We Are God's Children Now

April 29, 2012

Fourth Sunday of Easter B

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ

"It was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead; in his name this man stands before you healed.  He is the stone rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.  There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved."  Acts 4:10b-12

Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed.  We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  1 John 3:2

I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep.  I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.  These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.  This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.  John 10:14-18b

Piety

Our piety should be the story of the Good Shepherd.  Our willingness to give our lives for the sake of our people captures the essence of the story of Christ as the Good Shepherd.  He lived his life offering it for our sake.  His giving his life on the cross is the essence of the good news that Christ came to bring us from the Father.  God loved us so much he was willing to be one of us.  And he is so much more than one of us when he gives his life to make up for all the sinfulness of our lives.  Because Christ died for us, we ought to offer our lives to fill up what is wanting to his work by his dying for us.  We have the chance to make Christ real again by being his dying for the world we are living in.  Christ is the way, the truth and the life of our God relationship to our world when we love as he did by giving our lives for our friends.  Thus the goodness of our lives is Christ at work within us.  The ways we reach out in love to our world shares the good news of Christianity.  Offering our lives makes us good shepherds in the style of Christ.  There is no shortcut on reaching Christ that does not take us to the cross of Christ as the truth of where the ultimate statement of love is meant to be found. 

Study

The healing of the cripple in the name of Christ teaches us how  to work and share Christianity in the name of Christ.  We are meant to give Christ to our world.  Christ was the stone rejected by his people.  He has become the cornerstone of the church.  We build our church around the teaching of Christ.  The mercy of God endures forever in our lives when we our willing to claim it in what we do out of love for the needy of our lives.  We are blessed in our work if we do it in the name of Christ.  Peter says it loud and clear.  “There is no other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.” In being good sheep of Christ, we learn how to be good shepherds for the people who depend on us. 

Action

Our work for Christ is its own reward.  We companion Christ and learn that what we suffer for his sake is a good reason to rejoice when we have been allowed to suffer for his name.  The great saints took it as a great honor when they had the chance to suffer for Christ.   God will love us because we lay down our lives in the name of Christ and take it up again in the ways we are good shepherds of the gift of God’s love given to us in the Christ-likeness of our brothers and sisters.  We are called to the destiny of being good shepherds in the name of Christ.  We need to say to one another; “The Christ of my heart recognizes the Christ of your heart.”