Tag archieven: Easter

The Good Shepherd

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Sermon on the 4th Sunday in Easter time May 8, 2022 in Cothen and Odijk

“I am the good Shepherd” says Jesus in the Gospel “My sheep hearken to my voice” 1).
Sisters and brothers, the past Sundays since Easter we have listened to stories in which Jesus appears to his disciples as the risen Lord. All to emphasize that Jesus is always with us as the Living one. This 4e sunday we no longer hear a Gospel story about the appearance of Jesus to his disciples after his resurrection. We meet Jesus in the Gospel of this Sunday in the words He spoke while He was still among men. But in the actual knowledge that He is risen. His words are no longer words of a mortal human being, but of Him who is risen. Here speaks the Lord who is always with us.
“I am the Good Shepherd”. In this way He reveals Himself to all who believe in Him in every age and in every generation. Also to us. His words speak to us all the more when we know that kings and dictators of that time and through the ages also adorned themselves with the title “Shepherd”. Also in Jesus ’time. Men like Putin also believe that they want the best for their people and that they know what is good for their subjects. But they behave like wolves and monsters, even towards their own people. They do not exercise power, but abuse their power.“I am the Good Shepherd” says Jesus “And my sheep hearken to my voice”. The voice of this shepherd still rings out. His kingdom is not of this world that will pass away, but his kingdom is the kingdom of God which is eternal. In response to the voice of the Good Shepherd, the voice of the sheep sounds, saying, “Lord, you are my Shepherd.”Recently there was an internet survey by the EO (Durch Evangelical Broadcast) with the question: “what are the most cherished psalms for you?” A large majority put Psalm 23 at the top: “The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing.” This psalm is also very popular in the Roman Catholic tradition: “My shepherd is the Lord. I will never lack for anything.” It is quite astonishing that a song dating back two and a half thousand years still encapsulates what we as believers experience in ups and downs. That we are not left to ourselves, nor to those in power who abuse their power or who promise many things but cannot deliver. But that we have a Shepherd, with whom we feel safe. A Shepherd who has laid down his life for us, and who has conquered death.
Notice that the one who prays this psalm says, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” The relationship is a very personal one. Not in the sense that this Shepherd engages in favoritism. He doesn’t favor one over the other. He is the Shepherd of all the flock, but to each of the sheep there is a personal relationship. It doesn’t matter if someone is doing well or if someone is in need. They both get what they need. The one who is doing well says, “I lack nothing. He points me to lie in grassy meadows. He leads me to waters of rest.” The one who is in need and for whom life is a trial says: “Though I pass through a valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me. Your rod and your shepherd’s staff give me courage and confidence.” The Dutch Father Titus Brandsma, whose canonization we celebrate next Sunday, prayed in the solitude of his cell, facing death, this same psalm as his fellow priest in the occupied Netherlands and the priest and believers in America where many parents feared. for the lives of their boys who were sent across the ocean as soldiers to fight for our freedom. All very different circumstances, all very different lives, all very different persons and characters, but all sheep of that one Shepherd by their faith, all people who each in turn prayed: “The Lord is my Shepherd.”
And it still is. In countries where there is war and in countries where there is peace, in countries where the churches are overcrowded and in regions like ours where we anxiously look around to see where the younger generation is. In our relationship with the Good Shepherd we find nourishment for our souls, support and comfort, sight and strength. He will never let us down because He has given everything for us, even His own life. He gives us everything we need to live as children of God. As people who have deep respect for the other, who do not think of themselves first, who are eager to share the good of the earth with each other, who do not overlook the needy and weak person, but for whom everyone counts. Then we are not only sheep of the Good Shepherd, but we also resemble Him without even realizing it because whe are sheep that hearken to the Lords voice. Amen.

