"I GIVE THEM ETERNAL LIFE."

Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year C.  Rev. 9:7, 14b-17; John 10:27-30.

AIM: To help the hearers understand the promise of eternal life, given by Jesus, the good shepherd. 

We have all played the child=s game AMake a wish.@ As children we were taught to make a wish, for instance, before blowing out the candles on our birthday cakes. I used to wish for a pony. I never got one, and I have long since stopped regretting it. A pony would not have brought me the happiness I imagined in my childhood fantasies.

We all have wishes, some of them secret, some openly expressed. Some of these desires are down-to-earth: a fulfilled life, good health, freedom from worry. Other wishes soar higher, and include the fulfillment of our deepest desires and our greatest dreams. Whatever our age or circumstances, whatever our temperaments, from childhood to old age we go on hoping and wishing, whether we are optimists or pessimists, romantic dreamers or prudent planners. 

In the gospel we have just heard Jesus offer the fulfillment of a wish that people have had since the beginning of time, yet never attained. AI give them eternal life,@ Jesus says, Aand they shall never perish.@

That is huge. Think what those words mean. The greatest enemy of every one of us is death. One day, we all know, will put an end to every wish and every dream. No one really wants to die. When people say they=d like to die, this is usually because they have become so old, so ill, or so depressed, that they think life is no longer worth living. 

We=ve all seen bumper stickers that say AHappiness is being a grandparent@, or AAsk me about my grandbaby.@ Ever see a bumper sticker that says AHappiness is being a parent@, or AAsk me about my baby@? Why do people advertise their grandchildren, but never their children? One reason, surely, is that new parents are just too busy. Grandparents don=t have the same responsibility. They can walk away. A deeper reason, however, is that grandchildren nourish our deepest desire of all: the desire for immortality. As death grows closer, grandparents can feel that in some way they will live on in those who, but for them, would never have been born. Grandchildren hold out the promise of defeating our last and greatest enemy: death.

Jesus Christ promises more. He who has already defeated death by being raised to a new life beyond death says of us, his friends: AI give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.@ As long as we are trying to live for him, death cannot defeat us, any more than it defeated Jesus. For us, as for him, the grave will be the gateway to a new life, one infinitely more wonderful than the life we live now.

Jesus connects this tremendous promise with his role as Agood shepherd.@ We are remote from the pastoral society in which Jesus lived. So we sentimentalize the figure of the shepherd, portraying him on holy cards and in stained glass windows as a romantic figure, cuddling a cute little lamb in his arms. Jesus= hearers knew that a shepherd=s life is hard.  He must stay out even in the worst weather, constantly on the move, protecting the foolish and easily frightened sheep from wild animals, thieves, and from their own tendency to wander off and get into trouble.

Jesus calls himself Athe good shepherd@: the one who never deserts his flock, who works not for pay, but for love. There is an almost personal bond between this shepherd and his flock. AMy sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. ... No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father=s hand. The Father and I are one.@

Jesus, the model shepherd, acts for God his Father. No one can take from Jesus= hand the sheep whom the Father has entrusted to him, any more than those sheep can be snatched from the hand of God, to whom they belong.

With this shepherd we are safe. As long as we follow him, our final destiny is sure. Today=s second reading describes that destiny in language of poetic imagery. It is part of the author=s vision of the life and worship of heaven, originally written to give hope to Christians toward the end of the first century since Christ=s birth, in the midst of fierce persecution. 

To understand what those words might have meant to those for whom they were first written, try to imagine yourself hearing them spoken to you as a member of a terrified family in Afghanistan today, caught between terrorists trying to drive the invaders out of their land by killing as many foreigners as possible, and American troops trying desperately to defend themselves as they attempt to bring freedom to a people too long terrorized and oppressed. 

AThe one who sits on the throne will shelter you. You will not hunger or thirst anymore, nor will the sun or any heat strike you. For the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd you and lead you to springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away all tears from your eyes.@

That is poetry, not prose. It is the author=s attempt to describe, by means of poetic images, a vision given to him by God. In that vision, and in the image of Jesus our shepherd who promises us eternal life, we have a faith by which to live. In that faith we can find, one day, courage to die.