Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
Where does our Good Shepherd wish to lead us? In answering the Pharisees’ interrogation about his nature as the Messiah, our Lord finishes his response by saying, “The Father and I are one” (John 10:30). Beyond all notions of the Messiah that may have been in the minds of the Pharisees, our Lord defines his nature as the anointed one of God by pointing to the unity of the Eternal Son with the Eternal Father. It is this unity that is the foundation of his identity as the Messiah, the Christ. For all Christians, to follow Christ our Good Shepherd, is to strive to enter into this unity of God. As Christ prays to the Father on the night before He dies: “that they may be one as we are one” (John 17:22). This is a unity of our hearts with Christ’s heart, our will desiring to do His will. This is a unity of our minds with Christ’s mind, seeking to know Him who is the Truth and to understand all things in light of Him.
Unity with Christ binds us together, even when we may be geographically separated. In the first reading we hear of many early Christians being geographically scattered following the persecution after the martyrdom of Saint Stephen in Jerusalem. They go to the surrounding lands and islands. What do these scattered sheep do? They begin to draw others closer and closer to the Shepherd who can make us one. They speak to others about the Christ who is one with the Father. And those who hear begin to believe, and themselves share in this anointing and name: “and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians” (Acts 11:26). Christians scattered by persecution become all the more united by faith, and indeed welcome more and more believers into the unity of faith in Christ, who is one with the Father and who has come that we may be one in Him.
Let us today listen to the voice of our Good Shepherd who is leading us to greater unity with Him and so with the Father and all the Church. May our thoughts, and words, and actions help to build up this unity so desired by Christ.