Tuesday, April 27, 2021

 Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter

(Acts 11:19-26; John 10:22-30)

Today’s gospel reading mentions the Feast of Dedication (actually it was a rededication) of the Temple.  It is known today as Hanukkah.  The feast celebrates the victory of the Jews over their foreign occupiers in the second century before Christ.  In that struggle many faithful Jews endured persecution and martyrdom rather than succumb to heathen ways.  Now Jesus is saying that his sheep will show the same tenacity in clinging to belief in him.

John’s gospel, like the others, reverts events that took place at the time of its composition into the life of Jesus.  In late first century Christians were being persecuted for not accepting Roman hedonism or taking cover in Judaism.  Many died as martyrs.  But that was a grace since martyrdom assured entrance into eternal life.  In the passage Jesus tells the Jews obliquely that he is the Messiah because he -- like David, the primordial Messiah or “anointed” -- is a Good Shepherd.  He feeds his sheep in the evergreen pastures of eternal life.

Jesus tells the Jews that no one can take his sheep from him.  Nevertheless we, who are also his sheep, can walk away from him.  This departure will not happen if we have true faith in the Eucharistic food he provides.  It is not bread and wine acting as symbols for Jesus himself.  Rather it is really he who comes into us.  He becomes like a man entering a supersonic jet that will soar to the heavens.