John’s gospel makes an extended allegory in chapter 10 about shepherds, sheep, and gates. It sets a contentious rather than an idyllic scene.
This chapter follows the conflicts the man born blind faces as neighbors and Pharisees question who gave him sight (John 9). His faith in Jesus gets the man put out of the synagogue. John’s gospel reflects tensions in the last decades of the first century between Jews who follow Jesus and those who continue to follow the law of Moses.
In these struggles the Christian community identifies Jesus with Wisdom, who was with God from the beginning and was God, who became human and dwelt among us (John 1.14). To other Jews this is blasphemous, reason to put believers out of the synagogue.
More than ten times John’s gospel puts statements in Jesus’ mouth that use the divine name to identify him with God. I am the good shepherd. I am the sheepgate. I am the resurrection and life. I am the bread come down from heaven. I am the way, the truth, and the life.
Today we contend with our own tensions. Will the Catholic Church ordain women deacons? What about intercommunion with other Christians? The prohibition “only Catholics in good standing can receive communion” tends to alienate rather than welcome family and friends at weddings and funerals. Can divorced and remarried Catholics receive communion? In Amoris Laetitia Pope Francis urges using conscience, time, grace, and conversation with pastors for divorced and remarried Catholics. What is the sense of the faithful?
- In what circles do you stand out as different? How do you share your experience?
- When have you helped others see more than one side of a contention?
The shepherd allegory offers the enticing intimacy between shepherd and sheep as an image of the relationship between Jesus and believers. The sheep know the shepherd’s voice. The shepherd knows the sheep and calls them by name. The shepherd and sheep walk together, live together, make life possible for each other.
The Greek verb poimano means to herd, to lead, to tend sheep. To herd is the work of gathering and keeping sheep together. To lead is the work of finding pasture and water and taking the sheep to places they can eat, drink, and thrive. A shepherd walks in front of a flock; the sheep imprint and follow.
To tend means staying alert, watching, paying constant attention to every sheep, to their condition and to threats. Anyone who has worked as a lifeguard at a community pool or beach knows the active attention that tending demands.
In Joy of the Gospel Pope Francis urges us to take on the smell of the sheep. “An evangelizing community gets involved by word and deed in people’s lives, bridges distances, is willing to abase itself, and embraces human life, touching the suffering flesh of Christ in others. Evangelizers thus take on the ‘smell of the sheep’ and the sheep are willing to hear their voice” (24).
Pope Francis brings into our world fresh assurance the Spirit is at work in us. He laid out four guides in his first encyclical Joy of the Gospel. He has put them into action in his work to decentralize the Church and learn from the synods he has called. The principles put his faith in the Holy Spirit into action.
First, time is greater than space. We live between the now of each moment and the lure of fulfillment we can imagine. To build and develop character or communities requires time and process. Growth takes time. Peace takes time.
Second, unity is greater than conflict. “The Spirit can harmonize every diversity,” Pope Francis writes in his encyclical Laudato Si’. We humans are all creatures of Earth who can come together to repair our common home. We can negotiate differences rather than insist on our way or no way.
Third, realities are greater than ideas. Amoris Laetitia envisions Christian life and marriage unfolding as a process and divorced people needing ongoing support rather than being cut off from the Church community. People need time to open their hearts to grace.
Fourth, the whole is greater than the part. This guideline challenges us to see the world is global and local. It calls us to broaden our horizons and see the greater good that will benefit us all, yet to work on a small scale in our own neighborhoods.
- What do you value in Pope Francis’s guidelines?
- What kind of time has grace needed in your life?
The Sunday liturgies after Easter reflect the Church’s desire to further form those who have been baptized and received into the community during the Easter Vigil. The catechumens’ journey to faith and baptism only begins their Christian lives. After Easter neophytes enter the final phase of initiation called mystagogia, continuing reflection on their experience of worshiping and praying with the community.
The research of James Fowler sees faith developing in three adult stages. Typically adolescents and college students question the faith they inherit from family and the community where they grow up. Young adults critically examine their faith and deliberately choose who and what to believe in. Sorting out who I am makes either/or and them/us thinking typical of this stage.
People secure in their own faith commitments grow into another stage, becoming able to listen to others and the many sides of issues. They work at recognizing and appreciating where others come from, why they think and feel as they do. They cross boundaries, work toward common ground in parishes and governing bodies, and live in broader relationships. Both/and typifies thinking at this stage.
In the third adult stage believers become so like Christ that they have an inspiring and renewing presence among us. They are our saints, those canonized and those who bless our families and communities. They welcome and open themselves to all.
- Where do you see yourself?
- Where in your life do you need to change—to listen, to deepen, to heal, to reform?
- Who is the person most like Christ that you know?