Easter 4C

Fourth Sunday of Easter (C)

Readings for Mass
First Reading: Acts 13:14, 43-52
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 100:1-2, 3, 5
Second Reading: Revelation 7:9, 14-17
Gospel: John 10:27-30


Jesus is the Good Shepherd. In today’s Gospel reading Jesus tells us: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (Jn 10:27). This is a very nice image, and rightly so. It is an image which helps us to trust more in Jesus, it gives us peace and confirmation of security in truly following the Good Shepherd. Jesus had said to His disciples that in order to adhere to Him, to His Word, it is necessary to be called by the Father, to be drawn by Him by way of the gift of grace (Jn 6:44; 65). Of course this gift He would like to give to everyone. But a condition is necessary: to be open, that is disposed to receive the Truth listening to His voice, as is stated in the parable of the Good Shepherd (Jn 10:1-16), to which today’s reading makes reference to.

The sheep, in fact, of which one speaks of here, do not indicate only those who believe in Jesus, but rather those in which the faith and openness to Jesus has arrived to it’s full development: they are those who Jesus has drawn into a communion, in a profound familiarity with Him, based on knowing and reciprocal giving of each other.

These people “listen to the voice of Jesus”; they have, that is, acquired a taste for Him. They are ever more in tune with His thoughts, with His sentiments, with His teaching. They possess a supernatural discernment and thus succeed in distinguishing from afar if a way of thinking and of living is in accord with the teaching of Jesus (and so they welcome it), or if it is in opposition to it (and so they repel it).

God totally respects our primordial gift of freedom. This is true love on the part of God even if we choose to say NO to God and end up in hell for all eternity. Many so-called theologians and even many priests and bishops today want to deny this great human dignity of being able to make an astounding choice between union or separation from the Creator for all eternity. Many people in the Church try to tell us that it is almost impossible to commit a mortal sin or they might insinuate that a loving Father would never send anyone to hell if it even exists! But God sends no one to hell; we freely choose to not want to be with God. The absence of God is the greatest pain in hell even though the damned souls would suffer even more near God in paradise! Many priests and bishops do not even believe that the devil exists (http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=2879)! This is totally contrary to the official Church teachings approved by the Pope.

Do we trust in this Good Shepherd and thus do we truly listen to His voice? A child, who does not feel loved by his Dad, has great difficulty doing what his Dad asks him to do when it is something difficult. Children readily have an intuition if there is true love or on the contrary if there is not true love from their parents, even without spoken words. If the child feels loved by his Dad, it is much easier for the child to trust and obey his Dad even when his Dad asks him to do something difficult or contrary to his own ideas.

A great number of people today are in the situation of a child who received very little true love, if any, from their parents and perhaps also never made contact or had the experience of divine, gratuitous love in a parish or in a group where the members truly live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Thus these people have a very difficult time believing in the love of the Good Shepherd and thus do not seek His voice or trust His voice. About 60 years ago the love between a great number of married couples was poisoned at the root of their marriage relationship when they accepted to use the “pill” and enter into the contraceptive mentality. The use of artificial contraception drives a profound wedge between the marital act and life, between the sexual act and responsibility. Thus the family and children were poisoned as well, and the children never really received true love of which the Good Shepherd speaks. These married couples did not trust the Good Shepherd perhaps because they too never discovered and experienced how much this Good Shepherd loves His sheep so as to trust Him even when He asks them to do something difficult and that seems totally absurd to the mentality of the modern world that surrounds them, such as to be open to life and responsibility during the conjugal act. They were not able to make that leap of faith into the arms of their loving Father. Unfortunately there were a great number of priests and bishops who even encouraged these numerous couples to reject the constant teaching of the Catholic Church, reconfirmed by Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae (1968). A great number of priest, bishops and parents do as Peter did at the beginning of his walk with Jesus when Peter rebuked Jesus who revealed to the Apostle that He must “suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed” (Mt 16:21). Peter later matured to the point of giving his life as a martyr for Jesus. Jesus would say to these numerous priests, bishops and parents, who never matured as Christian, the same as He said to Peter: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men” (Mt 16:23).

