Jesus: The Good Sheep’s Owner

Fourth Sunday of Easter

April 26, 2015

John 10:11-18

“I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me (Jn 10:14)”

One of the most beautiful images that Jesus chooses to describe Himself is a shepherd. Not only any ordinary shepherd, He is the good shepherd. Yet, the truth we often overlook is that Jesus is also the owner of the entire sheepherder. Therefore, more than any shepherd or any hired workers, He holds the greatest responsibility for the lives of His every sheep. Every sheep of His is precious. Then, we may ask ‘why does Jesus call Himself the good shepherd and we, His sheep?’

Today’s Gospel does not particularly mention the reason, but if we attempt to go back Jesus’ time, we may discover a more profound reality about a shepherd and his sheep. There were several groups of shepherd just outside of Jerusalem, taking care of a huge number of sheep. They were basically the ones who supplied the needs of young sheep or lambs for the sacrificial rites of the Temple of Jerusalem. The demands for the lambs reached its peak especially on the Passover Festival, when many Jewish families went up to Jerusalem, offered sacrifice in the Temple and also prepared a roasted lamb as their essential part of the Passover meal ritual. Sheep-tending was indeed one of lucrative business in first-century Israel.

Now, if we learn that Jesus is both the chief Shepherd and the owner, we may discover the reason why Jesus calls Himself a good shepherd and us, His sheep. It is because He is preparing us, His lambs, to become an unblemished sacrifice to God. Certainly, Jesus has no commercial motive in running the entire fold, but His sole intention is to come up with the healthy lambs as worthy offerings before the Lord. Thus, the Gospel would describe Him as one who puts His life in the line for the sake of the sheep, fighting all dangers and guarding them day and night. By risking His life, He will make sure that His sheep is ready to face God in His Temple. Now, we know that why our lives are very precious in His eyes.

When we call Jesus as our Good Shepherd and believe we are His sheep, we must come to the bigger picture of Jesus being the Shepherd-owner. He gives Himself up for us so that we may be empowered to give up also our lives for God and for others. The story is not only about Christ, but essentially it is about us, His lambs as a pleasing burnt offering. Thus, our lives have to conform to our deepest calling as perfect holocaust. To be Christ’s sheep means we readily surrender our lives for our families, being a faithful and good spouse until death, and making necessary sacrifice for the upbringing of our children. To be Jesus’ lamb means we fully commit ourselves to the service of the people of God, to work for justice and to promote peace among us tirelessly. When we are faithful to the end, we indeed are consumed wholly by the fire of love and made a sacrifice that is acceptable in the eyes of God.

Surely, to become total offering is difficult because it is against our selfish tendency, self-oriented profit making, our reluctance to endure pain and hurdles. Thus, at times, we are running away from Him and become the lost sheep. Yet, we must not lose hope because we have no less than Christ as our shepherd. When we are lost, we assured that He will look for us, carry us on His shoulders and bring us home to our true calling. We keep praying that Christ continues caring for us and preparing us to be the most pleasing lambs for our God.

Br. Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP

Yesus: Sang Pemilik Domba yang Baik

Minggu Paskah ke-4

26 April 2015

Yohanes 10: 11-18

“Akulah gembala yang baik dan Aku mengenal domba-domba-Ku dan domba-domba-Ku mengenal Aku (Yoh 10:14).”

Salah satu gelar yang paling indah yang Yesus pilih untuk menggambarkan diri-Nya adalah gembala. Tidak hanya sekedar gembala biasa, Dia adalah gembala yang baik. Namun, ada kebenaran yang kita sering abaikan, bahwa Yesus adalah juga pemilik seluruh penggembalaan. Oleh karena itu, lebih dari gembala biasa atau pekerja bayaran, sebagai pemilik, Dia memegang tanggung jawab terbesar bagi kehidupan setiap domba-Nya. Setiap domba-Nya sangat berharga karena mereka penting bagi-Nya. Kemudian, kita mungkin bertanya ‘apa alasan Yesus menyebut diri-Nya sebagai gembala yang baik dan kita, sebagai domba-Nya?’

Injil hari ini tidak menyebutkan alasan tersebut, tetapi jika kita mencoba untuk kembali pada zamannya Yesus, kita dapat menemukan realitas yang lebih mendalam tentang gembala dan domba-dombanya. Saat Yesus berkunjung ke Yerusalem, Dia bisa melihat ada beberapa kelompok penggembala tidak jauh dari kota, mengurus domba dalam sejumlah besar. Mereka pada dasarnya orang-orang yang memasok kebutuhan anak domba untuk upacara kurban di Bait Allah Yerusalem. Permintaan untuk domba mencapai puncaknya terutama saat Perayaan Paskah Yahudi, ketika banyak keluarga Yahudi pergi ke Yerusalem, mempersembahkan kurban di Bait Allah dan juga membutuhkan domba panggang sebagai bagian penting dari ritual perjamuan Paskah. Penggembalaan domba memang menjadi salah satu bisnis yang menguntungkan di Israel abad pertama.

