The new commandment that Jesus announces is more than tolerance or mutual respect. It requires self-sacrificing love. It is the law of the new heaven and the new earth that are established in the new Jerusalem. Standards are entirely different there. The greater ones serve; the meek possess the earth; happy are the poor; woe to those who laugh. This is clearly a city that comes down from heaven, not one made by human hands. It is a city that embraces all who come to it. God dwells in the midst of this city, in the heart of this people. God dwells with them and they dwell with God. Through this new love, this new heaven and new earth, this new depth of communion, the glory of God is manifested in a new way.
The characterisation of Jesus as the Good Shepherd points to the relationship Jesus has with those who follow him, as well as the relationship he has with God. The image of Jesus as shepherd implies intimate knowledge on the part of both Jesus and his followers and unquestioning trust on the part of the followers. Jesus promises that he will give eternal life to his sheep, and that he will not allow anyone to take them away from him. He can promise eternal life, because he has power over death. Jesus consistently calls God Father, the Trinitarian designation that signifies distinction in divine union. It is clear that all that Jesus says and does is the actual embodiment of God’s will and not just behaviour that is in conformity with it. The shepherd who cares for the sheep is indeed one with God.
With Jesus soon to depart in a physical sense, someone else is going to have to take the role of the Good Shepherd, who laid down his life for the sheep entrusted to him by the Father (John 10:11, 14-16). The role will fall to Simon Peter but first his qualifications must be probed and tested. By an earlier charcoal fire (John 18:18) he had denied Jesus three times. Hence the triple interrogation in which his love is gently probed: ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ (John 21:15-19). Only if Simon loves Jesus ‘more than these others’ will he be suitable to take up the pastoral role which Jesus has exercised to the point of death. The interrogation goes on until Simon is moved at the depths of his being. There is no explicit censure of his denial, no demand for apology – just a sense conveyed that the triple protestation of love will more than adequately compensate for the past failure and show that Peter is ready and equipped to feed and tend the sheep, as Jesus had done. In fact, as Jesus goes on to foretell, Peter too will end his pastoral office by laying down his life in imitation of his Lord.
The themes for the second Sunday of Easter set the tone for the entire Easter season. They are all directed toward mystagogical instruction, primarily of those baptised during the Easter Vigil, but also of the whole Christian community. The readings for this season provide us an extended meditation on the resurrection and on our own incorporation into it through the mysteries of initiation. Most of us are like Thomas who looked for some tangible evidence of the resurrection. We do not find it any easier to live by faith than he did. However, when we do live by faith, we actually discover our capacity, as a Christian community, to reach out in care and support to others. Jesus extends his wounded hands to us as he did to Thomas, and the community is invited to touch his wounds as we touch the wounds of our world. Although the blessings that we derive from the resurrection are clearly gifts from God, they are nonetheless gifts that came at a cost.
John’s Easter story is closer to our real experience than many of the other Resurrection stories. Here we have no angels announcing ‘He is raised’; no Jesus present to change sadness into joy. Resurrection is more subtle in this Gospel. Mary and Peter miss the signs. They remain locked in grief still carrying the painful burden of Golgotha. It is the disciple named ‘beloved’ who first experiences resurrection in his openness to believe in God’s power to raise Jesus. Easter calls for faith. Those who know the loss and pain of death know too well the hard, long search to find signs of life. We don’t experience a sudden glorious moment of life returned. Like the anonymous disciple, we often stay some time within the tomb before finding grace to turn and enter into life. Such grace is found in simple signs of a love that does endure. Perhaps this is why ‘the beloved’ disciple first reaches Easter faith.
In this final Lenten Sunday we look again at the significance of Christ in our lives. We recognise him as our saviour, but we look more closely in order to discover just what kind of saviour he is. He has taken the form of a slave; he has been glorified with a name above all other names; he continues to suffer with us. We have not been saved through military might, but through the self-offering humility of Jesus. Though he was really in the form of God, Jesus came in the form of a slave. We have a saviour who was crushed for our iniquities, nailed to a cross as a convicted criminal, and there endured the sense of abandonment. In the face of this, we must ask a fundamental question: Why does God love us with such abandon? Our Saviour was lifted up and exalted precisely because he emptied himself of his divine prerogatives. He became one of us in order to show us how we are to live. Unlike conquerors who triumph by putting down their opponents, Jesus was raised up because he himself was first willing to be put down. Our Saviour first offered himself for us and continues to offer himself to us as an example to follow. As he was willing to empty himself for our sake, so we are told to empty ourselves for the sake of others. The Passion narrative leaves us up in the air. It leaves us in a better position than the disciples because we know the end of the story! Jesus’ disciples were downcast by what they felt was the defeat of Jesus, however we know that out of this darkness, light and hope will emerge!
Lent ends on a note of wonder. In the face of all the mighty works that God has already performed for the people, God promises something even more magnificent. The first reading proclaims that something new is about to appear. In the gospel, this new thing unfolds before our eyes. Here we see Jesus neither rejecting the law nor changing it. Instead, he shows that the law, as good as it might be, serves something higher. He shows that the mercy and compassion of God exceed the authority of the law. Once again we see that the readings of Lent are less concerned with mortification and penance than they are with divine graciousness and our response of joy and thanksgiving. Life with Christ transforms us from people who are caught in sin to women and men who have been forgiven. Life in Christ is the new thing that God has fashioned for us. God is the one who creates something new; we are the ones who are re-created.
The goodness of God is strikingly portrayed in the radically new image of father. This is a God who allows us to follow our own dreams, who is partial to no one, who faithfully and patiently waits for us to return, who gently corrects our misperceptions. God longs to be reconciled with us even more than we long to be reconciled with God. The challenges placed before us set out some of the conditions required if we are to be a new creation. We are called to a profound and total reconciliation, first with God and then with each other. Christ was identified with sin so that we might be identified with God’s righteousness. Reconciliation requires that we be open to giving and receiving forgiveness. It requires that we both remember and forget. We must always remember the causes of alienation, so that we not succumb to them again. However, we must forget the resentment that we felt so that we not allow it to influence our lives.
The Lenten theme of repentance (metanoia) is the central teaching of today’s Gospel. Living Christian faith does make demands that go beyond an hour on Sunday. In all the choices we make, about what we buy, how we live and how we vote, we are to be guided by Gospel principles of ‘love of God and neighbour.’ Are we living a rigorous Christianity that stands for principles of social justice, respect for all, tolerance towards others with a special regard for those most vulnerable in our society? What are our values really? How much do Gospel values impinge on the choices we make. These questions may help deepen our Lenten time of metanoia. Lent is a metanoia time giving us a chance to have a change of heart and to live from the choices of our hearts. We are at the half-way point of the Lenten journey. This week take some time to reflect on your choices and the direction in which you want your life to go. Choose while the choice is still possible.
The Second Sunday of Lent celebrates the epiphanies of God, the ways in which God’s divine presence is revealed. The glory of God is revealed in the transfigured Jesus, the one who discussed his suffering and death with Moses and Elijah. Lent is a time for us to enter into this suffering, not merely though reflection, prayer and penance, but concretely, by sharing in the suffering of the body of Christ. We see this suffering all around us. God is revealed through women and men who live lives of Christian commitment. In those whose integrity strengthens us, in those whose religious sentiments inspire us, in those whose endurance gives us confidence. God is revealed in those who get involved in bettering the lives of others. God is revealed in very ordinary ways, if we but open our eyes to see.