Readings: Acts 4:8-12;
Ps 118; 1 Jn 3:1-2; Jn 10:11-18
I’m going to tell you a story; and
it’s a true story.
Back when I was flying off aircraft carriers, we pilots tended to hang out with each other when off duty. We’d talk about aviation, working on improving our skills -- you know, stayin’ alive. But we’d also talk about other stuff, especially over meals. We'd always been told that officers shouldn’t talk religion or politics in the wardroom. In truth, though, we often talked about these things; but we knew each other well and forgave our differences.
One of our squadron pilots, a friend named Bill, talked a lot about religion. I thought that was strange since at best he was agnostic. Anyway, it really bothered him that so many of us were believers, especially Christians. One evening, before one of those tiring night missions, several of us were probably on our fifth cup of coffee, when Bill started on his favorite rant.
“Just look at the universe,” he
said. “It’s just too big to imagine with its billions of galaxies. Then we have
earth, this tiny planet of ours, so infinitesimally insignificant, stuck in
some little cosmic corner.
“Is there a God who made all this?
Maybe so. I don't know.
“But you Christians believe that
this God who created everything, and maintains it all, that He decided to come
down here to our nothing little planet, become one of us, tell us how to live,
and then let us kill Him by nailing Him to a Cross.”
Then he said, “I’m sorry, but this
is just beyond…as you would say, beyond belief.” Yes, indeed, Bill thought
Christians were idiots.
Now, I was just another pilot, but
felt I had to say something in defense of our faith, so I just said, “Bill, do
you love your wife?”
Well, that surprised him. “What do
you mean?”
“Just what I said. Do you love
Marie?”
“Of course I do.”
“Yes, I’ve seen you together. I can
tell you love her. And you’d do anything for her, wouldn’t you?”
“Yeah, I would.”
“Would you give your life for her?”
“Of course I would. Heck, I’d even
give my life for you guys, though you don’t deserve it.”
“Yeah, we know that. You see, Bill,
the God who created that great universe you described, also created you and me,
and created us in His image and likeness.
“He created us out of love and
created us to love. And because of His love, you can
love Marie.”
All Bill said was, “Well…maybe.” I
guess I wasn't very convincing.
A few years later I received word
that Bill had taken his own life. When we first heard the news one of my more
fundamentalist friends said, “How sad that he’s now in hell.”
Well, that made me angry, and for a moment, I just stared at him in disbelief. Finally, I said, “You really think you’re God, don’t you? That you can decide who's saved or who or isn’t. But salvation is God’s business, not ours. All we can do is what Paul told the Philippians:
“…work out your salvation with fear and trembling” [Phil
2:12].
"Only God knows what Bill
struggled with, what fears claimed him. Only God knows what was in his heart. All I know is God will look on Bill with
love and mercy, for 'His mercy endures forever.' Because that’s who our God is. And I know nothing else, nothing
else for certain.”
I just walked away angry, which was stupid. I’d like to think I’d handle both situations differently today.
Sisters and brothers, today on Good Shepherd Sunday, we celebrate God’s great love for us, and we do it despite the skepticism and disbelief of so many in the world, people like my friend Bill.
In John’s Gospel we hear Jesus
clearly revealing who He is and how important we are to him.
“I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for his
sheep.”
Jesus doesn’t abandon us in the
face of danger; no, He sacrifices Himself.
Just consider what it means for God
to sacrifice His life for us. This divine sacrificial act has led some to ask:
Is God of the Christians insane? Is He crazy? I suppose Bill thought that too.
But our Gid isn't crazy; no, our God is Love. His is a love, not simply beyond our capability, but it’s beyond our understanding. In St. Paul’s words, “He emptied himself” and became one of us to offer His life to save ours. And He did this solely out of love. Do you see the kind of God we have, this Good Shepherd who cares so much for us?
Then, to ensure we get the point, Jesus turns to us and tells us to love others as he has loved us, to be willing to give our lives for them, even for those the world says just aren’t worth it. Our love for God, Jesus tells us, must be mirrored in our love for others.
Remember that wonderful scene
described in John’s Gospel when, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, the risen
Jesus asks Peter three times:
“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
…and each time Peter responds,
“Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
To the first yes, Jesus said “Feed my lambs”; to the second, “Tend my sheep”; and to the third, “Feed my sheep.” Your love for me, Jesus is telling Peter, will be evidenced by how well you tend my sheep, my people, those for whom I sacrificed my life to save.
But Jesus didn’t stop with Peter.
He turns to all of us, all of us in the Body of Christ. He doesn’t say,
“love me as I have loved you.” No, instead He commands, "love one another as I have loved you."
In our first reading, we learned
that our love for others must manifest God’s love, and the good that we do must be done
in Jesus’ name. As Peter proclaimed:
“There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other
name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved."
It’s all Jesus Christ, in Jesus
Christ, through Jesus Christ, and only Jesus Christ.
John presents this a bit
differently in our 2nd reading:
“See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called
the children of God. Yet so we are.”
Children of God… you and me… all of
us:
- the poor in need of a meal or a place to sleep...they're God's children
- the Alzheimer’s patient in memory care...is a child of God
- the lonely, the depressed, whom nobody visits...a child of God
- the neighbor undergoing radiation and chemo-therapy...she's a child of God
- the prisoner locked away in his cell...yes, he too is a child of God
- the single mother struggling to make ends meet...a child of God
And, yes, many of us may be suffering as well, but that doesn’t mean we stop loving.
For all of us, children of God, are brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. We’re not strangers; for children of the same loving Father can’t be strangers. Brothers and sisters of our Lord, Jesus Christ, can’t be strangers.
Jesus calls us not simply to love
others, but to see and hear Him in them, to realize that what we do for and to
each other, we do to Him.
“I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of
mine, you did for me.’
I suppose at judgment we will judge
ourselves by our response to this calling as children of God.
Years ago, Diane and I attended a
papal audience in Rome, and heard Pope Benedict say:
“As a community, the Church must practice love…The Church cannot
neglect the service of love any more than she can neglect the Sacraments and
the Word.”
At every level, then — the universal Church, the diocese, the parish, the home – we must love. This is how the Church shows who she really is.
Outside a Catholic church in Syracuse, NY there’s a statue of a man seated on the sidewalk. I think there's a similar statue at Ave Maria University here in Florida. It’s a statue, a sculpture, of a beggar, wearing a hood, his face covered. His hand is stretched out toward those who walk by, much like the hand of the beggar reaching out to Peter in our reading from Acts.
But if you look closely, you’ll notice a nail hole in that hand. Yes, it’s Our Lord, the risen Jesus bearing the wounds of His love; it’s the Jesus who humbled Himself to became like a slave, a beggar.
For those who pass by it’s a
constant reminder to look beyond appearances and see Jesus in all who reach out
to them.
And for you and me it’s a reminder
that Christ has His hand stretched out to us right now.
God love you.
And please…pray for my friend, Bill, and for all those veterans who found their lives to hard to live.