Sekarang, jika kita mengenal bahwa Yesus adalah Gembala dan  juga sang pemilik pengembalaan, kita dapat menemukan alasan mengapa Yesus memanggil kita sebagai domba-domba-Nya. Hal ini karena Ia mempersiapkan kita, domba-domba-Nya, untuk menjadi korban tak bercacat bagi Allah. Tentu saja, Yesus tidak memiliki motif komersial, namun tujuan tunggal-Nya adalah untuk membawa anak domba yang sehat sebagai persembahan yang layak di hadapan Tuhan. Oleh karena ini, tidak aneh jika Dia sungguh mempertaruhkan hidup-Nya demi domba-domba-Nya, menghadapi semua bahaya dan menjaga mereka siang dan malam. Dengan mempertaruhkan hidup-Nya, Dia akan memastikan bahwa kita, domba-domba-Nya, siap untuk menghadapi Allah di Bait-Nya. Sekarang, kita tahu bahwa mengapa hidup kita sangat berharga di mata-Nya.

Ketika kita menyebut Yesus sebagai Gembala yang baik dan percaya kita adalah domba-domba-Nya, ini berarti bahwa Dia memberikan diri-Nya bagi kita, supaya kita dimampukan untuk menyerahkan hidup kita bagi Allah dan bagi sesama. Kisah Gembala yang baik ini tidaklah hanya tentang Kristus, tetapi pada dasarnya ini adalah tentang kita, domba-domba-Nya sebagai korban bakaran yang baik. Dengan demikian, hidup kita harus sesuai dengan panggilan terdalam kita sebagai kurban bakaran yang sempurna. Untuk menjadi domba-domba Kristus berarti kita siap menyerahkan hidup kita bagi keluarga kita, menjadi pasangan yang setia sampai akhir, dan melakukan pengorbanan untuk membesarkan anak-anak kita. Untuk menjadi domba Yesus berarti kita sepenuhnya berkomitmen untuk melayani umat Allah, untuk bekerja bagi keadilan dan perdamaian di antara kita tanpa lelah. Ketika kita setia sampai akhir, kitapun terbakar seluruhnya oleh api cinta dan menjadi persembahan yang sempurna di mata Allah.

Tentunya, untuk menjadi persembahan yang total adalah sulit karena ini bertentangan dengan kecenderungan egois kita, kesukaan kita untuk mencari keuntungan pribadi, dan keengganan kita untuk menghadapi rasa sakit dan kesulitan. Dan sering kali, kitapun melarikan diri dari-Nya dan menjadi domba yang hilang. Namun, kita tidak boleh kehilangan harapan karena kita memiliki Kristus sebagai gembala kita. Ketika kita hilang, kita yakin bahwa Ia akan mencari kita, menaruh kita pada bahu-Nya dan membawa kita pulang. Kita terus berdoa bahwa Kristus terus merawat kita dan mempersiapkan kita untuk menjadi anak-anak domba yang paling menyenangkan bagi Allah kita.

Frater Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP

His Body and Our Body

Third Sunday of Easter

April 19, 2015

Luke 24:35-48

“Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see… (Luk 24:39)”

Our body is an important and integral part of our faith.  The first thing Jesus did when He appeared to His disciples was to prove that He had a living body. He was not a floating disembodied spirit, or ghost. He let the disciples to touch His warm flesh and showed them that He could eat just like other living beings would naturally do. He was there to prove that He has risen, but also to show us the centrality of our body in the plan of God. Surely, this is not just ordinary living body, but a glorious one since it is no longer subject to death, suffering and any law of physics, but it is a body nonetheless.

If we go back to the story of creation in the Book of Genesis, God indeed was the creator of all the physical world. More importantly, after every creation, God would look back at them and pronounced them as good. Thus, it is but fitting for Jesus to rise with His body as affirmation of His Father’s creative work.

St. Dominic de Guzman in his part defended the integrity of creation as he bravely fought the Albigentian heresy in Southern France. Simply put, the main doctrine of the Albigentian was that two kind of gods exist: the good god as the ruler of the spirits’ world and the evil good as the boss of physical world. St. Dominic denounced this false teaching since we have only one God and He created both spiritual and physical realms according to His good providence.

However, we accept that our body is weak, subject to temptation, suffering and death. It is equally true also that we often sin through our body. With our mouth, we fall into gossiping. With our hands, we get involved in domestic violence. Indeed, many sins against our sexuality, are committed through our body. In the old rite of Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, the priest would impose the holy oil on all five senses: eyes, nose, ears, mouth and hands, because of the idea that we have sinned using all these senses.

But, much more significant than a venue of sin, our body is very good because it is also the instrument of grace and our salvation. We do good precisely through our body as well. In the sacrament of matrimony, the core of this sacrament is the total giving of one’s body to the spouse. This is why when the sacrament is ‘ratum’ and ‘consumatum’, no human power can dissolve the unity between husband and wife. The married couple work out their salvation through their body, in holy sexual acts, in providing each other’s needs, in giving birth to a new living body, their children, and in bringing each other closer to God. For the priests and the religious, we are spared from the responsibilities of married people, but still we surrender the totality of our body to God and His Church in prayer and service. Thus, both married persons and celibate men and women are called to give their bodies until death, because only in death, our body ceases to be a living organism, and becomes a cadaver.

We thank God for the gift of our body. Let us imitate also His supreme act of love as He gives up His risen body for our salvation in the Holy Eucharist.

Brother Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP