Tuesday 24 December 2019

ST. JOHN 10: 7-15


                                                               

One of the gifts of the life of the Church, proximately for believers who practise the faith, by extension as intercession for the whole human family, is that all the great mysteries of redemption, of faith, are not restricted to millennia past historical memory, but enacted anew in the Divine Liturgy/Holy Mass which makes it possible for us to be truly present and participants in all the sacred moments.

Already while it is mid-afternoon here in the north of this country, in Bethlehem it is midnight. Already the great cry of the Church, Christus Natus Est, tonight/today Christ IS born echoes throughout the world, throughout the cosmos, is the exaltation in heaven of all the choirs of Angels and Saints: Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn Son. She wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear. The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a Saviour has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom His favour rests.” When the angels went away from them to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this Child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them. [Lk. 2:4-20

When we step into Sacred Scripture, never merely reading but always being attentive with our hearts, always seeing ourselves there as the history, the present reality, of salvation unfolds,  within the Holy Gospels encountering, listening to, speaking with, becoming loving disciples of Jesus, thus reality, the truth of who and why we are, penetrates our very being, if we are open to such gift, just as the shepherds were in the presence of the Holy Child.

Perhaps some of those shepherds were there in Jerusalem as the Child, now a grown man, revealed Himself as the Good Shepherd.

The teachings of Jesus St. John places before us frequently are taught by Jesus in what appears a repetitive manner.

This should draw our attention to the critical nature of Jesus’ teaching and make us grateful for Jesus’ effort, through repetition, to plant the seed of His words deep within us.

So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep.  All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through Me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. [vs.7-9]

Even in Christ’s day and in our day, the human family has never suffered from a drought of false messiahs/prophets, often with disastrous consequences, such as the deaths of innocents who get trapped in the quicksand of the cults established by such false prophets.

This happens because such evil people prey on the vulnerable, the confused, the traumatized, and those looking for easy solutions or a quick fix to the challenges of life.

Jesus being the true Saviour, who sacrifices Himself for us, asking us to follow Him that we might be filled with authentic love, hope, light, life, necessarily must continually repeat His teaching for, if we be honest, often, perhaps never more so than in this day of such a cacophony of anti-Christ, anti-truth voices, particularly through social media, we are easily distracted and led astray.

How critical we ask the Holy Spirit for the gift of discernment of spirits so we can identify, and stay clear of, ‘the thieves and robbers’.

A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly. [v.10]

The contrast Jesus teaches us here is stark, placing symbols of evil and death beside the Person of good and life. He does this by articulating the purpose of existence of the thief: totally self-centered, greedy, violent.

In the next verse Jesus makes this even clearer:  I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. [v.11]

This is both the Good Shepherd who cares for us, the flock of the children of God, and the Lamb of God who will be sacrificed for us on the Cross, the giving of His life for us, who is speaking with us, teaching us.

None of the imagery Jesus uses of Himself in the Gospels can be separated one from another: Bread of Life; Light of the World; Gate/Door to the sheepfold; Good Shepherd; the Way, the Truth, the Life; the Vine; the Resurrection and the Life. Each is a proclamation of Himself and His mission to redeem, to sustain us as disciples, to bring us into communion of love with the Father and the Holy Spirit, opening for us the pathway to heaven, which is Himself.

Again, the contrast with the father of lies of whom the hireling is a type: A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. [vs. 12,13]

The hireling/hired man is a minion of satan, and the wolf is satan. Neither cares for us, though both will lie and claim they do so. They only care about themselves, satan and his minions, and the ‘pay’ they work for is in their hatred for the Holy Trinity. They believe dragging souls into hell is some sort of gain, when in truth any alleged ‘victory/pay’ is a pyrrhic one for they have already paid the price of their own eternal damnation and any soul they do mange to drag into hell will spend the rest of eternity hating the original haters.

I am the good shepherd, and I know Mine and Mine know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I will lay down My life for the sheep. [vs.14,15]

In music we speak of the timbre, the tone, not simply the sound, but the very colour of the sound flowing from the instruments, such as a violin; the very sharpness of the choral voices. In order to hear any sound, and how clearly, we hear that sound, waves must be made in the air, vibration within not merely our ears but if we are attentive enough then we also experience perception in our imaginations, for listening is not a static event.

We are not for example, vessels into which sound is poured like water in a glass where the glass, being inert, simply is a non-responsive receptacle.

Thus, when it comes to the spoken word we hear better when we are attentive, indeed turned towards the person who is speaking, thus actively receiving not only the sound, the timbre of the words spoken, but actively taking those words, whose meaning as definition is normally familiar, but also seeking to understand, the way musical notes are arranged, the specific meaning, import, the speaker is placing within the spoken words.

With the above words of Jesus do we simply see silent words on the page, or do we seek to be attentive enough to have an understanding in our hearts of the tonality as Jesus’ words vibrate the very air, indeed all of creation, and each human heart?

If we seek understanding then we will hear the passionate love Jesus has for us, a passionate love that reassures we are loved, cared for, protected, unless, like restless children, we choose to squirm out of His loving embrace, or for some reason actually run away from Him.

When Jesus speaks each of His words vibrates, with His love, the love of the Father and the Holy Spirit, hence Jesus affirming once more His oneness with the Father, is affirming as well He and the Father are one with the Holy Spirit.

As with sound, so with light. Both pierce through the air, flowing to us, and into our very beings, hence when we look towards Jesus to hear better, we see the Light from Light, God from God, God Himself, the Holy Trinity radiating love upon us.

To be known, as Jesus says He knows us, is affirmation of being, of our awareness of our uniqueness as person, and to be known by God, by Jesus, is to be beloved and know we are beloved and so precious to the Holy Trinity that the Second Person of the Trinity lovingly, willingly, lays down His life for us.

All this is contained in the very timbre of the words Jesus speaks.

All this is there too in the radiant smile of the newborn Holy Child, revealing His joyful love for us as we gaze upon Him gazing upon us as we love and adore Him.

CHRISTUS NATUS EST!



© 2019 Fr. Arthur Joseph




















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