“RECEIVE THE SHEPHERD’S LIFE”
Saint John 10: 11-16
Misericordias Domini: 5 May Anno Domini 2019
Father Jay Watson SSP
Some questions:
Who are the sheep? The sheep of God? Well, that would in fact be all those humans who God has predestined, before time and creation, by His loving will, to be made His, in time and space and location, by His Word—Christ The Word—through the working of The Paraclete.
So are the sheep His followers, members of His Body the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church? Yes. You are His sheep. Are there people masquerading in the body—The Church, who are not His sheep. Yes. Weeds & tares amongst the wheat. What do you do about them? You do not judge and you do not condemn and you do not presume a brother or sister Christian lacks faith. You do not dare look into the inner “mind/heart” of The Trinity and second guess or pre-figure anything. The Lord knows who are His. You give all fellow Christians the benefit of their spoken confession/profession. You may shudder, shiver, and be fearful for all the heterodox and sectarians, but those who confess The Creed and profess that Christ Crucified for their sins is their Lord and God, you can thankfully accept—even if, as “separated brethren” they are not yet receiving the fullness of The Faith.
Are those who are pagans, heathens, non-believing “whatevers” also the sheep? Did God so love the world? Did your Messiah say: “And other sheep I have, which are not this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold, and one Shepherd.” He did. Saint John the Divine so records!
Will all sheep be rescued? Will all people be saved? No. That is tragic and devastating. That is sin, that is the fault of man, your fault. Not your fault, individually, that they won’t be saved, but your fault as a species, as the offspring of Adam and Eve. Original sin has horrific consequences. So, remember, you are not the Good Shepherd. You don’t save anyone.
What about the pagan cashier at the store you constantly interact with, or a professing agnostic/atheist relative or friend? Are they too sheep that Jesus would have in His fold? Will they be saved? You know The Lord’s will that all be saved, but you also know that man who chooses to reject God will be permitted to damn himself. You are not God, you are not the Savior Jesus Christ, and you are not The Good Shepherd. You are to treat everyone, EVERYONE…the Hindu, the Secularist Hater of The Church, EVEN the Muslim, as someone that Christ would, could save…God willing. He is willing. Un-converted man is not. The Earth if full of the Goodness of The Lord. What kind of Shepherd is He? Good!
So, while not being The Shepherd, The Rescuer/Redeemer, you are IN HIM, and He is IN YOU, and thus you are in the community rescue party, if you will, looking for that one lost little child who has wandered off, in mortal danger. You treat everyone as potential “good soil” that the seed of The Word, Jesus’ Words, needs to be tossed, trumpeted, broadcast, and Gospelled onto. God will be God. He knows His own and, at the proper time, His own, His own lost sheep, WILL hear His voice and know Him. He will save all those that He means to save.
Pray for those whom you know need to be prayed for. Talk with them, share with them, live for them, as a brother and sister of Christ, always giving them the benefit of the doubt; i.e. never presume anyone you come into contact with will damn themselves by rejecting Christ until they die rejecting. That may be, but you are not The Trinity. Stop trying to “fix everything.” You can’t. That is self-idolatry. No one will be lost because you screwed up and didn’t “witness” like some T.V. church-person. Jesus the Good Shepherd will lose none of His own.
Be joyful this Eastertide—This Paschal Resurrection season (of The Church). You were a lost lamb, a rebellious and rejecting sheep, until Jesus The Good Shepherd found and rescued you. He was no hireling like Caiaphas or Judas, or those false brethren that turned on Saint Paul near the end of his life. The Christ-Shepherd saw the wolf, the Devil Dog who is the ancient Dragon dog of old. Jesus saw and combated all of Satan’s demonic wolves, the pack of perdition. But instead of running when things became, seemingly unwinnable, Jesus took His Shepherd’s crook, and let it become the Crucifix of His suffering and death, to save all the lost sheep. To save all of you. The wolf caught The Shepherd. The Pastor of God let Himself, His Body and Blood be gorged upon by the evil enemy…bloating him so on a temporary three-day, seeming slaughter of victory, only to burst forth from the gluttonous gut, the malevolent maw of the defeated and vanquished foe. He Who laid down His life for the flock, took it back on The Third Day, bursting forth and destroying the power of death and hell, bursting the demon’s head like an evil eggshell.
He is Risen. The Sheep are rescued and carried home to the fold. The grass is green. The water is pure.
“I Am The Good Shepherd; The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.”
His life is now found in His Scripture. His life, for you, is now found in His Sacramental Meal. Eat and drink life.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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