(c) Martin Los, pr
1) Gospel of the fourth Sunday in Eastertime: Johannes 10:27-30
image: Christ as the Good Sheperd (Galla Placida in Ravenna)

Easter. Not back tot the past, but back to the beginning

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Sermon on the 3rd Sunday of Easter May 1, 2022 Wijk bij Duurstede

It goes without saying that during the Easter season we hear the gospel stories about the appearances of Jesus as the risen Lord. The purpose of these apparitions is that Jesus shows his disciples how he is always with them now that death has been defeated, through his infinite love. Jesus doesn’t play hide-and-seek with his disciples, to put it a bit disrespectfully. He just wants to show that he is always with them, although we sometimes feel that they are left alone. Of course, what applies to the relationship of Jesus and his apostles after Easter, also applies to the whole Church, and also to us as Christians who believe in the Resurrection of our Lord.
What is striking about this Sunday’s Gospel is that some of the apostles went to Lake Tiberias. That is the place where Jesus called his first disciples. So now that Jesus is no longer with them in the usual way, they begin at the beginning of their encounter with Jesus and their calling when they first heard the promise, “I will make you become fishers of men.” Perhaps this also contains some good advice for the church today and for us as believers. That if we don’t know how to proceed as a church and as believers, we start at that beginning. That we remember where and how Jesus first touched and called us. Do we remember that? Do we still cherish that? The moment when our faith was no longer a matter of upbringing and of our environment, but that we felt personally addressed and in what phase of life and under what circumstances. Sometimes we just have to start over from that beginning.
As did Peter and his fellow apostles. For look, who is standing there on the shore of the lake? A man who calls to them, “Friends, do you have some fish?” Are we hearing that right? He calls out “friends”. At the last supper, Jesus said, “I have called you friends, for a servant does not know what his master does, but I have made known to you all that the Father has said to me. It was not you who chose me, but I chose you.” That unknown man on the bank calls them friends. It is the one who called them. It’s him again. Nothing changed yet. “Do you have some fish for me?” “No” they say.
“Just cast yourself out on the other side.” The next moment the nets are filled with fish as if attracted by a magnet. Wasn’t that also true at the time when Jesus commanded them to cast their nets? “It is the Lord,” says the apostle Jesus loved to Peter.
When we have the courage as church and believers to return to the beginnings when the church or our personal faith was still in its infancy, we will also begin to hear the voice of the Lord again. And that starts with listening. Listening to the Lord calling us “friends”. How wonderful, how promising. Also listen to each other: “It is the Lord” says the apostle, whom Jesus loved very much. Peter in charge listens to him. And he steps into the water to be the first to be with Jesus.
Starting at the beginning, doing when faith and church are still in their infancy, that is what Pope Francis means by “towards a synodal church”. Peter listens to John. “It’s the Lord!” The ministry in our church is important. It is an order that Jesus himself established. But the church is also full of persons, men and women, whom Jesus loves very much. Ordinary believers, who precisely because of this intuitively sense where the Lord is at work and which way he shows us. Let’s listen to each other. Let us look forward with prayer and sincere interest to the outcome of the synodal process in the parishes, the dioceses, our country, Europe, the whole world. But above all, let us also continue with the conversation of faith as Christians among each other and with our fellow human beings. The net that Peter and his followers have cast threatens to tear, it is so full. There were a hundred and fifty-three pieces. Would they have counted the fish one by one? Or is this a wink for the good listener. For 153 is a singular signifying a fulness number, the number of all the nations united that should come to serve God.

“I promise you that you will become fishers of men.” Where they previously felt alone and powerless, they now know that Jesus is always with them to reinforce His promises. We always have to go back to that beginning. Then we will trust again that church and faith do not depend on our success, but on the Lord who calls us. In the end, it’s about countless people. One hundred and forty-four thousand keeps the vision of the Revelation. That is not our arithmetic number, but a number that tells us that what begins with the twelve apostles is multiplied ad infinitum. A net that threatens to burst so full. Who knows if your faith in the risen Lord has touched anyone, perhaps without even knowing it. Who knows that that person has reached others again, and so without end.
Jesus Christ, the risen, the living, is with his church. In a nutritious community. He needs no food of his own, but he is really present in that simple food that He hands out. It is the reference to the Eucharist in which Christ nourishes us with himself and gives us part in his resurrection body. That is the basis of all our lives as people of faith and of our entire mission as Christians. In each Eucharist, as John nudged Peter, may nudge and nod one another and say, “It is the Lord.” Amen

(c) Martin Los pr
1) Gospel of this Mass: Johannes 12:1-14
2) second reading: Revelation 5:11-14
Picture: The miracle of the catch of the 153 fish. By Duccio