God Feeds Us and Sends Us to Feed Others

May 1, 2022, Third Sunday of Easter (Memorial of St. Joseph, the Worker)

John 21:1-19, Year C

Our Gospel today presents to us another of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances. 

There are 2 sections. The first is John 21:1-14, which is about Jesus inviting the seven disciples to a breakfast of fish and bread He prepared. In the Holy Mass, this is the part where Jesus feeds us with the Bread of Life in Holy Communion.

In the second, vv. 15-19, after their breakfast, Jesus and Peter had an intimate conversation. Jesus asked Peter three times, "Do you love me?" And every time, Peter replied, "Yes Lord, I love you," declaring his love for Jesus, whom he previously denied three times having known Him, Jesus commissioned Peter with the task of feeding and tending His sheep.

Throughout the scriptures, God’s people are referred to as sheep and Him as the Shepherd who cares for them, feeding, tending and pasturing them. In John 10: 11-14, Jesus introduces himself as the Good Shepherd, who lays down His life for the sheep. In Luke 15:4-7, (the Parable of the Lost Sheep) He is the Good Shepherd who searches out the lost sheep until He finds it. "And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy."

In the tasks of pasturing His flock, Jesus wants Peter and his successors, the Popes, Cardinals, Bishops, and priests to express their love for Him through the pastoral ministry of tending, caring for, and nourishing God’s people with spiritual food to bring them to maturity.

While this specific pastoral ministry is entrusted to the ordained, a common pastoral ministry was also entrusted to everyone, to the sheep themselves, when they were baptized. This pastoral ministry of the sheep is always nourished at every celebration of the Holy Eucharist particularly in the Holy Communion of the Word and the Word made Flesh, the Body of Christ. God feeds His sheep and, at the end of the celebration, the Dismissal, sends them forth as shepherds to tend and feed other members of the flock. He feeds us with His love that we may love Him in return by feeding others as well. 

Now, in silence, let us ask ourselves, 

"Am I expressing my love for Jesus in the way He wants me to as a shepherd?" 

or Am I content with just being fed all the time without having to feed others?

Fr. Joel R. Lasutaz, SSS

Image credit: catholicforlife.com

We are Born from Above

April 26, 2022, Tuesday of the Second Week of Easter

Gospel: Jn 3:7b-15

Through our baptism, we are not born again; we are born from above.

Under the cover of darkness, Nicodemus came to Jesus to protect his standing as a reputable Pharisee and ruler of the Jews (a member of the Jewish council, the Sanhedrin). He, himself, was in the darkness of his beliefs. And Jesus welcomed him in that state and cast upon him the light of the truth.

During our Easter Vigil, we were in darkness, and Jesus came to us as the Light. Like what He did to Nicodemus, God enlightened us with the truth, instructing us with His Words. Yet, unlike Nicodemus, we received this Light at our baptism, which we all renewed that Easter night or Easter day. 

Our Gospel today started with verse 7b of Chapter 3 of St. John’s. In the verses that precede this, Jesus tells Nicodemus, "Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." He replied, "How can a person once grown old be born again? Surely he cannot reenter his mother’s womb and be born again, can he?" Clearly, Nicodemus misunderstood Jesus.

The Greek adverb anōthen means both "from above" and "again." Jesus means "from above" (see Jn 3:31) but Nicodemus misunderstands it as "again." He never mentioned being "born again," and this is not what He meant by "being born from above." And so, Jesus explained what he meant and repeated to him several times the terms, "born of water and Spirit" and "born from above." Jesus said, "‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

When we were baptized with water and the Spirit (which we renewed on Easter), we were incorporated into Jesus, who is from above. Our baptism, then, was our birth from above. We were regenerated into Christ’s glorified body, the Holy Eucharist we receive at every Mass. Let us then live our being born from above by remaining in the Body of Christ, by being attuned to God’s purpose and by walking in this life towards our one and only destiny, the Eternal Banquet in heaven. 

Through our baptism, we are not born again; we are born from above.

Fr. Joel R. Lasutaz, SSS

Image credit: ncregister.com