This poisoning of the most fundamental human relationship between the husband and the wife not only poisoned the children but also the most fundamental cell of society, the family. We are seeing the results of the contraceptive culture more and more today; we have not even come close yet to hitting the bottom of our downward spiral in the very destructive “culture of death” that we are living in today! These parents did not trust in the loving words of the Good Shepherd explained by the authority He left us on earth, the Catholic Church, with the Pope as the head (Mt 16:18). See “Prophecies of Humanae Vitae” (http://pop.org/201003231196/prophecies-of-humanae-vitae).

Over a hundred years ago the state did not provide a pension plan and so the parents had more children in order to provide for their future. When the state began offering a pension plan, the great majority of parents decided it was too much sacrifice to have more than one or two children; one or two children were basically welcome primarily for the gratification of the parents. But the state always needs children to pay for the pensions! And then we do not understand the connection between the poisoning of the family and the moral and economic crisis that we have today!

It takes a certain amount of humility to be a good Catholic. There are literally thousands of independent protestant groups in the U.S. who each interpret the Bible in their own way, often in contradictory ways, even though there is but one Jesus Christ, one God and one Bible. Jesus knew full well that this would happen and so He promised to protect the authority He left us here on earth, the Catholic Church, with the Pope as the head, until the end of time (Mt 16:18). Only the Pope has this protection; the bishops and priests do not enjoy this promise of infallibility in matters of faith and morals which history has often proven to be true. Lay men and women should follow those priests and bishops who are in union with the Pope if they are interested in finding the saving and liberating truth.

Thus the children of these parents who took the easy way out with the pill and other devices, never received the foundation of true love and trust. Many of these children of these parents who bought into the contraceptive mentality, were the ones who rebelled on university campuses in Europe and the U.S. in 1968, and many of them have now taken control of the cultural motors of our societies (schools at all levels, mass media and even religious institutions) and are now in control of the governments in Europe and in the U.S. ready to thrust upon mankind the “New World Order”, a perfect world without God which will end up far worse than the dictatorships of Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini and Mao Tse Tung all together! Do we really believe that the New World Order will treat the citizens well if this regime wants nothing to do with God? But even the great proud leaders of this rising dictatorship have forgotten that “there is no honor among thieves” and so they too will end up being treated as they have and will treat us!

In terms of its fundamental view of the human person, Pope John Paul II pointed out in his encyclical “Centesimus Annus” (1991) that the problem with socialism is that it denies the reality of human free choice and free will. It is clear with Marx and Engels, they had a major problem with the family, marriage, and religion, specifically Catholicism. They were very deterministic in that all is determinate in what they call historical materialism. “Socialism considers the individual person simply as an element, a molecule within the social organism, so that THE GOOD OF THE INDIVIDUAL IS COMPLETELY SUBORDINATED TO THE FUNCTIONING OF THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC MECHANISM.” (http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_01051991_centesimus-annus_en.html).

As always, there are many voices in the world today. We can ask ourselves: Does man manufacture the truth or does man perceive the truth? Up until a few centuries ago it was believed by just about everyone that man perceived the truth found outside of himself (Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas, etc.). After the modern philosophers (Kant, Descartes, etc.) people began to believe that each person manufactures the truth inside of himself (subjectivism). This has taken over contemporary thought processes. According to most university professors and students today, if I say that a rose is an elephant, it becomes an elephant! If I say that marriage is no longer indissolvable, then this is truth for me! Pope Benedict calls this the “tyranny of relativism” because this relativistic foundation of thought and culture leads to “might makes right” since all laws, even those laws inherent in nature, are rejected or changed according to each ones egotistical whims! Is this not the same original temptation of Satan all over again (Gen 3:4-5)? The only thing that is important is what I feel comfortable with. There is only one commandment: ME, my ego! We choose evil that is dressed up as good, with lots of glitter and sparkles, such as “women’s reproductive rights” or “pro-choice”, which used to be called murder (abortion)!

