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| "Jesus Walks in the Portico of Solomon," by J. Tissot. Brooklyn Museum / Public Domain. |
Today in his Gospel, Jesus speaks of his followers as his
sheep.
He calls himself the gate for the sheep.
However, he also speaks today of two other distinct
roles: the gatekeeper
and the shepherd.
... whoever enters through the GATE is the SHEPHERD of the
sheep.
The GATEKEEPER opens it for him....
Gate, gatekeeper
and shepherd:
all three are in the service of the sheep.
The goal is that the sheep might
have life and have it more abundantly.
Christ is not speaking of making us abundantly rich in the
mere measure of the world as it presently is.
He is speaking of a life that can include but goes beyond
what the present world can contain or imagine.
If we settle for less, then we throw ourselves into what
Christ describes as the sway of thieves and robbers
who come only to steal and slaughter and destroy.
Our trouble is not that we want too MUCH.
Our trouble is that we settle for too LITTLE.
God wants to give us new and everlasting life in abundance.
He wants to give us himself.
If we are to receive God himself, and receive new and
everlasting life in abundance, then, as Christ tells us today, we need to recognize his voice, to listen
to him and to follow him.
However, what is this life
that God in Christ wants us to have more abundantly?
We see this life NEW, ABUNDANT and EVERLASTING in the resurrection of Christ
himself.
God’s plan in Christ is for our bodies no longer to suffer
any weakness, fatigue, disease, pain, disability, injury or even death.
NEW, ABUNDANT and EVERLASTING LIFE from God will banish all fear
and sadness from us.
Then we will grasp truth, reason and understanding with
clarity and without mistake.
We will arrive at choices and decisions without hesitation
and without departure from truth, goodness, unity and beauty.
The new, abundant and everlasting life God wants us to have
will echo with joy in every fiber of our being— of our feelings, our thoughts,
our choices and our bodies.
Unfortunately, sin presses an ancient, dragging claim on us.
Because the world and humanity have never been the same
since the origin of sin, we do feel it to be hard or downright impossible to
follow God on the road to heaven.
So it is that God in Christ came down from heaven to join
us, as it were, on the road to hell.
He never sinned— but he chose to pick up the entire weight
and history of sin.
He willingly carried it with freedom and personal innocence,
freely letting it press him unto death.
Having carried all the history and reality of sin into DEATH,
he left it there: he left sin DEAD.
God in Christ left sin so dead that the human body in Christ
was now free to rise from death no longer able to suffer anything.
He left sin so dead that the human mind and the human will
in Christ is set free of all confusion and error, free to rise from death into
no other experience outside of truth, goodness, beauty, unity and joy— and all
of that without measure or end.
As he promised in his Gospel today: I came
so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.
We have two choices here.
On the one hand, we can believe his promise and follow him
through whatever work or crucifixion we might meet along the way of growing
freedom into resurrection life in everlasting abundance.
On the other hand, we can doubt his promise and settle for
less— but then we rob ourselves.
Here in his Gospel and here in his Eucharist, he asks us to
make the choice.
I am the gate.
Whoever enters through me will be saved....
God in Christ gives us his Body and Blood as his new and
everlasting alliance with us— the invincible alliance, the covenant that has
the power to free and raise up our bodies, our hearts, minds and wills— if we
believe and say “Amen” to it in all the details of our daily lives.
Let us not waste the Eucharistic choice he offers us.
Turn. Love. Repeat.
