1. --
Lanie LeBlanc OP
2. -- Carol &
Dennis Keller
3. --
Brian Gleeson CP
4. --
5. --(Your
reflection can be here!)
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1.
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4th Sunday of Easter 2022
The Gospel selection is a very short one but I think a
very timely one. These days, I read Scripture readings on my
computer most of the time rather than in my Bible. I also
usually check my email on my computer rather than on my
phone. It occurred to me after reading the Gospel about
hearing the voice of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, that the
difficulty in actually hearing and following Jesus's voice
is compounded these days by all the other "voices" that
bombard us via today's omnipresence of media.
As a grandparent, in order to update my knowledge (and
chances of success) of living with a teenager, I subscribe
to a number of emails from parenting sites about parenting
teenagers. Talk about the number of "voices" calling for my
attention to navigate those interactions... WOW! The good
news is that each site offers valuable insight on specific
sub-topics. I find myself comparing the newer approaches to
the ones I used to parent my own two now grown children. I
have come across some definitely competing approaches and
some completely new but important topics!
All of the sites promote trying to understand the teenage
rewiring mind that has been so well -researched since the
days my own were teens. That is very different from trying
to conform what the teen is doing to what I want that person
to do, and now! It feels like (how's that for a teen phrase)
on-going tension between being closed minded and flexible.
Connecting that thought to the Gospel reading leads me to
try to understand why Jesus's voice says to act in a certain
way rather than my fitting how I want to act into what I
want Jesus to be saying and, honestly, okaying.
All of that sounds complicated, but discernment actually
is complicated. My going back to who Jesus is and what Jesus
said and did is the key for me. I am the one learning about
Jesus, not the all -knowing person who, like a teen might
think, already knows how to act. I need to understand the
mind of Jesus and the will and plan of the Father so I can
learn to act in the ways that will help me grow. The path to
that knowledge is research... re-searching the Scriptures
and meditating on what the voice of Jesus says through the
words I read and hear.
I'm not sure any of that makes sense right now, but,
truthfully, anything that connects to teens in today's world
does have that lingering question! Fortunately, Christians
do have a "life manual" called the Scriptures whereas
kids/teens do not come with an owner's manual. I find that
keeping up with Jesus works better than keeping up with the
Joneses or whoever/whatever is trending although combining
the knowledge of both seems to be working... sorta! I pray a
lot!
Blessings,
Dr. Lanie
LeBlanc OP
Southern
Dominican Laity
lanie@leblanc.one
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2.
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Fourth Sunday of Easter May 8 2022
A.K.A. Good Shepherd Sunday & Mother’s Day
Acts of Apostles 13:14 & 43-52; Responsorial Psalm
100; Revelation 7:9 & 14-17; Gospel Acclamation John 10:14;
John 10:27-30
The image in the gospel of John this Sunday most often
causes us to think of ourselves as a sheep – a single one.
It is a "me and Jesus" image that most often allows us a
feeling of being cared for, of somehow safe in the arms,
well on the shoulders of the Lord. We can get lost, get
caught in briars and thorns, be chased by wolved, be
kidnapped by rustlers – but Jesus will come for me. It is a
most comforting image and one that tells us we are forgiven.
We make Jesus the hound of heaven of that famous Francis
Thompson 182-line poem. We are made the message, minimizing
the revelation that Jesus by believing it is all about me.
If we look carefully at the gospels, Paul’s letters, the
letter of James, and even John of Patmos’ Book of
Revelation, it is always about us. Me is important only as
it is one of the us.
But let us take another look at this very short gospel
reading this Sunday. No where is there any reference to a
single sheep. All references to sheep are in the plural. The
image we conjure up of being carried on the shoulders of
Jesus comes from another gospel reading – the one about the
one lost sheep for whom the shepherd searches, leaving the
99 of the flock to fend for themselves while the shepherd
searches. And that narrative is about that one errant sheep
being brought back to the fold, back to the flock where it
will thrive and grow.
So, this selection about the Shepherd is about the flock.
This is no individual pursuit, no individual salvation.
There is nothing in this reading about being saved. It is
all about following after Jesus. In that following they have
eternal life, and THEY shall never perish. No one can take
THEM out of his hand. The Father has given THEM to me. No
one can take THEM out of the Father’s hand.
In the first reading Paul and Barnabas heading for
Antioch in Pisidia. There they preach first in the
synagogue. Their message was so engaging that nearly the
whole city turns out the following sabbath. Those who held
positions of honor and power became jealous. They needed to
divide and shout violent abuse. We are familiar with such
abuse in political rallies, in school boards meetings, in
rhetoric spewing from public media and now especially in the
anonymity of social media. That abuse, that violent rhetoric
seeks to divide us, tear at the very roots of our religious
and social structures. It is not of God! If we carefully
read the Acts of the Apostles, we will discover it is very
much about a community of those who follow in the Way of
Jesus. So it is that the Jews of Antioch turned away from
the message because of their jealousy. Paul and Barnabas
turned toward the Gentiles. And the Gentiles were delighted
to be included in the community of those who followed in the
way of Jesus. This story insists there is no caste system in
Christianity. Oh, that this revelation were practiced in our
hearts. Would that we got rid of the system of self-pride
that is based on considering oneself better than others.
