The Word Of Peace
Homiletic Reflections On Peacemaking

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti

Fourth Sunday of Easter - 1999

Good Shepherd

"Being alive is being aware, being able to be touched and moved and changed, being able to respond rather than to act."

Rachel Naomi Cohen

"Compulsions narrow life down until there is no living--existing perhaps, but not living."

Marion Woodman

Jesus, the good Shepherd tell us that he has come to give us life, and to have it more abundantly ! That is a powerful and intriguing phrase that summons us to ask, "what does it mean to have life more abundantly?" The recent turn of events in Kosovo and Columbine, Colorado seem to contradict this promise of having life more abundantly.

Yesterday, I attended a conference at Weselyan Univ. on abolishing nuclear weapons. A formidable goal to be sure--but an essential one. Such conferences always help me to continue to be dedicated to the vision and reality of Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of God. Yet we live in a complex world, and the tasks may seem so impossible that one may despair of a solution. Robert J, Lifton of Yale Univ. in his book, Indefensible Weapons, notes that living in a nuclear world has had damaging psychological effects. People numb themselves to the pain of it, and in the process, numb themselves to the pain of others and themselves. The only way out is confronation with those things that do this to people. Today we are told to listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd.

I think it would be fair to say that among the many killed and injured in the world this week there was among them Christian faith--many of them are believers. And behind all of this their looms that nagging and omnipresent question: "Where is the Good shepherd ?" A hard question; but one that we cannot suppress , and ought not to suppress. These events remind us that our world is still accosted by the actions of those who have listened to other "voices" than that of the Crucified and Risen Lord, the Good Shepherd. Such events remind us that the Good Shepherd is there with those who suffer and asks us to be the concrete manifestations of that presence in our care for those in pain. They also remind us that to have life more abundantly means to commit ourselves to being the love of the Good Shepherd and to be his voice in our commitment to shape our culture so that such things can be prevented, rather than our reacting to the effects of a warped culture. In a culture grounded in the violence of nuclear deterrence, abortion on demand and the death penalty, how can anyone expect to get life from the primal rejection of life these things embody, that is, death?

The Good Shepherd reminds us that life is precious--not to be taken for granted, and that we are not to be become obsessed by the minutiae of life that we spend our lives trying to have everything just so.

When engaged couples are preparing for their wedding day I remind them of Murphy's Law. This is not to rain on their parade, it is our attempt to remind them that what matters is each other. Try not to plan for the perfect wedding--rather, work toward perfecting you love each day--you'll be happier and less prone to wasting time on things that mean little.

To have life more abundantly....A life that hears the voice of the Good Shep. is one that follows his lead of a love that gives of itself to death for us. It is life so in love with the Father and us and this world that it is truly aware if the gift of life, celebrates life, savors life ! Such a life embraces life, life is glorious mystery and gift--not a problem to be solved. Approaching life as a problem leads one to often be concerned more with the parts than the whole and to miss it in the process ! It leads to forgetting people, whose hearts often need tending and care.

The events of this past week tell us more than that some people haven't heard about the Good Shepherd. They tell us that we live in a world that still has not quite heard the right voice. And there is a lesson in this for us now. Any voice that trumpets hate, or exclusivism; any voice that would raise up vengeance in our hearts and violence in our actions is not the voice of the lord--the one raised up for his death of love for all. This is the Good Shepherd who will judge our lives and our history as a nation and world based on what we have done to the least of these. And it is the Good Shepherd that puts us across his shoulders so that we may return to the world of life.

The sheep of the Good Shepherd do not follow those voices, persuasive as they may be, of hate, violence and death. They recognize that in Jesus Christ, whom the Father has made Lord and Christ, is the standard and incarnation of the truth of God and human beings, as well as the perfected cosmos. And that standard is the One who looks over our hearts, minds and bodies that summons us to the way of the Lord in the world. It is the way of care, compassion and commitment to a just and peaceful world that probes the culture, asks it hard questions and moves to act to change those things that produce death. This is the concrete expression of the care of the

Good Shepherd in those who hear his voice, follow that voice and bring his life, his more abundant life, to our hurting world.

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Uploaded January 14, 2000