April 23, 2018

April 23

April 23, 2018:  Monday, 4th week, Easter

See over a dozen connections with today?
Legend below
Listen

For Psalms 42-43

  • Sicut cervus/ Palestrina: about, including English text
  • My soul thirsts/ Schutte: non-Spotify excerpt, buy
  • Like the deer/ Schutte
    • Pope Francis
    Regina Cœli:  Today's readings help us rediscover our identity as disciples of the Risen Lord.  Peter declared the cripple's healing was accomplished in Jesus' Name, and salvation is through Jesus alone.  We see ourselves and our communities in the healed man.  We can all be healed if we put ourselves in the Risen Lord's hands.
    Who is the Christ who heals?  The good shepherd, who laid down his life for the sheep, who offered offered his life for us.  The gospel goes on to show the relationship that must exist between us and the Lord:  “I know my own, and my own know me.”  This knowledge is a personal relationship of love.  Jesus knows us intimately, and we're called to know him.  That implies an encounter with him, who gives us the desire to follow him along new paths.  If our desire to follow Jesus cools, we'll fall into ways of thinking and living not consistent with the Gospel.
    Gaudete et exsultate nugget:  New pelagians:  Some Christians insist on taking the path of justification by their own efforts, worshiping the will and their abilities; the result is loveless, self-centered, elitist complacency.  Maybe they're obsessed with the law, absorbed with social and political advantages or prestige, punctiliously concerned with liturgy and doctrine....  Let yourself be led in love by the Spirit.  Communicate the beauty and joy of the Gospel, and seek out those thirsting for Christ [EG 95].

    If Christians give excessive importance to certain rules or customs, the life of the Church can become a museum piece or the possession of a select few, and the gospel can be constricted, deprived of simplicity and allure.  This may be a form of pelagianism, subjecting the life of grace to human structures.  It can fossilize a movement and community that began with an intense life in the Spirit.

     Once we believe everything depends on our effort as channeled by ecclesial rules and structures, we complicate the Gospel and become enslaved to a blueprint that leaves little room for grace.  Precepts the Church adds to the Gospel should be imposed with moderation lest our religion become a form of servitude [ST I-II q107 a4]. [57-59]
    Read
    • Acts 11:1-18  Jews / Peter:  ‘You ate with the uncircumcised.” / “Three times I had a vision of a sheet from the sky with animals on it, heard ‘Slaughter and eat,’ said, ‘No; nothing unclean has entered my mouth,’ and heard ‘Don't call profane what God has made clean’; then everything returned to the sky.  Three men appeared; the Spirit told me to accompany them.  One said an angel directed, ‘Summon Peter; he'll speak saving words to you.’  As I spoke, the Spirit fell on them.  If God gave them the gift he gave us, who was I to get in the way?” / “God has granted life to the Gentiles too.”
    • Ps 42:2-3; 43:3-4  "Athirst is my soul for the living God."  Send your light and fidelity to lead me, and I'll go to God's altar and thank you!
    • Jn 10:1-10  “Whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd.  The sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own by name and leads them.  He walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they recognize his voice.  I am the gate.  Whoever enters through me will be saved and find pasture.  A thief comes to steal and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”
    Reflect
    • Creighton:  The parable focuses on the shepherd, the explanation on Jesus as shepherd and gate.  The shepherd has an other-centered attitude toward the sheep.  Unlike the intruder, he seeks their good.  Just as each of us is “my brother’s keeper,” so too are we their shepherds.  We "lead" others by our words and actions, so we must we foster other-centeredness, asking not “What’s in it for me?” but rather “What’s in me for it?”
    The sheep trust the shepherd:  they know his voice, each feels addressed when the shepherd calls.  How familiar are we with our Shepherd?  When we face a decision, do we ask “What does God want of me?” or “What do you want of me, Lord?”, as Paul did?  Instead of asking WWJD, ask WWYD.  May we grow in this second-person rapport with the Shepherd, so we may recognize and hear his call.
      "I am the Good Shepherd"
      (St. John the Baptist Anglican Church)
    • One Bread, One Body:  "Without hindrance":  Peter asks: "Who was I to hinder God?"  We should ask the same.  How have we hindered God's work?  God has placed you in a unique situation on earth.  No one has the same influence on your family, parish, workplace, school, etc. as you.  The Lord has special plans to accomplish his will through you.  You can hinder, help, or hasten it.  God can work all things to the good despite you, but he wants to work through you because of your obedience and joyful service.  His will be done.
    • DailyScripture.net:  "I came that they may have life abundantly":  The Old Testament speaks of God as shepherd of his people:  "The Lord is my shepherd."  "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel."  "We are the sheep of his pasture."  The Messiah is pictured as the shepherd of God's people:  "He will feed his flock like a shepherd."  Jesus is the Good Shepherd who will risk his life for the stray sheep; he is our Shepherd and Guardian.
    The Good Shepherd

    (St. Anthony's Monastery)
    At day's end shepherds brought their sheep into shelter.  Sheep know their shepherd's voice and come at his call.  Each is called by name.  In winter sheep were brought to a communal shelter a guardian kept secure; in summer they were kept in fields then gathered at night into a fold guarded by a shepherd, the door they had to pass through.
    God is a shepherd who brings his people security and peace.  "The Lord will keep your going and your coming forever."  Leaders are called shepherds:  they'll lead them out and bring them in, that the Lord's people not be as sheep without a shepherd.  As a shepherd watches and protects his sheep, so Jesus watches us as our Shepherd and Guardian.  Jesus laid down his life for his sheep, that he might change his body and blood into food, and nourish the sheep he redeemed.  He showed us the way.  We must use our goods in mercy for his sheep's needs, even giving our life. (St. Augustine, Homilies on the Gospel of John, tractate 46, paraphrased).
    Dress legend
    • 'Eyeball' tie pin:  Peter's vision:... (1st reading)
    • 'Animals' tie:  "I saw the animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, birds..." (1st reading)
    • 'Angel' pin:  "I saw an angel telling me to summon Peter..." (1st reading)
    • 'Dove' pin:  The Spirit directed Peter; the Spirit fell on the Gentiles (1st reading)
    • 'Deer' tie pin:  "I long for God as the deer longs for water" (psalm)
    • 'Piano' (stringed instrument) pin:  I'll give you thanks on the harp (stringed instrument) (psalm)
    • 'Street light' tie bar:  Send your light and your fidelity;... (psalm)
    • 'Alps' tie pin:  ...They'll lead me to your holy mountain, your dwelling (psalm)
    • 'Sheep' tie bar:  The sheep hear the voice of the shepherd, who lays down his life for them (gospel)
    • 'Phone' tie bar:  He 'calls' his sheep by name (gospel)
    • 'Car' pin:  When the shepherd has 'driven' out all his own,... (gospel)
    • Walker/runner:  ...he walks ahead of them.  They follow him, but they'd run from a stranger (gospel)
    • Red and white shirt:  Red for "slaughter and eat" (1st reading), white for Easter season
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