Feed My Sheep April 22

3rd Sunday of Easter

By Deacon Gene Betit

Our Lady Queen of Peace

“We gave you strict orders, did we not, to stop teaching in that name? Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and want to bring this man’s blood upon us.” But Peter and the apostles said in reply, “We must obey God rather than men." Acts 5:28-29

Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.” John 21:18-19

Piety

Like the disciples, we often want to stay within our comfort zone, Lord, and just spend the day fishing or engaged in our hobbies. Help us to take on the high risks that you ask of us – to take up our cross and follow you. Give us the fortitude of Peter to jump in with all our hearts, with all our minds and with all our bodies and help you to tend to your sheep. All of us are called to ministry like Peter. Though, of course, there are many options, indifference is not among them. Prepare us to overcome our indifference and inertia and jump into the sea to follow you. Amen.

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/042207.shtml

Today’s first reading describes the Apostles’ second appearance before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish religious and secular tribunal that condemned Jesus. The high priest rebukes them for having disregarded a previous injunction to refrain from preaching in the name of Jesus, alarmed because they have been successfully spreading the Good News in Jerusalem. Peter and the other Apostles reply courageously that they are bound to obey God, not men, delivering a brief sermon to the authorities, and actually rejoice at their brush with danger in Jesus’ name. They are learning to grow into their role as witnesses. The Greek word martyr actually means witness, but in the early Church and in many places throughout history being a faithful witness led to almost certain death. When Fr. Rocco addressed participants of the Peace Mass and March as martyrs for the faith on January 27^th I was surprised, but by the time that day of beautiful sunlight and warmth on the Mall was over, I think all of us felt somewhat like what the Apostles probably felt after their brush with the Sanhedrin. We had spent the day as witnesses for peace and it felt good!

Today’s Gospel reading is about growth, authority and accountability, describing Jesus’ third appearance after his death. Jesus tells the seven Apostles on Lake Tiberius to set out and lower their nets again after their unsuccessful night time fishing expedition. The Apostles filled their nets to bursting when they followed Jesus’ instructions. At daybreak, Jesus prepared breakfast, asking Peter if he really loved him—three times, as many times as Peter had denied him earlier in the week. Upon declaring his love, Peter is commissioned to assume the role of shepherd in Jesus’ place, but he has become a chastened shepherd able to show compassion to those who fail. Whereas previously he brashly trusted in his own powers, he is growing to rely more on the Lord as the source of his spiritual strength.

Today’s readings collectively point to the tremendous potential and high cost of a life lived faithfully in Christ—what Dietrich Bonnhoffer described in detail in his The Cost of Discipleship. Every baptized Christian has a role to play in feeding and tending the flock, and the Church is rightly judged by the extent to which it cares for the most vulnerable among us. Today’s Gospel passage establishes the critical connection between Eucharist and the presence of the risen Lord in the community.

Like Peter, we too are often not ready to respond with a clear “YES!” to Jesus’ invitation to follow him. We lead busy and complex lives, and we generally prefer to consider Easter as a great triumph involving only Jesus. But there is no doubt that Easter is Mission Sunday, a clarion call for each of us to pick up our own designated crosses and follow our Savior. Easter is our catalyst for ministry, our personal invitation to follow Jesus, to experience his presence anew so that it overflows into every minute of our waking lives.

Action

Our country’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to rage. The genocide in Darfur and the conflicts in eastern Africa and elsewhere continue to kill thousands and displace many more. Immigrants in this country continue to struggle to maintain their dignity. The rich are getting richer, and the poor continue to fall further behind. Global warming continues to affect the Earth's climate with increasing transparency while those in power remain in denial.

In the midst of all this chaos, what can any one of us really do? We can do what we have been called to do as Catholics, as followers of Christ: work to bring forth Jesus' message of hope and renewal to everyone we meet. We can work first on transforming ourselves so that we become courageous agents working for social justice and the common good, living the Gospel message each day, and sharing the hope and joy we feel in this alleluia season with our families, friends, business associates, and the many communities in which we live and move so that our joy ultimately permeates the wider world.

If this seems like a pipe dream, let’s remember that the collapse of Communism in the Soviet Union and East Europe in1991, followed by demise of Apartheid in South Africa started with a movement called Solidarity in Catholic Poland. Then there are two more lesser-known examples: the "People Power" movement in the Philippines and the peaceful removal of an eccentric strongman in Malawi.

Let’s not even compare the consequences of being a courageous witness to our faith in the Soviet Union or South Africa with standing up for justice and democracy here in America!! We can certainly do this with God’s help, becoming even more of a loving Christian community in action, and joining with other like-minded, Jewish, Muslim, and Protestant brethren in taking concrete action to change the way the game is played—in other words, restoring democracy.

We are being called to participate with the Industrial Areas Foundation in a Northern Virginia movement that will include a wide range of faith traditions and unions, an organization that will restore democracy -- provided we have faith in the process of participatory democracy as well as in ourselves. This might involve 3-5 meetings a year, which of course, one would attend only if one’s schedule permits. The 40 + congregations making up the Northern Virginia component of the Industrial Areas Foundation are having a Convocation THIS Sunday afternoon, April 22, from 3 to 5 PM at St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Woodbridge. Can you jump in and attend to represent your parish?

Last week was Generosity Sunday – three great spiritual leaders, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Sr. Joan Chichester, and Cornell West, have joined to issue a proposal for a new basis for US foreign diplomacy. Their ‘Global Marshall Plan’ urges that the U.S. to change its fundamental orientation away from the notion that homeland security is achieved through domination of other countries, peoples and cultures to a spirit of generosity and caring for the well-being of others, spending 1-5% of our Gross Domestic Product each year for the next twenty years to eliminate global poverty, homelessness, hunger, inadequate education, inadequate health care, and repairing the global environment.

Let us join in responding to such calls—and begin as we must, with ourselves, as we work for worldwide transformation, building up of the Kingdom of God.

In this Easter season, let us all vow to become agents of rebirth, reflecting on what we can do to make Easter’s spirit of renewal a reality that all humankind enjoys in our lifetime by embracing the myriad opportunities around us. And, when the road becomes tough, as we know it will, let’s remember that the Eucharist, that unique gift given to us by Jesus at such great personal cost, stands always ready as our sustaining source of spiritual life. How blessed are we who share the life of Christ…now, it’s our turn to be a blessing to the world!