Fourth Sunday of Easter – April 25, 2021
When several people are interviewed for a job, the one
person who comes through the interview process
and is given the job is not
always the best candidate for the job. Interviewing is not an exact science.
It
can happen that one of those turned down for the job might have been the most
suitable candidate.
Even the most qualified interview panel has limited vision.
There can be more to some of the candidates
than meets the eye. In the words of
the first reading and responsorial psalm of today’s Mass (“The stone
rejected by the builders has become the
cornerstone”), one of the rejected candidates may
well have been
the a “cornerstone”.
Sometimes what we might be inclined to think little
about can turn out to be very valuable. If you watch
the Antiques Road Show,
you are probably amazed when someone discovers that something or other that had
been lying around in the attic for years is revealed to be worth a fortune. The
look of shock and
astonishment on people’s faces is a sight to
behold.
Real quality can often be found in insignificant
places or unpromising people. The gospels suggest that
Jesus had the capacity
to see quality where others saw little of consequence. a poor widow put two
small
copper coins into the temple treasury. Most people would hardly have
noticed this woman. Jesus not only
noticed her, but he drew the disciples
attention to her. Jesus pointed to her as the disciples’ teacher.
We could say she was an image of the Good
Shepherd who gives his all, his life, for others. Many people
of the time would
have dismissed her, as someone of little consequence. However, Jesus saw her as
more
of a corner stone than a stone to be rejected; he saw the real value in
her that most others would have
missed. In the gospel reading, Jesus, the Good
Shepherd says of himself: ‘I know my own and my own
know
me’. The Good Shepherd sees more deeply
than other people see.
Today is Vocations Sunday. What is our vocation as
people who have been baptized into Christ and who are
members of Christ’s body? One way of talking about our shared vocation
is to say that we are called to
see as Jesus sees. We could say that a
Christian is someone whose calling is to see life as Jesus sees
it, to see
people as Jesus sees them. What distinguished Jesus’ way of seeing people was
its generosity.
He often saw more than others saw. Taking up the image of today’s first reading, where others saw a
stone to be
rejected or ignored, he saw a corner stone. Where others saw people of no
significance, he
saw the same people as having much to teach the rest of us.
Whenever we see people with the Lord’s eyes
and relate to them
accordingly, we help them to become all that God wants them to be, like the
cripple
in today’s first reading who, through Peter’s presence to him, came to stand up perfectly healthy.
The reverse is equally true. We can have a crippling effect on people when the
stance we take towards
them is lacking in generosity, is overly critical or
dismissive. If are calling is to see life as the
Lord sees it, then we have to
become familiar with how the Lord sees it. We need to keep listening to
the
Lord’s word, to listen to the voice of the
Good Shepherd, in the words of Sunday’s gospel reading.
Our
aspect of our shared baptismal vocation is to listen to the voice of the
Shepherd, so that we can
see with the eyes of the Shepherd. No sheep is
ignored, even the one that foolishly wonders off and gets
lost.
Jesus’ generous way of seeing
people was a reflection of how God sees us. Saint John, in the second
reading,
articulates how God sees us. “Think of the love that the
Father has lavished on us by letting
us be called God’s children.” God sees us as children, as sons and daughters, and,
accordingly, as
people with a wonderful destiny. Our destiny is to see God as
God really is. That is as our ultimate
vocation, to see God as God really is,
and, thereby, to become like God. Our vocation here and now is
to see as Jesus
sees, to see the signs of God in others – and in ourselves – even when those signs of
God are not all that
obvious.
Fr. Don, cp