who are you? 4th week easter tuesday 2014

Before we go into our reflection this morning it might be helpful to look into the context of our gospel today.  The gospel of John says that Jesus was walking about in the temple on the feast of the dedication.  The feast of the dedication is held in December which explains why John says that it was winter.  The feast of the dedication commemorates the re-dedication of the temple after the Jews fought and won their independence from the Greeks.  The temple had to be rededicated because the Greeks turned the Jewish temple into a pagan temple erecting even the statue of Zeus and sacrificing pigs in the temple, so despicable to the Jews.  So the temple has to be cleansed, it has to be offered back to God, it has to be dedicated again. 

This is what the nation was commemorating when Jesus was walking about in the temple.  It was more than just an independence day for the Jews.  It was also and above all a restoration of their relationship with God, the day when they can live again their faith, to live as Jews, to live and act as a chosen people, the day when they can practice again their faith in their day to day life especially in this renewed and rededicated  temple and house of God.  That is why on that day when Jesus was walking about the temple, people were thinking of freedom, of independence, of possible victory, of the right to self-determination now that the Greeks were replaced by the equally vicious Romans, when their identity as a chosen people were compromised by the pagan practices of Rome.  And so Jesus was asked by the people in the temple, sin-o ka gid man bala, do not hold us in suspense, are you really the Christ, are you our liberator? 

Many of them have heard Jesus telling them before in this same temple who he was.  Jesus said, I am the bread of life, then again he said, I am the gate, and still again he said, I am the good shepherd.  Ano ka gid man bala?  But Jesus was not to be coerced or intimidated.  Jesus stood his ground and repeated his identity, but this time he no longer stated who he was but instead identified who they were specifically who they were not because they still do not believe in him.  He no longer repeated the assertion I am the good shepherd.  Instead he said “you are not my sheep, for my sheep hear my voice.”

The freedom to do what God wills, the freedom to act out our relationship with God is not something one imposes from the outside, rather it is something that comes from the inside out.  It is listening to the voice of the shepherd from within so that no matter where you are, in a Christian or pagan country, in the light or in the dark, seen or unseen, known or unknown, the voice of the shepherd within is always heeded to – that is, if you are his sheep.  The world may have become too materialistic, our country may have become too secularized, they may put up divorce laws one day, they may even come up with laws permitting abortion, but if the heart is attuned to the voice of the shepherd, if the sheep heeds the shepherd, the good shepherd, there is nothing to fear.  You can be in a very corrupt office, you can be in a depraved situation, in a family troubled by so many misfortunes, but if we are his sheep, it is his voice that we will heed.  Jesus did not say I am the mayor, I am congress, I am boss.  No, instead he said, I am bread, I am gate, I am the good shepherd.  The freedom to live in God and for God is from within. The sheep will always know the voice of the shepherd.

This is our birthday prayer for Fr. Boboy.  There are many voices in this world, sweet, alluring enticing, but a sheep will always have ears for its shepherd.