John 10:27-30
Introduction to the Mass:
Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. A good day to celebrate our new Pope! And a day especially to pray for vocations. May the Lord send us shepherds who will truly and worthily speak of him, teach in his name, draw people to him, imitate him, mediate him, feed us with him.
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On the 4th Sunday of Easter we always have a passage from the 10th Chapter of St. John’s Gospel: some portion of the Good Shepherd discourse of Jesus. That discourse is set against a background of harsh controversy between Jesus and those Jews who are opposed to him. The division of ways is now open and explicit. There are those who belong to Jesus, and those who reject him. The first group believe Jesus to be the Son of God, and Lord; the second think him mad, bad, and dangerous. The first group believe that they have life in him; the second group are determined to kill him.
As this Chapter in the Gospel unfolds, it seemed as if the Good Shepherd discourse had come to an end. But now, here in the Temple in Jerusalem, during the feast of Dedication, we have the 3 verses we read today, where Jesus returns to his theme. In typical fashion he goes again over the same ground, but with ever renewed emphasis, and always adding something extra. With the last of the words of Jesus we heard just now, we have his strongest statement so far about his relationship with God the Father. “I and the Father”, he says, “are one”.
Controversy, polemics, threats of violence, provocative statements: yet in today’s brief passage what we hear is only serene confidence, absolute conviction, profound consolation, loving intimacy. The intimacy is between Jesus and us; but then we see how that is a reflection of the intimacy between Jesus and his Father. So Jesus here speaks to his disciples, to us, with the strength and the power of God. These are words for us to cling on to, to remember often, to live by.
To understand the image of sheep hearing the Shepherd’s voice, it’s helpful to recall that in the Ancient Near East, and still sometimes out there even today, shepherds would join forces at night, corralling their several different flocks together in a single enclosure. So all the sheep are mixed up there together: relatively safe from lions, wolves and robbers, and safe also from the possibility of wandering off and getting lost on their own. This mixture of all sorts put in together is an image of our life in this world, and of the life of the Church. Jesus illustrates it also in St. Matthew’s Gospel, with the parables of wheat and darnel, or fish in the net (Mt 13); all intermingled now, but to be separated out later. Mixed-up sheep are easily separated once dawn has broken. Each Shepherd has only to stand outside and call his sheep. They know who is their own shepherd, and thy know who is not, and they follow the one they know.
So it is with Jesus. He calls us. He knows us, we know him, and with confidence we follow him. At least: let us be sure we do! Let us ever cultivate knowledge of him through prayer, through frequent listening to his word, through sacramental communion. One little sign that we do belong to him is the impact his words have on us. They strike us as true, beautiful, holy, inspiring, ennobling. What they hold out we find desirable. We instinctively trust the one who speaks.
We can’t imagine what eternal life is like: but we believe in it, because of the identity of the one promising it, and because of what he has done.
What is his identity? He is the Son of God, who is one with his Father. They are one in their shared divine substance, so that what is true of God is true also of Jesus. That’s the doctrine of Nicaea. “No one can snatch out of my hand” he says; “no one can snatch out of the Father’s hand” – for it is the same. Jesus is therefore able to give us what he possesses himself, which is the divine Sonship, and the divine eternal life, in perfect union with the Father. But Jesus the man is one with the Father also in will, in knowledge, in love. So he wills our salvation; he knows us; he loves us.
Then also: we trust Jesus because of what he has done. We now know what the original hearers of this discourse did not yet know. We know that Jesus has conquered death on our behalf. He has overcome all sin; he has risen to eternal life; he has given the Holy Spirit. So, as St. Paul says at the end of Romans chapter 8: nothing whatever can stand against that. No human power; no earthly affliction; not death itself; not the devil, not even our own sins. Nothing can separate us from Jesus, or from his love; nothing can defeat his power; nothing can compromise his promises.
The word St. Paul uses to express the certainty of our salvation through Jesus is Predestination. According to St. Augustine, this means that “those who are to be saved will certainly be saved.” Of course predestination is an unfathomable mystery. But we can maybe helpfully think of it as if from two view-points, ours and God’s. From our side, it’s all to do with free choice. We choose to believe in Jesus; we choose to belong to him, to listen to him, to follow him; we choose to enter heaven after him. Others choose to reject him; to refuse his offer of life; to prefer separation rather than unity. But then from God’s side: “from all eternity I have known you. I have chosen you. You belong to me: I will never let you fall away.”
Our confidence in this truth does not make us complacent. On the contrary: from our side we keep on making our choice, and we make sure we do not wander away from Jesus like a silly lost sheep. And as we wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, we pray for others, especially those we know and love: that they too may come to know Jesus, and love him, and follow him, and find eternal life in him.