Homosexual activists call their movement "GAY RIGHTS." This accomplishes two major objectives: (1) The use of the word gay rather than homosexual masks the controversial sexual behavior involved and accentuates instead a vague but positive-sounding cultural identity – gay, which, after all, once meant "happy"; and (2) describing their battle as one over "rights" implies homosexuals are being denied the basic freedoms of citizenship that others enjoy. The game plan of these shrewd gay activists was to employ powerful marketing and public relations techniques as well as science to undermine old time religion. And they have done exactly that. IS THIS NOT VERY UPSETTING and unjust?!? Does this not make it more difficult to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd?

Today subjectivism has taken over. Just about everyone has become a little god! I thought only Mary, the Mother of God, was conceived immaculate; instead just about everyone believes to have been conceived immaculate! There is not more sin! Alleluia! We do not need a Redeemer because we are all perfect little gods! Christ wasted his time, energy and suffering according to us intelligent and wise people of these modern times! Premarital sex is OK if you feel good about it; drugs are OK if the “high” makes you happy. The mind creates truth that is not there, that does not exist! The fundamental commandment of Satan is “Don’t suffer!” “Avoid suffering and self sacrifice at all costs!” This commandment of Satan is transmitted in the most sophisticated ways ever developed today to literally brainwash the masses of unwitting people.

A pertinent example of this manipulation of the public can be seen in two leading homosexual activists, Kirk and Madsen who wrote "AFTER THE BALL (1989): How America Will Conquer It’s Fear and Hatred of Gays in the '90s", in which they outlined very carefully the way in which they were going to manipulate the way in which Americans think about this issue! What was THE BOTTOM LINE of Kirk and Madsen's master plan? "The campaign we outline in this book, though complex, depends centrally upon a program of unabashed propaganda, firmly grounded in long-established principles of psychology and advertising." (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=32898).

Kirk and Madsen's "war goal," explains marketing expert Paul E. Rondeau of Regent University, was to "force acceptance of homosexual culture into the mainstream, to silence opposition, and ultimately to convert American society." Visit: “37. The Astounding Impact of the Ruthless Manipulation of Militant Gay Activists!” (http://markbeast.blogspot.com). It is my contention that the American population does not want to be manipulated; they do not want to be toyed with or played with.

This is not a new technique. In 1970, the CALIFORNIA MEDICAL JOURNAL released an article how ABORTION WOULD BE A VERY LUCRATIVE BUSINESS; it was admitted in the article that indeed that if this were to be presented to the American population it would never fly because the American population would never permit the killing of a child in the womb. It was admitted in the article that everyone knows that life begins at the moment of conception. So they had to change the language; they had to change the way in which people refer to the child in the womb; they had to begin to depersonalize the child. (“Recycling Wrongs: All Over Again”; http://lawreview.vermontlaw.edu/articles/v32/3/short.pdf; http://www.all-creatures.org/murti/pub-thelib-01.html; http://www.prolifecare.com/holyinnocents/evidence.html).

Amid all the deceptive voices in the world today, do we succeed in tuning in to the frequency of the voice of the Good Shepherd? With tremendous love, the Good Shepherd leads each person of good will and open to His voice towards Jerusalem, toward Calvary, toward ever more self sacrifice and dying to self in order to love Jesus hidden in each neighbor before us in each present moment. Christians who remain at an immature level of Christianity use religion to satisfy themselves, like a baby that always wants the mother to coddle him without ever trying to do the same for others. These underdeveloped Christians seek only consolations in their prayers and religious practices. The mature Christians seek to discover and to do the will of God, to satisfy Jesus; they seek not the consolations of God but the God of consolations. Dead bodies, like dead fish, float downstream; live bodies, like live fish, swim upstream against the very strong currents of our culture of death. Live fish swim upstream with great difficulty, often losing their lives, to give birth to new fish. We, instead, who have been given so much by our Creator including life itself and everything else, kill our offspring to enjoy our life! What a great contrast with the true saints, such as St. Gianna Berretta Molla, whose feast day we celebrate in this period, who gave her life in order to let the baby in her womb live!!! Her baby girl, who was not aborted, is now a doctor herself in Italy.

