Good Sheep of the Good Shepherd

4th Sunday of Easter April 29, 2012 (Jn 10:11-18)

I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 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.

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. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father."

Jesus uses the image of a good and loving shepherd to demonstrate His relationship with us, His followers. He tells us that He is the Good Shepherd who loves each of His sheep, that is, each of us. He is ready to lay down His life for His sheep - for us. He is divine but is willing to die for mankind. Such is Jesus' love and care for us.

As our Divine Shepherd, Jesus leads us to the Kingdom of the Father, where we will find verdant pastures and restful waters (cf. Ps 23:2). He offers us not just guidance, but loving guidance. He guides us in our life journey because He cares for us so much and He doesn't want any of us to be lost. He desires all men to be saved (cf. 1 Tim 2:4).

Jesus' love for mankind is the reason why His Church is Catholic or universal. His love reaches out beyond His circle of followers and even beyond the Jewish nation. His love is for all. It is even for those who haven't yet heard of Him nor believed in Him. It is also for those who persecute Him, as we clearly see in St. Paul's story. Jesus loves those sheep who haven't entered His fold yet. Truly, Jesus' great love for the human race is magnificent and all-embracing!

The great love and care that our Good Shepherd has for us calls us to respond in faith and obedience. If we truly believe that Jesus is our Good Shepherd, then we will let Him lead us. As good sheep, we must follow the Good Shepherd and faithfully listen to His voice always. In times of trouble, we often feel that Jesus has abandoned us. But probably we only felt that Jesus was absent because we were too busy listening to other voices or to our own convictions. As good sheep, we cannot journey on our own. Being successful in our journey entails entrusting ourselves to Jesus, our shepherd. He is always there because our Good Shepherd never leaves His flock. But we must always keep close to Him.

Today, as we reflect on the great love of Jesus who laid down His life for His sheep, we also join the whole flock of Christ in praying for vocations. Inspired by the Good Shepherd's love, may young people courageously answer God's call for them to serve in the priestly or religious life. And may those who are not called to this service continue to live out their vocation as Christians in whatever state of life they are in.

May we continue our journey towards verdant pastures as good sheep of the Good Shepherd!

Easter Encounter

3rd Sunday of Easter April 22, 2012 (Lk 24:35-48)

Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

While they were still speaking about this, he stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you." But they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. Then he said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have." 

And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed, he asked them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of them.

He said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. And he said to them, "Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

Still probably frustrated by the apparent defeat on the cross, Jesus' apostles could not believe what they were hearing from their two fellow disciples. The two were sharing to them that Jesus has been truly risen and that they have encountered Him. Then Jesus Himself appeared to them; they encountered Him themselves. Nevertheless, this encounter did not dispel all their doubts. Only after Jesus ate in front of them were they able to believe that Jesus indeed rose from the dead.

Like the apostles, we sometimes focus too much on the shame of defeat. We cannot move on from the scandal of the cross, from the sufferings and trials we face daily. Even when God is right there waiting for us to approach Him in prayer, we cannot see Him because we think He's dead. We easily lose hope and we fail to see that He is alive!

But Jesus Himself restores our sight during those moments when we cannot even see Him. He increases our faith. He makes us realize that He truly is alive and is with us, just as He Himself supplied for the apostles' lack of faith. In that way, we encounter the Risen Lord as the apostles did.

The encounter with the Risen Lord doubles as a commissioning. After Jesus helped the apostles realize that He was indeed risen, He opened their minds so they may understand the scriptures. Then they understood the importance of Jesus' death on the cross. It wasn't defeat. It was God's love which triumphed over sin and death. And then as witnesses of these things, the apostles had the mission to preach this good news to all.

As we recognize Jesus and encounter Him in our lives, we too begin to understand the meaning of the trials and hardships we encounter. When we join our sufferings with Jesus' own passion, our sufferings make more sense. We learn that God has the power to bring about great things out of our hardships. We realize that Easter is real and that there will always be Easter for us. We shall no longer mourn under the cross but we shall rejoice at the empty tomb - at the very symbol that death and sin is no more. Then as true witnesses and as people who encountered Him, we can not keep this great joy to ourselves. Instead we must echo this encounter in our every word and deed, affirming by the way we live that Jesus is indeed alive!

As we continue our Easter journey, may we not simply believe or convince ourselves that Jesus did rise from the dead many years ago. May Easter be truly an experience for us - an encounter with the Risen Lord Himself. And may the rest of our days be a true and faithful witness of He who is stronger that death!

The Gift of the Risen Lord

2nd Sunday of Easter April 15, 2012 (Jn 20:19-31)

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you."

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained."

Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord."

But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."

Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe." Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name. 

