Readings:
Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Psalm 23: 1-3a, 3b4, 5, 6
1 Peter 2:20b-25
John 10:1-10
Music is the flow of God’s Spirit among us. Not literally of course. But, like the presence of God, we feel music in our bodies and souls. It moves us. Physically, emotionally and spiritually.
So it is not surprising that music, the psalm of the Good Shepherd, is the key for this week’s readings. The first reading from Acts reminds us of the work of the earliest Church. Like Peter who preaches repentance to a crowd, the earliest leaders, both women and men, were Jewish and had experienced something impossible: the Resurrection of their teacher, Jesus of Nazareth. They had experienced God in Jesus in a way that they could not fully explain. I mean, really, who could? They felt something in their bodies and souls, a definitive improvisational riff from God, and they could not ignore it. The divine rhythm called them to flow with God in a different way. And they chose to move with the rhythm.
Just as their ancestors had sung in the Psalms, they encountered a powerful expression of God as the Good Shepherd. So, Peter’s call to the crowd to repent was not “new”; but it was different. He and the community were further extending an invitation they themselves had received from Jesus to a way of life rooted in the community’s experiences of forgiveness, healing, and salvation that were mediated by Jesus. They were convinced that all of this was indeed God’s Good News to the people that must be proclaimed.
The second reading, from a letter attributed to St. Peter, tries to make sense out of the horrific discord of Jesus’ crucifixion. And, of the pain of rejection the early followers would experience from many of their own people and later from many in the Gentile world. So, the point of the second reading is neither that innocent suffering is good nor that it is part of God’s plan. It is important to be clear that both of these are poor interpretations at best, if not offensive to God’s gift of human dignity at worst. No, it was a very particular word of guidance from those who already had endured pain to those who were newly encountering it. And this guidance was needed for how to rightly undergo this pain and metabolize it so that they would not be negatively transformed into becoming violent towards others.
John’s Gospel then reminds us that Jesus is the Good Shepherd, an image attributed to God in Psalm 23. And, for Christians, he indeed is “The Way” that is the path to travel, the guide for the journey, and the destination at which we arrive. To that end, Jesus offers the words:
“I am the gate.
Whoever enters through me will be saved,
and will come in and go out and find pasture.
A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy;
I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”
As we move through the Easter Season, let us take note of the way the testimony of the Gospels and Acts, the guidance from Peter’s Letter, and the words of the Psalm all coalesce. Together, they offer a soundscape to open our bodies and souls to the rhythm of God’s Spirit continuing to move for healing, liberation, justice, and peace.
On April 23rd, Pope Leo concluded an Apostolic Journey to Algeria, Cameroon, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea. While in Cameroon, on April 16th, Pope Leo channeled God’s rhythm as an emcee who lyrically reminded the local and global Church of their vocations. Although his message was directed at the local communities in Bamenda, it reverberates with global significance:
“…Your witness, your work for peace can be a model for the whole world! Jesus told us: Blessed are the peacemakers! But woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic or political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”
“…Let us serve peace together! ‘We have to regard ourselves as sealed, even branded, by this mission of bringing light, blessing, enlivening, raising up, healing and freeing. All around us we begin to see nurses with soul, teachers with soul, politicians with soul, people who have chosen deep down to be with others and for others’. Thus, my beloved predecessor exhorted us to walk together, each of us according to our own vocation, stretching the boundaries of our communities, beginning with concrete efforts on the local level, in order to love our neighbor, whomever and wherever he or she may be. You are witnesses to this silent revolution!…Let us walk together, in love, searching always for peace.”
Again, Jesus taught that the reason for his ministry was—and therefore our work as disciples is—that all “might have life and have it more abundantly.” That sample should be our musical hook and refrain. And Pope Leo riffed on it beautifully. So, may we all encounter the dynamic movement of God’s Spirit in the world and be emboldened by the faithful response of local communities near and far. Let us learn to move and flow with the divine rhythm. Amen.
Kevin P. Considine, PhD