For our Good Shepherd Sunday, this year, we have the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd as envisaged by St John. In John’s gospel this shepherd is not just the one that goes out looking for the lost sheep, or the one who leads the sheep into green pastures so that they can eat and be nourished. In John’s gospel the Shepherd goes to the extreme: he gives his life for his sheep – something that is mentioned at least four times in today’s short gospel passage. And, moreover, he does it freely, not because he has to. “I lay it down of my own accord,” he says.

This is, indeed, an act of great love. The central theme found in all of St John’s writings is actually this, the great, unconditional love that God has for each one of us. It is a love freely-given; we do not receive it because we deserve it, and we do not have to do anything to earn it! Reflecting on this, St Paul would say, in his letter to the Romans, that God loved us when we were still sinners, still his enemies. Some people find it very difficult to understand this, because we are accustomed to love people who love us or who, at least, we like and to do things so that we earn the love of someone else. God does it the other way round. He loved me first, and this makes it possible for me to start loving others, including Him.

This is further emphasized when Jesus says that there are other sheep out there that are not “in this fold”, that do not know him yet. Even though they are still far away from him, he already loves them!

We remember that earlier in his gospel St John had said that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. This is precisely what Jesus did and what we have recently celebrated during the Easter celebrations. Jesus literally gave his life for us, so that we can live. It is only thanks to this greatest act of love that we can truly live. In today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles Peter tells those who were arresting him: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among human beings by which we must be saved.”
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God’s love is freely given. It is up to us whether we want to accept it or not. Once we experience this love, it comes only naturally then that we would want to share it with others. Today the Church encourages us to pray for vocations. As followers of Christ, we are all called to share God’s love with others. Some are called to share in Jesus’ ministry of being shepherds, willing to offer their whole lives for the flock. Others have other callings, other vocations. As baptized, we are all called to share the love we have received from God with others, who may so badly need it.

God is full of surprises!

As I was going through the reading for this week’s liturgy, I was reminded of a book I read many years ago written by the late Scottish Jesuit Fr Gerard Hughes, named precisely “God of Surprises”. The author says that the book is written for 'bewildered, confused and disillusioned Christians' who are invited to live Jesus’ parable of the treasure hidden in a field. The owner of the field never expected to find that treasure. It sort of jumped upon him out of nowhere.

Today’s gospel starts with those two people whom we call the disciples of Emmaus telling the eleven apostles what had just happened to them: how they met Jesus on the road while they were running away from Jerusalem. They were two unhappy, angry, disillusioned, grumpy, confused people. They had put their hopes in this Jesus of Nazareth, and now he was dead. They felt cheated by him. On top of this, the community who had vowed allegiance had run away. Then as if out of nowhere, Jesus came to them, listened to their anguished stories, spoke to them using numerous parts of the scriptures, and shared their meal. It was there that they finally recognized who he was.

During this meeting between those two and the rest of the disciples Jesus comes, again unexpectedly, amongst them. Once more, they do not recognize him and instead of rejoicing they were terrified because they thought it was a ghost! Jesus reassured them, showed them his wounds from the crucifixion (remember the meeting with Thomas in last week’s gospel?) eats with them and leaves them with a beautiful message: “Thus it is written, that the Christ is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations.”

Providentially this reading comes to us in a very appropriate time. It has been more than a year now that we have been living in the shadows of a pandemic. Like those disciples, we go through feelings of frustration, anger, loss of hope and the desire to question God’s presence in all of this. Moreover, while these past months have been hard for many of us, these feelings can come to any of us in any time during our lives. It could be because of the unexpected loss of a loved one, a moment of crisis in our relationships, something bad that happens, or even just without any explanation at all. In these moments Jesus reminds us that, while we are going through all this, we are not alone. Even though we might not readily recognize him, he journeys with us and gently helps us to live through those experiences, eventually coming out of them even better than before. That is the story of the resurrection. That is what happened to those disciples. That is what good news is all about.

Once we live through such an experience and acknowledge it, Jesus invites us to share it with others, to witness to what he has done for us in our lives. This we do mostly by the way we live our lives. Sometimes, we might need to use words too.
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During this Easter season we might want to ask ourselves this question: Am I giving witness to the power of the resurrected Christ in my life? 

This Sunday, as we conclude the Octave of Easter, the Church celebrates the feast of the Divine Mercy. This date was officialized by Pope St John Paul II, during the canonization ceremony of St Faustina Kowalska who promoted this devotion throughout her life. During his homily on this Sunday the following year, John Paul said, “this is the Easter gift that the Church receives from the risen Christ and offers to humanity.”

It is in this context that, in our liturgy for this week, we meet St Thomas. We know the story. After his resurrection Jesus appears to his disciples when Thomas is not with them. When Thomas comes back, they tell him what happened, but he does not believe them saying, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” Jesus comes back a week later, specifically for Thomas. Upon seeing the Lord, Thomas erupts in that beautiful expression, “My Lord and my God!”

