5 Sun Easter Yr B 17-18
It is not a nice feeling to discover that you have been misled. I was, and sad to say, by The Sydney Morning Herald. In an apology today[1], I have found out that Major General Monash did not gee-up the troops before the battle to retake Villers-Bretonneux.
I can appreciate how this happened. To mention Monash and what he said in relation to this battle fought on 24-25 April 1918 adds nostalgia and sentimentality. The fact remains, it wasn’t his battle. The rest of what I said on Anzac Day was correct. The ultimate sacrifice by 2,141 Australians, was real.
It is not a nice feeling to be deceived by someone but to mislead yourself; that is something else. To say that you are this rather than that; to say you believe this when you don’t really believe in anything at all is becoming the norm for so many today. No more so thandeclaring that you are a Catholic when in fact you are not, to say that you belong to the flock, when you don’t.
Last week and this week St John’s gospel has Jesus give the example of sheep and shepherd, of vine and branch. Jesus is here speaking about the connection between himself and ourselves. But for all sorts of reasons, connections and relationships can break down.
A shepherd in Scotland was once asked if his sheep would follow the voice of a stranger, he replied: “Yes when they are sick, but never when they are well. A sick sheep will follow anybody.”We need to be careful lest our choices in life make us toxic to family and friends alike; choices that turn whatever goodness we may possess, sour.
Each Sunday Catholics gather to listen to God’s word and then to do what Jesus asks us to do in remembrance of him. This is both balm and food for the journey. We are not here because we are good but because we need to be, not simply to obey some Church law, but here because we need to be reconciled with God. Just think how dreadful we could be, doing life,My Way, as that awful song suggests.
We need to be pruned of misleading ideas and actions; to be humble enough to allow wrong ideas and choices to be cut away, lest they stunt our growth as mature and responsible Christian adults. The Christian life is never about me but about us as the Body of Christ in the world, which unless The Sydney Morning Herald is deceiving us again, is not in good shape, either morally, spiritually or physically.
Vine and grape have long been images favoured by the prophets to get across God’s word. Isaiah likens the chosen people to a vineyard in God’s care, “… in the days to come Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit.Is 27:6Alas, for the Lord who
“… expected it to yield grapes but it yielded wild grapes.”
Is 5:2
Jeremiah recognized the need to strip away branches from the vine which “...are not the Lord’s.” Jer 5:10
Hosea too is critical of the people; he calls them God’s
“…God’s luxuriant vine” Hos 10:1. He is speaking of a wild growth vine, going nowhere, but hopes that they will change their ways to , “…blossom like a vine.” Hos 154:7
Sheep and vines take a lot of looking after. This is no, “she’ll be all right mate”. Neither sheep or vine can look after themselves, they need a shepherd and a vine dresser. Let’s not kid ourselves that we need no one to care for us.
Many vineyards now have drip watering systems that sustain the vine when necessary. Sunday Mass is meant to sustain us. The constant dripping of word and sacrament does wear away the stone we can so easily and selfishly build around ourselves. That is my own personal experience, and maybe yours too.
I am tempted to say,“You’d have to be a drip to stay away from what’s on offer at Mass each Sunday”, but won’t.
Jesus Christ, Father God, the Holy Spirit, only ever makes an offer of gracious help to us. The acceptance of what’s on offer is a personal choice, one with consequences nevertheless.
Our relationship with God needs to be looked after otherwise it drifts away like a lost sheep or withers on the vine. What sort of shepherds or vine dressers do we then become for ourchildren, family, friends and to the community in which we live?
Misleading shepherds and deceptive vine dressers, surely.
[1]SMH, 29 April 2018