4th Sunday of Easter, Year B, 2006 May 7, 2006 READING 1:
Acts 4:8-12 Psalm 118 GOSPEL: John 10:11-18
The students at a parish school were learning about Jesus and his role as the Good Shepherd. They were given a month to memorize Psalm 23, which they would have to recite at a school assembly with the pastor and all the parents attending. When the big night came, the first student nervously stepped to the microphone and began, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” Then his mind went as blank as a wall. The parents waited while he struggled to remember the next line. Finally, in desperation, he said, “And that’s all I need to know.” At first there was silence, and then the applause began. The claps came slowly at first, finally building to full, thunderous ovation. The child was right; that is all we need to know. Some time ago, I came across an article by Carolyn Moran. It was entitled, “The Nut That Saved Our Marriage.” Now you can’t read a title like that and not wonder who that nut was. I thought it might be her husband who had a sense of humor that defused situations before they got explosive. Or I thought it might be one of their children who did something funny t make them laugh when things got tense. Or I thought it might be a friend who made them see how silly it was to focus on the bad points each had, when they both had so many good points. Well, I was in for a surprise; it was none of these people. Carolyn introduces “the nut” with this story. One day, she was having lunch with her husband and their son Mike at their Los Angeles home. Mike was a Navy pilot who was visiting from San Diego . During the lunch, Mike and his dad started talking about the helicopter that Mike flew. Mike said: “You know dad, as complicated as that helicopter is, its whirling rotor is held in place by a single hexagonal nut.” Then turning to his mother, Mike said, “And, Mom, do you know what they call that nut?” His mother shrugged. She had no idea what they called it. “I give up,” she said. “What do they call the nut that holds it all together?” Mike smiled and said, “They call it the Jesus nut.” With a little help from Mike his mother saw the connection between Jesus and the nut. Just as Jesus—by his life, death and resurrection—holds the human race together, so that nut holds Mike’s helicopter together. Carolyn saw Jesus as playing the same role in her marriage as the nut played in Mike’s helicopter. Jesus was the one who held her marriage together. Like the helicopter, marriage is a complicated thing. There’s so much that can go wrong with it. The idea of Jesus being the one who holds everything together is also the theme of today’s readings. The first reading describes Jesus as being like the cornerstone of a building. In ancient buildings the cornerstone supported the building and held it together. To remove the cornerstone from a building was to doom it to destruction. The Gospel reading repeats the same idea. It describes Jesus as being like the shepherd of a flock. A shepherd’s role is to hold the flock together and to protect it from anything that would harm it. It is significant that almost every time that Jesus was invited into a home in gospel times, he worked a miracle for those who lived there. For example, when the newly weds invited Jesus into their home, he changed water into wine. When Peter invited Jesus into his home, Jesus cured his mother in law. When a Roman centurion invited Jesus into his home, Jesus healed his servant. When Martha and Mary invited Jesus into their home, he raised their brother from the dead. This makes us ask ourselves: if we invited Jesus into our home won’t he do the same for us? The answer to that is clear. And so today’s Good News is clear. If a marriage, a family, a personal life is in trouble, maybe its time to consciously invite Jesus into it. Some time ago the Forman family moved into a beautiful new home. Doris ’ husband insisted on hanging a large painting of Jesus in the most prominent place in the living room. The interior decorator nearly had a heart attack! She said the picture was out of place there. It stood out like a sore thumb. Doris agreed with the decorator. But her husband refused to move the picture. He said that Jesus had blessed them with a new home. And he was going to give the Jesus picture the place of honor in this home. Doris and the decorator conspired to fight another day. But after a few months Doris noticed that a surprising thing started to happen. The picture seemed to have a remarkable effect not only on the Forman family but also on their close friends. It sent a message to everyone. And the message was simple: “The nut, the cornerstone, the shepherd of this family is Jesus Christ. He is the one who holds this marriage, this family and this home together. He is the one who continues to work a miracle of love among us.” My friends, this is graduation weekend for our College, University and graduate schools. It is also exam time for others. Vacation is coming! There is a truth that is more than 2+2=4. There is the truth that in Jesus Christ, the love of God personified. We are a community that strives for excellence. But why settle for a B when we are entitled to an A? Why concede second best when we are entitled to the best? Why settle for less than Jesus Christ as the core value, the motivation, the meaning of our lives? Give Jesus the place of prominence in your lives, graduates, in every choice you make let him be your inspiration. Integrate Jesus into your careers, into your play and into your love life and discover the remarkable power of the truth that is goodness. There is no greatness without goodness. “The Lord is my shepherd, and that’s all I need to know!” Fr. Jeff McGowan |
