Sacred Heart Parish

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4TH SUNDAY OF EASTER (C)

  1. Where did the risen Christ go on the day of his resurrection-ascension? This is really not a good question to ask because the Lord’s resurrection and ascension are not questions of being here and then going there, but rather entering fully and completely into the mystery of our Three-Personed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, maker of all that is seen and unseen. Our Creed tells us that the risen Lord sits at the right hand of the Father from whence he will come again to judge the living and the dead. At the same time, the Lord Jesus, prior to his departure from his apostle-friends, promised he would never abandon them, that he would be always with his faithful people until the end of time. How often we say, in prayer to the risen Christ, “you came in history to gather us into the peace of God’s kingdom; You come now in word and sacrament to strengthen us in holiness.”

  2. We can try a second question: Now that the Lord Jesus has been victor over sin and death, what is he now doing for the salvation of the world? Our Preface Prayer today will tell us that Christ our Savior is still our priest, our advocate, who always pleads our cause; Christ is the victim who dies no more, the Lamb once slain who lives forever. Ignatius of Loyola in his incomparable book – The Spiritual Exercises – in introducing the retreatant to the glorious mysteries of our Catholic faith, speaks of a new role, a new office assumed by the risen Christ: it is the risen Lord’s ministry of consolation. Ignatius says to the retreatant in the fourth and final week of the Spiritual Exercises – “Consider the office of consoler that Christ, the risen Lord, now exercises and compare it with the way friends are accustomed to console each other.” Noah Webster tells us that to console is to comfort, to alleviate the distress and the depression, the grief and anguish of others, to raise their spirits, to encourage and to support. Perhaps Ignatius was thinking of the ritual in the prayers for those who have just died – Praise be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation. He comforts us in all our afflictions and thus enables us to comfort those who are in trouble, with the same consolation we have received from him. As we read the resurrection narratives, we see Christ at work in his office as consoler – with Mary Magdalene at the tomb, with his disconsolate disciples on the road to Emmaus, with Thomas in the midst of his doubting. This ministry of consolation is the work of Christ our Shepherd, portrayed in our Gospel reading today. We have his word, which is spirit and light, to which we must have constant recourse in these days of awful darkness that hangs over the Church at this time. He is at work in the Eucharist; he abides in us and we in him as the branches live only in union with the vine. He, indeed, is our Shepherd – we hear his voice, we follow him, he gives us eternal life and promises that those who follow him will never perish. No one, nothing, no scandal, no crisis can ever snatch us from his hands. In this moment of deep sorrow in the Church, the risen Lord is in our midst and comforts us with his word: Blessed are the sorrowful for they shall be consoled.

  3. As we reflect on the risen Christ’s presence in our midst, we should note what we asked for in our Opening Prayer – Almighty God and Father, give us new strength from the courage of Christ our Shepherd. On this Good Shepherd Sunday, we can reflect on Jesus’ first followers when their Lord and Master was taken from them and nailed to a cross. They were in hiding, filled with fear, lacking in courage. When they came to recognize that by the grace of the Holy Spirit their Lord and Master still remained in their midst, they were in fear of no one. They proclaimed the name of Jesus with outstanding courage. What was true of the first disciples is true of ourselves. There are so many ways the risen Christ is with us – Christ is present in the Church when the Church prays since it is He who prays for us, and prays in us and to whom we pray as to our God. He is present in the Church as the Church performs works of mercy, not only because we do to Christ whatever good we do to one of his least brothers, but also because it is Christ performing these works through the Church. He is present in the Church on her pilgrimage of struggle to reach the harbor of eternal life, since it is He who through faith dwells in our hearts, and, through the Holy Spirit, whom he gives us, pours his love into those hearts. He is present in the Church as the Church preaches, since the Gospel which the Church proclaims is the Word of God, which is not preached except in the name of Christ, by the authority of Christ and with the assistance of Christ. In this way there is formed one flock which trusts its only Shepherd.

  4. Of course, in a manner more sublime, Christ is present in his Eucharist – the sacrifice, sacrament, Real Presence. We say the “Real Presence” because of the uniqueness of the Eucharistic presence. It doesn’t mean that the other presences I have mentioned aren’t real; it means that the Eucharist, which summarizes all the presences of Christ in the Church, is the great mystery of faith which tells us that Christ is really, truly and sacramentally contained and offered in sacrifice and received as our Bread of Life. Just think of the four ways Christ the Lord is present here and now at this Eucharistic Liturgy. First of all, he is present in the liturgical assembly, that means, he’s present in all of us in a very personal way for we are his people at prayer. He has brought us here, he prays with us and in us and through us. We listen to his word and respond in faith, and we join our self-sacrifice to his world-redeeming sacrifice and are strengthen in our self-sacrifice by Holy Communion which is our Bread from heaven. Christ is present in his minister who presides by reason of the Sacrament of Holy Orders at the Eucharist, who acts in the person of Christ so that Christ the Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit can make present his self-sacrifice in our midst. He’s present in the word proclaimed in the Scriptures with which we must wrestle and come to understand. And finally, he is present in the Eucharistic species, a personal presence on his part as he gives himself for our salvation.

  5. At every Eucharist we are in a divine-human exchange with the risen Christ. Strengthened by the Eucharist we leave the church to bear witness to Christ wherever we are and in whatever we do. What we need is what we prayed for at the start of the Liturgy – we need the courage of Christ our Shepherd.