What occurred in Antioch continues today in many different
ways. Caste systems are based on skin color. There is a
concentrated effort to prevent immigration of persons with
darker skin. It is as though those of color are an infection
on the social body of the nation. Sometimes it is about
language. Other times it is about culture. Other times it is
about gender. Still other times it is about wealth. Any time
we marginalize another person, another culture, another
faith tradition, we serve the god of jealousy and division.
In the second reading from the wonder book of Revelation
written by John of Patmos, we hear again of a great
multitude – uncountable. Note, please, that this great crowd
is of every --- that word every should be noticed and taken
to heart – of every nation, race, people, and tongue. What
makes them one – that is right, makes them one – is that
they have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. They have
been washed and became a great multitude. They are together
in one great community. It is they who have conquered and
overcome the time of great distress. They came through the
violence, the jealousy, the terror, and the persecution by
those who believed themselves to be gods. The message of the
lamb is the message of the good shepherd who collects, who
gathers, who unites into one flock all humanity. Whoever
divides, whoever holds up a system of caste however based is
not of the flock. Those are they who create the time of
great distress. Those are those who promise wealth, power,
and glory to those who follow them. Those are they who steal
the dignity and worth of others to enhance their power,
their wealth, and their glory. They are not of the Good
Shepherd. They are not of God.
In the very short gospel reading for this Sunday, again
we are instructed to amend any system that separates us from
those who follow in the way of the Lord. In every line of
this short gospel the sheep are a flock, not one sheep.
If we get the message, we will know that our strength,
our resilience in the face of violence and our defense
against the lies and propaganda of those who cannot live in
an inclusive community – our strength is the God of us all.
While this Sunday is about community it is truly about God
who is a Trinity. God is a community of three. And God’s
life is the life of community. If we wish to achieve in
paradise the eternal life of God, then we must learn how-to
live-in community.
How do we start, how do we begin? We come into the
community of followers of the Way of Jesus when we are
washed in baptism, The ritual itself teaches that. For,
whether as an infant or an adult, when we come to the font,
we commit to rejecting Satan and all Satan’s wiles. It is
then that we come into the Community. In one of the ancient
churches in Antioch, there is a strange construction just
outside the church doors. It is a cistern, deep and
enterable by reason of steps that reach the bottom. Those
first set of steps are by the entrance gates to the
courtyard in front of the building. There are a second set
of steps leading up from the cistern toward the front doors
of the church. What an obvious teaching by architecture. One
enters the assembly by burying the old way of living and
rising to a new community, one that is modeled on the very
life of God.
How do we get to that now? We start by coming to know
those others who come into the assembly on the first day of
the week, that day commemorating the Rising of Jesus the
Christ. Self-introduction gets us started to sharing our
living. We celebrate together the Passover meal, the Last
Supper, in which the very life and substance of Jesus
becomes our food and our drink. BUT, we cannot forget – even
though we shroud the truth of it by the speed with which we
carry this out – that it is what we bring to the altar –
that so little thought of procession – that becomes the
material that is consecrated and transformed into the Body
and the Blood of the Lord. The offertory comes just after we
have committed once again to the truth of our faith in the
Creed. And what we commit to is what we have heard in the
Scriptures and their exposition by the homilist. The
offertory procession is for the work of the church.
Absolutely so! The work of the church, of this assembly is
to live the truth that is God’s presence with us. Whether we
have money to share, whether we have only the movements of
our hearts, whether we bring to the table of the Lord a load
of sorrow and suffering, whether we bring to the table of
the Lord heaps of overwhelming joy – whatever it is we bring
to the table of the Lord – it is all transformed in the
symbols of bread and wine into the Body and the Blood of the
Lord. Since it is transformed, since the material that is
raised up by the Spirit of God, we in effect eat and drink
the daily lives and works and sufferings and joy s of the
assembly. When that is transformed by the power of the
Spirit, we then receive the entire assembly into ourselves
as food and drink. It is the Christ, this Jesus, who makes
us one in community. Some may wonder why it is that there
are those who stand after receiving the Lord. They remain
standing at their place until the tabernacle door is closed
after communion. The reason for this is to recognize that in
receiving the Lord we become one with all those others who
also receive. Our oneness is expressed by our standing as
one.
The symbols of the liturgies we celebrate are consistent
and powerful lessons. In all our sacramental life there is a
clear insistence on Community. We are members of a flock, or
as John of Patmos insists in one of his visions – we are
members of a great cloud of witnesses. If we think of that,
if we pray on that, if we practice that the message of Jesus
The Christ becomes more apparent. We will discover peace, we
will live in the strength of the Son of God who became Man
for us, to teach, to model, to heal, to strengthen so that
our living is all that it can be. We are all in this
together – we should act out that truth in our encounters.
