THE GATE OF THE SHEEPFOLD

 

MONDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF EASTER

Act 11:1-18; Ps 42:2-43:3-4; Jn 10:1-10

Entering the Sheepfold through the Gate

The opening prayer asks God to bring us to rejoice in the full measure of his grace for ages unending. In other words, the Father should bring us to the full measure of the knowledge of the Son of Man on earth so that we may enjoy his glory in heaven. Our Lord explains that anyone to come to this glory must pass through the gate of the sheepfold. What is the gate of the sheepfold, if not the humanity of Jesus Christ? As we have clarified in various reflections, the sacred humanity of our Lord is the principle of our understanding of human nature. The reason is that he assumed the human nature in its purest form. Thus, he is the measure of what is truly human (not in exclusion of the Blessed Virgin Mary.) To enter the sheepfold, which humanity is, we must believe in the incarnation of the Word. We must enter through his sacred humanity to possess this knowledge and know our nature in its purity. In this sense, he is our way or gate.

God the Father is the gatekeeper, for he made human nature to contain his Only Begotten Son, who is the full glory of man. The Eternal Word, the fullness of the knowledge of God the Father, has his inheritance in man. So, we have understood each of us to be the throne of the Eternal Word. He is the One who entered the sheepfold through the gate at his incarnation. “The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the flock; the gatekeeper lets him in, the sheep hear his voice, one by one he calls his own sheep and leads them out.” The Eternal Word is now within human nature, which he has possessed and glorified through his life, death, and resurrection. All of us are now enabled to proceed through the same gate he entered to the knowledge of our common nature and the will of the Father, which is our eternal pasture. Before he came, the serpent entered through the window, a weakness in our nature. He deceived us and entered, darkened, and imprisoned us in sin and death. He is truly a thief and a brigand, for he broke into our nature to usurp the throne of the Son of God. Each of us attentive to our nature hears and recognises the voice of the Son of Man, our eternal shepherd. He calls us by name to follow him through the gate to divine pastureland. Passing through the gate entails consecration, shedding all that is not originally human; it is the purifications defining the mysteries of Jesus Christ.

As we explained in yesterday’s reflection, the purifications must precede our illuminations, which give the knowledge of the Father and confer eternal life. Walking by the sacred humanity of our Lord, we possess sufficient light to understand every trial, suffering, and death on our way to union with God. “I tell you most solemnly, I am the gate of the sheepfold. All others who have come are thieves and brigands; but the sheep took no notice of them.” Whoever offers us a different means to glory without passing through the gate of mysteries of Jesus Christ is a stranger/thief from hell. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” The Jewish Christians were ignorant of the universality of the flock of Jesus Christ and wanted to prevent the Gentiles from entering through the gate. The eternal shepherd gently corrected them through Saint Peter. “The apostles and the brothers in Judea heard that the pagans too had accepted the word of God, and when Peter came up to Jerusalem the Jews criticised him and said, ‘So you have been visiting the uncircumcised and eating with them, have you?” We must never prevent any soul from entering through the gate by keeping the Gospel to ourselves. But as demonstrated by the ignorance of the Jewish Christians, we attain this understanding and readiness to proclaim the Gospel to all men after a certain degree of purification. Like the deer yearning for running streams, let us yearn for our eternal pasture, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Let us pray: O God, perfect light of the blessed, by whose gift we celebrate the paschal mysteries on earth, bring us, we pray, to rejoice in the full measure of your grace for ages unending. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.