One Flock. One Shepherd.
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Today's
Readings
Acts
11:1-18 Peter was
criticized for eating with Gentiles. He explained his vision: a sheet lowered
from heaven with all kinds of animals, and a voice saying what God has made
clean you are not to call profane. The Spirit told him to go with the
messengers. When he preached, the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles just as on
the disciples at Pentecost. The community fell silent and praised God: God has
granted life-giving repentance to the Gentiles too.
John
10:11-18 Jesus
said: I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me. I have
other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and there
will be one flock, one shepherd. I lay down my life only to take it up again.
Today's
Thread: The flock is bigger than you think.
Peter thought the
covenant was for Israel alone. Then a sheet came down from heaven and a voice
said: what God has made clean, do not call profane. He obeyed, and the Holy
Spirit fell on Gentiles, people who had no prior claim to the promise. The
circumcision party was astonished. God was not.
Jesus had already
said it: I have other sheep. The shepherd's reach is longer than any single
tradition, nationality, or background. One flock. One shepherd. This is not
vague universalism, it is the specific, gathering love of a shepherd who knows
every sheep by name.
Living
It Today:
Be careful today
about who you consider inside and outside the fold. Peter was certain he knew
the boundary. God moved the boundary. If you carry any quiet conviction that
certain people are beyond the reach of grace, take it to the Good Shepherd
today and let Him correct you gently.
The community responded to the Gentiles' conversion
with silence and then praise. There was no jealousy, no resistance, just awe.
Let that be your response when grace shows up somewhere unexpected.
Something
to sit with today:
Here is what should stop you in your tracks:
God did not whisper a gentle suggestion to Peter. He sent a vision from heaven,
repeated it three times, and then personally sent the Holy Spirit to make the
point unmistakable. The God of the universe was determined to expand
the fold, and He will do the same for you.
Think about that person in your life, that you have quietly filed away as
unreachable. The one whose name you might still praying for every day, but
without much expectation behind it. Think of the prodigal son who has wandered
too far off, and the skeptic who seems too hardened. We can’t forget the one
whose life doesn’t look anything like the fold. Peter had an entire theological
framework that told him some people were outside the fold. God changed that.
You are not just being invited to think more generously about people, you are
being invited into the active, pursuing, unstoppable love of a
Shepherd who already has a plan for the very person you have given up on. Grace
does not ask for your permission before it moves.
And then there is this: Jesus says He lays down His life freely, willingly, not
as a victim, but as the one who would pay the price for all. The cross was not
something that happened to Him. It was something Jesus chose,
for the love He has for us, with full knowledge of what it would cost and what
it would accomplish by defeating death.
So here is the question worth asking today: If Jesus, the Good Shepherd who
was willing to lay down His life for the sheep; what are you being asked to lay
down, so that you can be part of bringing others home?
Rosary Man Jim 🌹
