FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER A

[cappie]

Even though we are in the season of Easter, our lives may still feel like one long Lenten discipline of social distancing and fighting illness. Even as we proclaim the truth of Easter resurrection, Good Friday’s shadow still looms long. However, we know that Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is faithful 

Jesus’ words on the Shepherd (Jn 10:1-18) are like a brick placed in an already built wall. Just before this text, in John 9:40-41, Jesus was speaking  of the blindness of the Pharisees. Immediately after, in John 10:19-21, we come across the conclusion of the discussion on blindness. Thus, the words concerning the Good Shepherd show how to remove such blindness. 

Jesus clearly has something he wants to communicate to us when he says I tell you most solemnly, I am the gate of the sheepfold.  

What is the purpose of the gate? It is precisely to create an opening in the fence. It is precisely to allow travel through the wall. It is a means of liberation, not a means of exclusion. When Jesus says, “I am the gate,” it is his way of inviting us both in and out. He is telling us that he is our way to safety, to entering a restful place where we know we are loved and protected. But he is also telling us that we will need to go back out through that gate into the world. It is his invitation to leave safety and security and go back out into a world of challenges and stumbling blocks.

We might expect that of Jesus—that he would tell us that we are safe but that there is more to life than safety. We could understand that he does promise us sanctuary, but he also expects us to go back out and do the good work we are called to do, knowing that it may sometimes end with us feeling battered and bruised.

But  Jesus calls himself the gate. He is not just saying, “There is a gate in all your carefully constructed, self-isolating walls.” He is saying, “I am the gate in all your carefully constructed, self-isolating walls.”  

Because that means that everything that we have labelled as a barrier is actually Jesus. Everything we have set up to protect ourselves is actually our very means of being called out into a life of adventure, possibility, and yes, strife and conflict. And those careful walls we have placed between ourselves and others? Jesus is the gate. He is made himself a secret entrance into our hearts, and all kinds of people are going to get in. When we fully understand that Jesus is the gate—Jesus is the entry point into all change, depth, struggle, and love—it is simultaneously terrifying and exhilarating. As the saying goes, “God loves us exactly as we are, and God loves us far too much to leave us that way.”

 On a good day, when we are feeling confident and happy in God’s love, seeing the glory of God’s people and God’s creation all around us, grey is beautiful. But when we are hurting, weary, afraid, not only can we no longer see the shades of grey, we no longer want to.  We think we are keeping ourselves safe, we think we are obeying the rules, but really, we are our own jailers. We are refusing to see the open gate in our hearts. We are refusing to see Jesus.

But we know Jesus is patient.  He says to all of us, “I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture.” Sometimes we wish there were no gate. Sometimes we wish the barriers and boundaries we have placed around our hearts were bulletproof and siege resistant. But before long, God reminds us that that aching hole in our hearts, where insight and possibility and all of these people, beautiful, flawed people, keep sneaking in—that is the very presence of Jesus who brings us rest in green pastures, beside the still waters.

Prayers of the Faithful

Celebrant                          Sisters and brothers, Jesus revealed as the Good Shepherd is the one in whose wounds we have been healed, and who is the guardian of our souls.

For Pope Francis and the whole Catholic Church, that as we pray the Rosary of Mary in our homes during this month of May, we ask that, through Christ, our broken and fearful world will be healed,  we pray to the Lord...

For the Church across the world on this Vocations Sunday, that in those places where the service of priest and deacons and the witness of the religious is sparse, the Holy Spirit will call forth new vocations, we pray to the Lord...

For all who are sick with the coronavirus and other illnesses, who are fearful and in great need, who feel the added burden of isolation from family and friends, we pray to the Lord... 

For students and families, teachers, lecturers and staff in schools and universities, and education leaders, that they will work together with confidence and create safe and calm environments, we pray to the Lord

For the many priests and religious who have died in this coronavirus pandemic, that they will pass through Jesus, the Gate of the Sheepfold and have life to the full. We also remember ….  we pray to the Lord...

Celebrant:               Father, eternal Gate of the sheepfold, may we enter through you into the presence of the Father and come to that eternal joy which you have prepared for us by your death and resurrection, for you are Lord, for ever and ever.