you in all that you do. Sheep need that sort of care. I remember one time tending to a small group of sheep when I realized the irony of the parable of the Good Shepherd. My job was to lead a small group of sheep from a barn, into a bottleneck pathway that led to open pasture. I led this group on this same path day after day until one random day, the sheep became spooked or indignant and when they reached the bottleneck, they froze, turned and ran every other direction other than the one we had walked every day. Nothing had changed, and the sheep should have known that open pasture was just beyond this path, but they were wandering around the barn yard, confused and scared. I realized, then, as I was struggling to round up this timid herd, that the parable shows a lot about our own human tendencies to sin–to run away in fear without much attention and reason. To say we are like sheep is not a flattering statement, though it hits pretty close to the truth.
It also says much about our Saviour and God who claimed to be a Good Shepherd. This was, of course, a fulfillment of OT prophecy–for example, Ezekiel prophecies: “David My servant shall be king over them, and they all shall have one Shepherd.” Ezekiel 37:24 And in Isaiah we find: [Isa 40:10-11 KJV] “Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong [hand], and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward [is] with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry [them] in his bosom, [and] shall gently lead those that are with young.” These prophecies make a lot of sense given that some of the great characters in the OT were shepherds like Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and David.
However, by the time of the Gospels, shepherds were no longer famous patriarchs who enjoyed great wealth and prominence through having large herds of animals. We know that shepherds were actually quite poor, received very low wages, were separated from society for most of the year, and even had a stigma of being thieves and outcasts. Shepherding was a demanding and rigorous job. Not only did they live out in the wild for most of the year, they had a great burden to not lose any sheep–even a hired shepherd probably had to pay the owner for any lost sheep. The shepherds were responsible for finding the right food at that right times of year, being attentive to the seasons and weather patterns, helping the mothers give birth to lambs in the wild, and protecting the flock from disease, thieves, and wild animals. A Good Shepherd does all of this with great care with animals that often stray, are very anxious, and cannot help themselves very much.
What we realize is that our reality, the reality of the life of the Church is shaped and modeled by our Shepherd, Jesus Christ. It is our Shepherd who still bears the wounds from his fight for us, our Shepherd who desires to take care of us, our Shepherd who gives of Himself so that we might live. Our small parish in this past week has experienced the great highs and lows of life. We have welcomed a new baby into the world, baptized another baby in the family of Christ, but also we have witnessed the tragic death of one beloved to many here. Each of these lives is held dear to Our Lord who guides and shepherds us, and we can rest in our faith that the Good Shepherd will bring us to our only true Home. Our job is to listen to His call because He seeks to care for you both in your celebrations and also in your suffering. Do not turn aside from His call and accept this world as your final home, or call your friends/family your home, or your possessions/positions as your home–we must not cast our vision (our finality) just here on earth but look towards our true home. Let us view heaven as our home and this life a pilgrimage. That is living in the reality of Jesus, who will lead us home. Come and dedicate yourself to the One who gives Himself for you. See what meal the Shepherd has brought to you today: it is His Body and His blood. Taste and see that the Lord is good, and listen to His call.
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JESUS said, I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.