In the Year A 4th Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd
Sunday, Gospel (John 10:1-10), Jesus said that he is the Good Shepherd, who
lays his life for his sheep, and is the gateway to the Father in heaven. Following this self-identification, Jesus
further identified himself as the way, the truth, and the life, in the 5th
Sunday Gospel (John 14:14:1-12).
In these Christological narratives from the John’s Gospel,
Jesus is described as the way to salvation. He is the Good Shepherd, who leads
us to salvation. He is the new gate of heaven, even though God closed the gate
of heaven upon the fall of Adam and Eve. That is why Jesus is the only gateway
to heaven.
Reflecting on these Johannine Gospel accounts (John 10:1-10,
14:1-12) on Jesus’ Messianic identity from the Good Shepherd Sunday and the 5th
Sunday of Easter, we can discern an image of Jesus shepherdings us, his beloved
sheep, to the Father in heaven, through the new gate of heaven. Jesus’ love of his sheep, us, is, after all,
how the Father in heaven loves us. This love is redemptive and agape of kenosis, manifested in Jesus’ passion
and death on the Cross, as we followed during Easter Triduum.
In con junction with the Old Testament, the Good Shepherd
Messiah, Jesus, makes himself the way for us, out of the vicious deadlocked cycle of sin
that people before Jesus’ appearance had been repeating for generations – ever since
the fall of Adam and Eve.
The below diagram (Fig 1) shows the sin cycle that we had
been deadlocked in the time of the Old Testament.
Fig 1: Before Christ’s
Death and Resurrection: Christian “Samsara”
↙ God
↙ ↓ ↘
Sin → judgement→penance→reconciliation→restoration
↗
↘
restoration
Sin
↖ ↖
↙ ↑
↖ reconciliation
← penance ← judgement ↑
↖
↖ ↗ ↑
↖ God Original Sin
↗
Satan
Fig. 1
Adam and Eve allowed Devil to contaminate the humanity with
sin and let suffering and death enter into the humanity. This resulted in the
eviction of the humans from the paradise, separation from God, as the gate of
heaven was closed.
Upon the Original Sin committed by Adam and Eve, the humans
have been going through a vicious dead-lock cycle of sin-God’s
judgement-penance-reconciliation-restoration as Fig. 1 shows. This cyclical pattern is consistently found
throughout the Old Testament’s prophetic books.
The Israelites who sinned again and again, in spite of
repeated God’s interventions, are a projection of the human weakness without
Christ. Prophets after prophets had been commissioned and sent by God to us to
teach us the lesson and to motivate us to refrain from sinning for good. Yet,
we have failed and failed, ignoring and even killing prophets.
Whether purposefully or unintentionally, we ignored God’s
warning messages against our sins.
After about 400 from the existence of the last Jewish
prophet, Malachi, God finally decided to directly intervene this vicious cycle
of human sins, not just sending judgements as He used to do, but rather to
submit Himself as a human by incarnating through Mary. This kind of divine intervention as God’s
providence is found in no other religions throughout the world.
God’s immeasurably profound agape for us was manifested in
the divine incarnation to break this vicious cycle of sin, delivering us out of
this cycle, and to bring us back to the Him.
This is God’s scheme of the redemption. To lead us out of the vicious cycle of sin, Jesus
the Christ, plays the role of the Good Shepherd, as the gate, the way, the
truth, and the life, for us, his sheep.
This divine redemptive scheme for us through Jesus, God
incarnate, is like how Amitabha Buddha’s infinite mercy leads us out of the
vicious cycle of samsara into Nirvana through practicing the Shakamuni
(Gautama) Buddha’s teaching on Dharma
– including the Eightfold Right Path and the Six Paramitas.
As God’s immeasurable mercy and compassion on us in the samsara-like deadlocked vicious cycle of
sin became manifested in Jesus through Mary’s immaculate body, God the ultimate
shepherd (Psalm 23) began to lead us out of this cycle. Thus, upon Christ, the above diagram of the
vicious cycle of sin (Fig 1) began to change into the below diagram (Fig 2).
Fig 2: Upon
Christ’s Death and Resurrection: Jesus the Christ, the Way out of the vicious
cycle, Gat way to the Father
God, the Father
↙ ↑ ↘
Holy
Spirit, the Paraclete ↗ ↓
↙ restoration↗ ↓
↙ penance
↗
↙ ↗ ↓ ↘
Sin
→ Jesus , Good Shepherd, Gate, Way→penance→reconciliation→restoration
↗
↘
restoration
Sin
↖
↖
↙ ↑
↖ reconciliation ←
penance ← judgement ↑
↖ ↖
↗
↑
↖ God Original Sin
↗
Satan
Unlike the times of the Old Testament, God is fully with
human through Christ among us in this new redemptive scheme. This time, God is not sending the message
through appointed prophets and sending judgement. Instead, God is also fully human through
Jesus, who is the Good Shepherd, now shepherding us out of the vicious cycle of
sin, which started with Adam and Eve, to heaven.
God has opened the new gate of heaven through the death of
Christ, the gate. And, now God in
Christ, the Good Shepherd is leading us, as the way, the truth, and the life to
the truly greener pastures in heaven, where God is building our new dwelling
places (John 14:2).
Now, because God in Christ, has opened the gate of heaven,
has become the gateway, what we need to do to benefit this divine scheme of
redemption, is to listen to the voice of Him and to follow Him, our Good
Shepherd, as the way, the truth, and the life.
Where He shepherds us is where the truth and the life is,
while there is no truth and life in the cycle.
………………………….
Ignorance about Christ, a lack of understanding of who
Christ is and the meaning of Christ to us, can make us vulnerable to committing
sins. This is just like Buddhist teaching on how ignorance may breed greed and
anger, as these three psychological factors are considered as three poisons in
Buddhism. In Buddhism teaching, these three poisons are manifestations of kleshas, defilements. Thus, ignorance,
greed, and anger, keep us in a vicious cycle of sufferings, the cycle of samsara, according to Buddhism.
Christian teaching is very similar.
Throughout the Old Testament, there is a cyclical pattern of
sin, God’s judgement, penance,
reconciliation, restoration. From generation to generation, this cycle of sin
repeats, as if the cycle of samsara
in Buddhism.
For Buddhists, ardent practice of the Six Paramitas is
necessary to break free from the vicious endless cycle of samsara, through enlightenment. Nembuts
is also necessary for this salvific purpose. And, this is the essence of Dharma
that Shakamuni Buddha taught.
As Shakamuni Buddha’s teaching is to lead his followers to
the salvation of Amitabha Buddha, the teaching of Jesus leads Christians to the
salvation of God. As Nembuts is also necessary for Buddhist
to attain salvation, Christians do need the Divine Mercy to be led by Christ,
the Good Shepherd, for salvation.
Thus, Jesus, who embodies his teaching, which is the truth,
and who is the everlasting life, is the way, the truth, and the life.
For us to know this truth of Jesus’ salvific way, we have
nothing to let our hearts be troubled, as Jesus said in John 14:1.
And, upon his Ascension into Heaven, Jesus continues to
shepherd us through the Holy Spirit.
Let us always heed the Holy Spirit, our paraclete , our Good Shepherd, to follow the way, the practice the
truth, and to remain in the life, the Christ, our Lord.
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