The Lord's disciples, afraid of the Jews who crucified their Master, kept themselves locked in a room, probably also crushed by their Master's death and ashamed for having abandoned Him. The Lord entered this room even though His disciples have locked the door. He gave them peace and banished their fear, sorrow and shame.

The Risen Lord's gifts or pasalubong for His disciples were mercy and peace. Even if His disciples showed cowardice, He brought them forgiveness. He did not reprimand them at all. Instead, He immediately gave them peace. Then after showing His great love and mercy in His resurrection, and also after giving peace and mercy to His disciples, Jesus establishes the Sacrament of His Divine Mercy - the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Today, the Church glorifies the Merciful Savior in the celebration of the Feast of Divine Mercy. Jesus revealed to St. Faustina how great His mercy is. He said to her, "Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet (St. Faustina's Diary, 699)." Indeed, our Gospel today shows that we must not fear to come to Jesus to ask for forgiveness. He wants us to be forgiven and to experience His mercy so much more than He wants us reprimanded. It does not matter how many or how grave our sins are. We must not fear to come near Him in the Sacrament of His Mercy. There, we will not be judged nor reprimanded. There, we will feel the tenderness of Jesus' mercy and we will have peace. Jesus said to St. Faustina, "Tell aching mankind to snuggle close to My merciful Heart, and I will fill it -with peace (Diary 1074)."

Today's Gospel also presents to us the story of St. Thomas. He lacked faith in the resurrection of Jesus and needed proof in order to believe. Today's Gospel calls us to have faith and trust, not only in the Lord's resurrection, but also in His goodness and generosity. Even when we fail to realize it, God's love and mercy is always upon us. He is alive in our hearts and is working in our lives. God's mercy is an invitation to trust. God is merciful, but we cannot receive His mercy without trusting Him. We must have faith and trust that He is there, even during moments when we feel He is far away. Then we will realize that He's been there all along!

The disciples who received mercy also shared this mercy to others. Our First Reading (Acts 4:32-35) tells us how the first Christians lived as a loving community. They shared to those in need and made sure that all are given their needs. We too, as true Christians, must share the mercy we experienced. As Jesus said to St. Faustina, "When a soul approaches Me with trust, I fill it with such an abundance of graces that it cannot contain them within itself, but radiates them to other souls (Diary 1074)."

Jesus' resurrection bring us great joy indeed because He brings us mercy and peace! Our shame, fears and failures have been defeated and new life is given to us. May we continue to live as Easter people who have experienced Jesus' mercy and who share His mercy to others.

John Believed

Easter Sunday of the Lord's Resurrection April 8, 2012 (Jn 20:1-9)

On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, "They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they put him."

So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.

When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead.

Jesus is risen! He is truly risen!

The resurrection of Jesus is the cornerstone of our faith. It is inseparable with His passion and death. It is part of His redemptive act and is a sign that God's love triumphs over our sinfulness. Jesus tomb has been emptied, a sign that sin and death lost.

In the Gospel, we hear about how Jesus' followers witnessed the empty tomb. Mary of Magdala, Peter and John saw that the body of Jesus was no longer in the tomb. It is but human to resist the idea that Jesus has risen from the dead because resurrection is no ordinary human experience. But they saw the empty tomb. And Jesus spoke to them before about rising from the dead. So they might be asking, "Could it be that He is alive?" And it was John who first believed, even though he too didn't understand everything well.

It was John who first believed. He saw how Jesus was crucified. He saw how Jesus died on the cross and how Jesus was pierced, causing blood and water to flow out from Him. If you saw a person die, you would probably be the last to believe a news about the same person rising from the dead. But that was not the case for John. He was the first to believe! It was probably by the grace of God that he believed even without sufficient understanding.

In our lives, when we face trials and all kinds of problems, we lose hope and we fail to believe in God's goodness and to trust in His wisdom. Like John, we witness and even experience suffering. But unlike him, we easily lose hope most of the time and we fail to believe.

The fact that Jesus is alive should bring us hope! He is alive because evil is never stronger than good and because God's love is forever mightier than sin. Everything evil or bad will fade away eventually, and joy will soon come.

But John showed us a very important attitude - we must experience suffering with and in Christ in order to fully experience Easter joy. We must carry our crosses as Jesus asked us to do. We must never view our suffering as merely something we have to get over with as soon as we can. Suffering and sacrifice must always be united with Christ's suffering. We must offer our suffering for God, for His greater glory and for help to those who always suffer. This is what we learned during Lent. We cannot just face Easter immediately. We must experience sacrificing during Lent to prepare ourselves . We must experience Good Friday with Jesus before we can celebrate Easter Sunday!

As we celebrate Easter, may our lives be filled with the hope that as long as we remain faithful to God, He will never abandon us and He will raise us up again each time we fall. May we experience Christ's new life - a life free from sin and a life of confidence in Him. May we always be children of Easter, dead in sinfulness but alive in Christ!