To Which Flock Will We Belong?
On first glance, today’s readings do not seem to have much in common. The settings are rather diverse. The first reading deals with the evangelizing activities of the apostles Paul and Barnabas after Jesus’ death. The second is a heavenly vision about a time that is yet to occur; the end of the world and the calling to account for what we have done in our lives. The third, our Gospel according to John then sends us back to the public ministry of Jesus during his time on earth. It can be a little dizzying. Maybe even a kind of Scriptural whiplash.
But on closer glance, there is a pattern. All three readings are about a rather fundamental choice we all face. Do we wish to be a part of God’s flock or the flock of the good life on earth?
In each of our readings, the key figures choose God’s flock. Paul and Barnabas, in the face of opposition, continue to preach God’s joyful message of love of God and others. In our second reading, the apostle John describes those who have responded to life’s challenges by following the Lamb of God. Their reward is great; eternal communion with an all-loving and all-merciful God, where they will “hunger and thirst no more.” The Lamb of God will “lead them to springs of life-giving water.” God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
And who is the Lamb of God? Our Gospel tells us that it is of course Jesus, who is the Good Shepherd, who guides his sheep, protects them, and gives them eternal life. To obtain eternal life, Jesus asks us to listen to his voice, a voice that tells us that without Him we can achieve nothing; with him anything is possible.
Many of you may not be aware that much like the United States, the Roman Catholic Church has a constitution. That constitution, called by its Latin name Lumen Gentium, “Light to the Gentiles,” outlines the structures of the Church and the responsibilities and joys of being a Catholic. Lumen Gentium states very clearly: “All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian love and to the perfection of love. All are called to holiness.”
Holiness comes from loving God and one another, by living the Gospel life. One of the great accomplishments of Vatican II is the renewal and reemphasis of this basic tenet of faith. Prior to Vatican II, this part of our Catholic faith had gotten a little lost. Catholics, not necessarily by teaching but certainly by practice were more or less told to follow the rules, and leave holiness to the clergy and religious men and women.
But the rules, the moral precepts of the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, and other official teachings of the Church boil down to a call to holiness through love of God and one another. Without this commitment to holiness, our faith is sterile and rule-bound. It lacks effective action. Quoting again from Lumen Gentium: “All of us have a special vocation: to make the Church present and fruitful in those places and circumstances where it is only through us that the Church can become the salt of the earth.”
The sacraments, prayer, and Scripture give us the graces to accept the call from God to love. But then our love must be an active one. Love manifests itself best in service to others. Our secular world can often compel us to a game of bigger and better. But the basic idea of remembering someone else through a gift or in some other way about which we will soon hear can give us a greater joy than the quest for bigger and better possessions.
That ought to tell us something. We enjoy life and experience true freedom when we do for others more than for ourselves. This is what Jesus did. He became flesh so that he could be with us. He gave of himself in every way to others in his earthly life. He prepared our way to salvation in heaven.
This path to joy and salvation is a choice. We can stay in God’s flock, or we can join the flock of the good life, a life that looks out only for oneself. To which flock will we belong?