College Chaplain 

4th Sunday After Easter, Year B, 2021.

Loved By God

In London, a crowd had gathered to hear a famous Shakespearean actor recite some of Shakespeare's dramas. The crowd was entranced and entertained by the actor's abilities, giving him frequent standing ovations. An old preacher in the audience encouraged the actor to recite the 23rd Psalm, using his Shakespearean style. The actor agreed on one condition that the preacher also should do so after he finished. The actor used much expression and voice inflection and all of his acting abilities. When he finished, the crowd gave a resounding standing ovation that lasted for several minutes. Then the old preacher started reciting the same Psalm. As he began, his voice was shaky because of his reverence for God's Word. When the preacher finished, nobody clapped. They couldn't. There wasn't a dry eye anywhere, and all were busy wiping their tears. The Shakespearean actor slowly stood, and he said, "Ladies and gentlemen, there is a difference between this preacher and me. I know the Psalm of the Good Shepherd, but this preacher knows the Good Shepherd of the Psalm.

I don't know about you, but for me, one thing that I am sure beyond doubt is that God loves me. Even in the ups and downs of life, I feel His love firmly around me. But not just me; God loves us. His ways are not our ways, undoubtedly, and His thoughts are more extensive, way higher and mightier than ours. But He has revealed to us through the bible, through Christ His Only Begotten Son, through the Sacraments, how much He loves us, how much he cares for us even in our ups and downs. The ease with which the human race presumes to tell God how he should love is breathtaking. There is only one way to know how God loves me: Listen to what He tells us and believe Him. In our catholic catechism, paragraph 156; we are taught that What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our natural reason: we believe "because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived". 

Therefore, when Christ declares to us today that He is the good Shepherd, He is not bluffing or rambling or trying to soothe us or please us or even to win our favour. No, He proved it. He laid down His life for us. As a shepherd, He knows his own and his own know him, just as the Father knows Him and He knows the Father. Jesus is saying that the very personal relationship He has with his heavenly Father is the model for the equally personal relationship He has with each of us. Jesus knows us as intimately as the Father knows him, and He wants us to know him as intimately as He knows the Father. There is a great deal to ponder there. When it comes to the Lord, we are not just one of a crowd, lost in a sea of faces. In a way that we will never fully understand, the Lord knows each one of us by name. He relates to us personally, and he invites us to connect to him in a personal way. A line often strikes me in Saint Paul's letter to the churches in Galatia, where he says, 'I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me'. We can each make our own those words of Saint Paul. When Jesus says in today's gospel that, as the good shepherd, 'I lay down my life for my sheep, He is saying that He lays down His life for each one of us individually.

Our second reading presents us with one essential attribute of Christ, the Good Shepherd. That is love. John reminds us of this: "Behold the great love that the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God." The only love comparable to the good shepherd's love is a mother's love for her baby (Is 49:15). Christ demonstrated this love for us by offering his life as a sacrifice and ransom for our salvation. "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends" (Jn 15:13). So, we must emulate Christ as our model of love and care.

So, I come back to the beginning, I don't know about you, but for me, I know beyond all doubt that I am loved uniquely by God. No matter our circumstances, shortcomings and failure, there is no disappointment in His eyes, there is no shame, there is only pride, the pride with which He publicly embraces us, saying to us, "I love you, come back to me, and there will be no frown of mine awaiting you. Believe in this love and never again be afraid.