Easter 4B 2015 Boynes
This fourth Sunday of Easter is also known as "Good Shepherd Sunday" because the Gospel reading each year depicts Christ as the good shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep. The Church uses this Sunday as World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Our common vocation as Christians is to imitate Christ as the good shepherd, offering ourselves as He does. This applies to all vocations: ordained or married, consecrated life, and the generous single life. Marriage is the most common vocation in the Church, and it builds up the Body of Christ in critical ways. But some are called to a different way of life in serving God and His people.
In describing Himself as a good shepherd, Jesus says, "I know mine...", meaning His sheep. He knows our human nature. He created it, and shares it. So, He knows what leads us to happiness. He knows the greener pasture for which we were made, and as a good shepherd, He wants to lead us there.
One verse in today's Gospel is very important in thinking about vocations: Jesus says, "I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, I lay it down on my own." Vocations do involve sacrifice, but not slavery. We lay down our lives willingly, in order to have something greater...to be part of something greater. Parents and married people do this in so many ways. So do priests and religious and others in full time service of the Gospel. And it leads to great joy if that's our calling.
Pope Francis wrote a great message for World Day of Prayer for Vocations. He reminds us that, "A disciple of Jesus has a heart open to unlimited horizons, and (following Him) never means flight from this life or from the world." People don't become priests or religious sisters and brothers because they can't get a job or a date! It's a free choice to respond to God's love, even when other good options are available. "I lay down my life on my own, no one takes it from me."
The Pope says that this offering of self is "only possible if we leave ourselves behind." He's referring to the selfish parts of our nature, or cautious, or fearful. He says that a "vocation is always the work of God. He leads us beyond...frees us from every enslavement, breaks down...our indifference...Responding to God's call means allowing God to help us leave our false security behind...It means allowing the Holy Spirit...to awaken in us the desire and joy of offering ourselves for something greater."
He talks of "an "exodus" which is the heart of vocation, or better yet, at the heart of our response to the vocation God gives us." This is like the definition of faith which I have shared previously: God's work in us, to which we respond.
The word "exodus" means going out. We think of the Book of Exodus in the bible: the journey from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land. But the Pope says that this 'exodus' is the pattern of "the entire history of salvation, but also the the inner workings of the Christian faith. Passing from slavery of the old (ways) to new life in Christ...This...is a genuine "exodus"; it is the journey of each Christian soul." Again, going out of ourselves so as to go toward something greater.
The Pope stresses that this applies to all of us: "at the root of every Christian vocation we find this basic movement...transcending ourselves, leaving behind our comfort..to center our lives in Christ. ...it means leaving our native place (our comfort zone) as Abraham did, and going out with trust, knowing that God shows us the way to a new land...this is not a rejection of our own life...on the contrary, those who set out to follow Christ find life in abundance."
It just makes sense that this is the way to happiness in life, because its the pattern of God - in whose image we are created. God is revealed to us as Trinity: a community of persons, each reaching out and offering themselves generously so that we might have life in abundance. Since we're made in that image, our nature is to be for each other. That's how we discover ourself. That's how we discover true happiness.
I'd like to close with these words of Pope Francis from his message for today: He says, "This exodus towards God and others fills our lives with joy and meaning...(too many people think) that the God of the Christian faith is somehow a limit on their freedom...never be afraid to go out from yourselves...! The Gospel is the message which brings freedom to our lives; it transforms them and makes them all the more beautiful. How wonderful it is to be surprised by God's call, to embrace his word, and to walk in the footsteps of Jesus...in generous service to our neighbors! Your life will become richer and more joyful each day!"
Jesus said, "I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, I lay it down on my own."
How are we doing this for the people in our lives, and people we don't even know?
How is God calling us to do it more generously?