As CS LEWIS said, GOD whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but SHOUTS to us in our PAIN. Jesus is there for us, and while suffering does not cease to exist, what Jesus has done is take away all the power of suffering, he strengthens us in mind or faith or body, and helps us get through it. Jesus will not stand by when we suffer: he is there to take the brunt of our suffering Himself, as He did on the cross. The answer to pain is Jesus' being by our side when we pray. God's goodness comes through pain.

“BUT WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1Cor 1:23-25)!

In this same chapter of today’s Gospel Jesus says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep” (Jn 10:7). The great majority of people today listen to the very numerous and self-satisfying voices of the world; few listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd who asks us to sacrifice ourselves for love. “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Mt 7:13-14). The “narrow gate” or “door” is Jesus crucified in our lives! Just about all Christians follow the risen Lord, but few follow our crucified Lord!

One of the most important revelations that Jesus revealed to us is the culture of the Most Holy Trinity. Just as a foreigner brings with him his habits and culture to a new land, so too for Jesus, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. Of course this culture is the culture of love. The theologians use a word “kenosis” to describe the total emptying of the Father to receive totally the Son and vise versa. By ourselves we are unable to live this deep mystery of love. But with the sacrament of Baptism and the other sacraments and graces of God, we can and are obliged to become totally empty and set aside all of our baggage of worries and difficulties before Jesus hidden in each person before us in each present moment of each day. This way of living gives rise to a very efficacious presence of Jesus “where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18:29). Behold the reason why the early Church grew so rapidly.

Tertullian, one of the first Christian writers, reported what was being said of the Christians: “See how they love one another, and how they are ready even to die for one another.” It was Jesus' words coming true: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, If you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35).

Do we love as Jesus loves us? Is our parish or group growing like the early Church? Visit http://trueevangelization.blogspot.com/2010/01/hope-of-world.html.

When we succeed in overcoming a tiny bit of our egoism, we are happier. But the only way to do this is by way of suffering in denying ourselves in self sacrifice for others. There is a great difference between the happiness that the world offers and the joy that the Good Shepherd offers. Mary, the Mother of Jesus, in great sorrow at the foot of the cross, was full of joy because she knew she was doing and fulfilling the will of God! The world promises happiness without sacrifice, and then follows disaster and destruction. Precisely those things which our poisoned culture of death offers to us in the name of “freedom” leads us to the worst kind of slavery and captivity, interiorly and exteriorly. Satan is a liar and the father of lies (Jn 8:44).

God offers us a tiny piece of His suffering and sorrow on the cross, while holding our hand; if we recognize, embrace and love this real and personal presence of Jesus Crucified in our lives, then afterwards follows true and lasting joy.

St. Rose of Lima (died 1617, Peru) wrote: “The Lord, our Savior, raised his voice and spoke with incomparable majesty. ‘Let all know’, he said, ‘that after sorrow grace follows. … Let them be on their guard against error or deception; this is the only ladder by which paradise is reached; WITHOUT THE CROSS THERE IS NO ROAD TO HEAVEN.’ … If they but knew, surely they would direct their energy with all care and diligence to procuring sufferings and afflictions for themselves. Instead of good fortune all men everywhere would seek out troubles, illness and suffering that they might obtain the inestimable treasure of grace. This is the final profit to be gained from patient endurance. No one would complain about the cross or about hardships coming seemingly by chance upon him, if he realized in what balance they are weighed before being distributed to men.” (Office of Readings; August 23).

“OH, IF ONLY THE SUFFERING SOUL KNEW HOW IT IS LOVED BY GOD, it would die of joy and excess of happiness! Some day, we will know the value of suffering, but then we will no longer be able to suffer. The present moment is ours.” (Diary of St. Faustina (died 1938, Poland), No. 963).

We must do as St. Paul in the first letter and come out of our comfort zone and be missionaries of love and truth. Then we too will be ready to enter the “great tribulation” indicated in the second letter, and we will come out with our garments as white as snow, washed in the blood of the Lamb, for all eternity!