May it be so!
Dennis
Keller
dkeller002@nc.rr.com
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BELONGING TO JESUS, OUR GOOD SHEPHERD: 4TH SUNDAY
EASTER C
Acts 13:14, 43-52; Revelation14:9, 14b-17; John
10:27-30
Have you ever lost a dog, a cat, a parrot, or other pet,
and were at your wit’s end searching for your precious pet?
I ask this because of what today - Good Shepherd Sunday - is
about.
Here In Australia, it’s not easy to relate to sheep in
personal ways. Here we have so many thousands of sheep that
Australians tend to view sheep as impersonal animals, all
much the same, all smelly and dumb. But for the shepherds of
Jesus’ day, they were more like the pets in our day that are
so dear to us. Shepherds, by themselves with their sheep in
the fields, would talk to their sheep (perhaps for lack of
anyone else to talk to), and would call them out by name
from their common holding pen. At the sound of their pet
names, ‘Frisky,’ ‘Floppy,’ etc., each sheep would follow the
shepherd into the fields for grazing.
The bond, then, between sheep and shepherds, is one of
many different pictures we can explore, to understand better
a basic need we humans share. This is our need for intimacy,
for being connected to others and yet accepted as
individuals, special and unique. We Christians share a need
for bonding with both Jesus and fellow human beings in close
and continuing friendly relationships.
Another significant connection with the gospel picture of
sheep and shepherds is the weaknesses generally associated
with sheep. Jesus himself understood this connection when he
said that he was sending his disciples out like ‘lambs among
wolves’ (Lk 10:3). In our First Reading from the Acts of the
Apostles today (13:14, 43-52), we hear of Paul and Barnabas
and their brave attempts to tell the good news of Jesus, and
how they were rejected and thrown out of the city of
Antioch. But as they walked out of town, so the Reading
tells us to our surprise, they ‘were filled with joy and the
Holy Spirit.’
What all this suggests is that our Good Shepherd’s care
for you and me, and the call and responsibility we have to
shepherd one another, centres around a different kind of
power that Jesus has taught and emphasized. The power of
Jesus was not the power of domination, the power to bully or
boss people around. That kind of power is illustrated by the
story of the captain of a destroyer who saw a light ahead
and notified the radio signalman to order the approaching
ship to change its course 20 degrees to the south. A message
came back: ‘You change your course 20 degrees to the north.’
The captain sent another message: ‘Change your course . . .
I am Captain Cunningham.’ The message came back: ‘Change
your course . . . I am Able Seaman 3rd class Jones.’
Finally, angry and determined, the captain sent a third
message: ‘Change your course right away. I am a destroyer.’
The message came back: ‘Change your course right away. I am
a lighthouse.’
As we focus on pastoral care today, Good Shepherd Sunday,
we are deeply aware of how few people nowadays are saying
that they feel drawn to becoming a priest or religious. I
wonder if we, as the community of Jesus, were to put more
emphasis on relational power rather than dominant power,
whether there would be more persons wanting to take up the
kind of good shepherding relationship that goes with being a
good priest, brother, or sister?
Jesus, our Good Shepherd, says: ‘The sheep that belong to
me listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me’ (Jn
10:27-30). But with so many parish mergers now resulting in
mega parishes, there is no way anymore that a priest can
truly get to know every single parishioner. The challenge
has come, then, for all parishioners to be good shepherds –
accepting and caring for one another. This involves the
effort, for a start, to discover and remember the names of
more and more people each week, greeting them by name, and
sharing with interest and enthusiasm, our concerns, needs,
feelings, fears, hopes and hurts.
This is to imitate the Good Shepherd who knows each of us
by name and calls out each of us by name to the green
pastures of life in community. Then, the more we strive to
build a family relationship in our parish, the more we will
get to know the ones who would stand out as good shepherds
for all. We might then quietly and gently approach them to
take on that special leadership role in the Church that
being a good religious or priest involves.
The benefit of being in a shared loving relationship with
Jesus our Good Shepherd is illustrated powerfully in our
Second Reading today from the Book of Revelation: ‘They will
never hunger or thirst again; neither the sun nor scorching
wind will ever plague them because the Lamb who is at the
throne will be their shepherd and will lead them to springs
of living water, and God will wipe away all tears from their
eyes’ (Revelation 7:16-17)
As we approach the table of our Good Shepherd today for
Holy Communion, let us ask him to lead us to springs of
living water by giving us an experience of a deeper and
closer relationship with him personally, and with all our
brothers and sisters gathered with us around the same table,
the table of Jesus.
"Brian
Gleeson CP" <bgleesoncp@gmail.com>
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5.
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Volume 2 is for you. Your thoughts, reflections,
and insights on the next Sundays readings can influence the
preaching you hear. Send them to
preacherexchange@att.net. Deadline is
Wednesday Noon. Include your Name, and Email Address.
-- Fr. John Boll, OP
