When Bob's best friend passed away, the farmer left him all alone in a field for months. This elderly sheep is nearly blind from cataracts. He must have felt so lonely. But now, he’s living in Star Gazing Farm Animal Sanctuary, and is being introduced to new sheep and other rescued farmed animals. Bob is lonely no more.
There’s a curious tradition in the Church during the fifty-day celebration of Our Lord’s resurrection. The first three Sundays in Easter always focus on the risen Christ. We see Jesus meeting the astonished women as they leave the empty tomb. We see him appearing to the disciples and “Doubting Thomas.” We see him being made known in the breaking of the bread to the travelers on the road to Emmaus. In the last three Sundays, the focus shifts to Jesus packing his bags and getting ready to return to the Father, making sure that his buddies are ready to receive the Holy Spirit, start the Christian Church, and generally carry on without his physical presence. But in that middle fourth Sunday, we hear about sheep.
Jesus says, “I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.” The gate has two functions: it keeps the sheep in the sheepfold where they are safe, and it lets them out to the pasture where they can feed and have abundant life.
Sheep farmers lovingly point out that sheep enjoy a long and well-deserved reputation for being some of the dumbest animals our good Lord ever created. They’re not particularly adroit at decision-making, so they depend on the shepherd (and often the sheep dogs) to move them from one pasture to another and into and out of the sheepfold. Sheep need to keep moving, and much of a shepherd’s work is managing this locomotion.
A sheep farmer shared when he and the son, attempted to return an errant sheep belonging to a neighbor’s flock. This critter had somehow managed to fall in with the farmer’s sheep. When he attempted to capture it, it ran from them just as Jesus said a sheep would. It didn’t know their voices. Eventually, this farmer managed to grab the outlaw sheep by the fleece while his son put a bag over its head. Blinded, the sheep forgot to keep running away and just laid down. Without vision, sheep don’t move.
Can you guess who we are in Jesus’ sheep metaphor? Yup. That’s right: we’re the sheep. We need vision, and we have to keep moving. The Church is always reforming. Jesus is always leading us to new pastures.
I like to share a vision for the Church. In the years ahead we’ll get away from giant, expensive buildings. Many of our clergy in the Polish Catholic Church are bi-vocational and do not depend on the Church as a source of income. We’ll stop emphasizing individual salvation and we won’t worry about going to Heaven. Our job will be to love and serve our neighbors and bring the Kingdom of Heaven here to Earth.
I am sensing something of a renaissance like Divine Mercy in Las Vegas. They are getting out of the sheepfold and reaching out to the community with their public events. They are inviting outsiders to participate. Currently, they host an evening grief support group for men and women and thinking about developing a model of worship for Saturday night fellowship. They also are planning for the Feast of Gaudeloupe and want to invite families from the community to attend the services and enjoy a supper at no cost to anyone.
Our Good Shepherd is calling His sheep out of the comfort of the sheepfold and into newer pastures. Jesus is also calling each of us as individuals. We’re called to come to the Gate—either to enter the fold and be part of the flock, or to get out of our comfort zone and explore how our lives can better serve and give glory to God.
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends, that we hear the voice of our Good Shepherd telling us to keep moving safely in the knowledge that He is our shepherd, and we shall not be in want.