Because of this story, Thomas is often referred to as the one who doubted his faith. Looking at the gospels, I doubt whether Thomas really lacked faith in Jesus. I believe what was really lacking here was faith in his friends. With him, they all had abandoned Jesus in his moment of trial, having earlier professed that they would never leave him. They, all of them, were not people one can rely on. Still, we can safely say that what saved Thomas was the fact that he never abandoned his community. Yes, they were broken, weak, disillusioned. It was not a perfect community – far from it. Yet Thomas knew that his place was there. That was where he belonged. Had he abandoned that small community he would probably have never had the chance to meet the risen Christ.

Jesus knew what was going through Thomas’ mind. The merciful Lord returns not to condemn Thomas for his actions, but to help him. And what he does is truly amazing. Jesus shows Thomas his wounds. The apostle recognizes his master through the signs of the scary and scandalous events that had happened just a few days earlier. The resurrected Jesus Thomas saw had a wounded body, not a perfectly healed one.

What happened to Thomas can also happen to each one of us in our lives. Often we are scandalized by a Church that is wounded. We doubt the validity of the community we form part of. And yet, it is only there that we can meet the risen Christ. On the road to Damascus St Paul recognized that Jesus Christ and the Church were one and the same thing. Jesus invites Thomas to put his hand and fingers in those wounds. The apostle had to learn that he was not to be scandalized by those obvious reminders of what evil can do. He had to acknowledge them knowing, however, that they did not have the last say. In spite of what had happened on Good Friday, Jesus is alive. Those wounds did not stop him from coming out of the tomb to see his friends again. And he gives that broken, wounded community a mission: to go out, to forgive, to heal.
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On this Sunday we remember and celebrate Christ’s merciful love for us. We are also invited not to let our own brokenness paralyze us. With the power of the Holy Spirit given to us by the risen Christ, let us be true bearers of the merciful love which we all continue to receive.
 
 

“Christ is risen”. “He is risen indeed!

This way of greeting each other on Easter Sunday is very common amongst many Christians, particularly in the East. It is a wonderful way of greeting each other, which expresses a mixture of joy, marvel and relief.

It is not easy to believe in the resurrection. The gospel proclaimed during the Easter Vigil tells us that, when Mary of Magdala arrived at the tomb and saw it open and empty, she did not jump for joy yelling “Yes, he is risen!” Rather, she ran to Peter, the head of the group, and told him, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they put him”. An empty tomb is no good news!

Yet, somehow, the first community believed. They remembered what he had said about rising again after three days. Until now they were all afraid, disappointed, and without hope. They had had great hopes in Jesus of Nazareth. They had listened to his teaching, which had the backing of a certain authority which the teachings of their other leaders did not have. They had seen him perform miracles. Now he was dead. He was brutally taken away from them. And with him, they were also unceremoniously robbed of all their hopes. They were also overtaken by disillusion. They had left everything to follow someone who did not live up to his promises.

Early Sunday morning Mark tells us that the women went to the tomb with “spices with which to anoint him.” The silence present behind that huge rock that was rolled in front of the tomb spoke of death, hopelessness, finality. Recalling the story of the resuscitation of Lazarus, we remember that, while Lazarus was very sick, his sisters hoped that Jesus would come and heal him. Once he was dead, there was no more hope. “He’s been dead four days, and has started smelling!” In a tomb hope is dead and sealed off forever. Like what most of us do following the death of a loved one, the women of today's gospel went to visit the tomb of the one they loved. Not to bring him back to life, of course, but because somehow, being there keeps the connectedness and eases the pain. Once there, all they find is an empty tomb. “He is not here,” the angel tells them. He is risen, and the tomb is not the place for the living. What they found was beyond all their expectations. Never would they have dared dream or hope of such a thing. And yet, it was real. It did happen. And they were commissioned to take this message to the disciples and Peter: they are to meet him back in Galilee, in their normal, everyday lives.

All this takes on a special meaning during this year’s celebrations. For the second time in a row, we are celebrating Easter overshadowed by a pandemic. Some of us have been through the virus-experience themselves. Some have lost jobs. Others have lost loved ones. All of us have been through moments of hopelessness, of not being able to see the end of it all.

In the midst of all this we are celebrating Easter. No one and nothing, not even a virus or lockdowns can rob us of this. The resurrection speaks of hope triumphing in the face of despair. Unexpectedly and inexplicably the rock has given way for the new life to come out of the dark, cold tomb.
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May this be the experience of each one of us, followers of the risen Master. In our moments of darkness let us remember that Easter greeting, as unlikely as it may seem. Christ is risen … he is risen indeed.