One chore that belongs to elementary school children on a farm is opening gates. Mom or Dad or elder sibling drives the tractor or truck or 4-wheeler. Younger one opens the gates. Sometimes it’s fun. You swing on the gate to open it. Sometimes it’s hard, especially if the gate has sagged and you have to lift it up to get the chain on the bolt. Either way, it is YOUR job. By the age of 6 you know it is important and you must do it well. A gate not properly latched can cause all kinds of troubles if cattle or sheep get into crops or hay fields.
On the other hand, it is the voice of the farmer that gets compliance from cattle or sheep. A farmer can stand by a gate, make his call, and the herd comes. And a good farmer loves his animals! How many summer nights my father took me to ride over the farm, count the cattle….and open the gates.
These farm metaphors form images of quiet, solid faith this week. Yet, there is a stronger image—an exciting image that emerges. I’m calling it “Grace at the Gate.” Let’s look at the readings.
Psalm 23 & John 10:1-10 Jesus, the Good Shepherd and the Gateway
Psalm 23 gives us the simple, straight-forward message: God seeks to care for us, as a shepherd cares for sheep. He will take care of our needs for food, water, safety, and rest. In order to do that, he will lead us. We are to follow. He will use words to guide us. He will also use his rod and his staff. A shepherd uses a rod to fight off wild animals that might try to make a meal of one of his flock. He uses a staff to pull sheep back who want to go their own way. The curve is to put around the sheep’s neck; then the shepherd pulls. “Get back here,” the staff says. The psalm says, “Your rod and your staff give me courage.” Courage is given by protection—from others who seek harm and sometimes from ourselves. That is God’s way.
In the Gospel passage from John, Jesus goes deeper. He says he is not only the shepherd, he is the gate. What are gates for? To give a means of organized passage from one place to another.
What comes to mind is that Jesus as man is shepherd. He speaks a voice we can hear—not fire and smoke on a mountain, but the warmth of a loving person telling truth. He speaks our language. He understands our lives, our emotions, our thoughts. Yes, he is a Good Shepherd!
Jesus as God is the gate. His resurrection makes Christianity different from any other faith. Because he arose from the dead AND because he offers Eternal Life to us—he is the gate, the open passage that enables us to move from earth to heaven. He is the gate by his life, his passion, his death, and his resurrection. He is the gate both by what he did on earth AND by what he STILL DOES. He continues his work through his gift to us of the Holy Spirit.
1 Peter 2:20b-25 & Acts 2:14a, 36-41 Peter Speaks
The other two readings come from St. Peter. They add much to the already beautiful message. In 1 Peter, St. Peter tells us that, fully human though we are, WE can follow Jesus to be both good shepherd and gate for others.
How?’
“If you ARE PATIENT when you suffer for doing what is good, this is a GRACE BEFORE GOD.” What does being patient in suffering mean? Peter tells us here: when insulted, return no insult; when hurt, do not threaten or attack back; when oppressed by injustice, give yourself up to the Father, and let him give his gifts of grace.
The word patience here is interesting. I found the Greek word translated in the New American Bible as patience is translated in other versions of Scripture as “quietly,” “endurance,” “endure steadfastly,” “longsuffering,” “bear,” and “continue.” I also found “a grace before God” translated as “a joy to God.”
This word study leads to what seems to be an absolutely wonderful message: when we can “hang in there” with tough times in life, we have an opportunity to join God in his patient endurance AND join him in using the need for patient endurance to create “gates of grace” which is joy for God.
Surely, there is nothing better in God’s eyes that a gate of grace—a chance for people to move from one field where they’ve been living to a new field God calls them to. Surely, this is joy for God.
That is also a source of joy for us. If we love, even when it hurts, God will bless our efforts with his grace. We are not likely to do what God did through St. Peter on Pentecost when Peter preached his first homily—a portion of which we hear today in the first reading. We are not likely to lead 3000 people to be baptized.
We may not take to the streets for the Gospel in ways that make the news, but we CAN bear suffering patiently and thus be both shepherd and gate for others. There is the goodness of a mother staying up all night with a sick child—or a daughter staying up all night with a sick mother. There is the goodness of doing your best to forgive a hurt. There is the goodness of asking for forgiveness. There is the goodness of getting up and going to work every morning to provide for your family. If there is patient endurance—“hanging in” there–then grace can build on nature, and the world can be a little closer to God’s plan for it.
Applications
Even a 6 year old can open a farm gate. Even a 6 year old can learn from opening gates that he or she has responsibility to make the family farm work. Most every farmer who has animals can get them to follow him when he calls if he consistently and conscientiously cares for them. More than likely that same 6 old is learning that, too, by bottle feeding lambs or calves.
To be a shepherd and a gate is attainable for all of us. Yet we each have our niche. Where is God calling me to learn to be gate or shepherd today? Where is he calling you?
Prayer:
Thank You, Lord, for being both shepherd and gate. Thank You for Your care for me and those I love. Thank You for the words You speak to me in Scripture, Church, and life—words that show me how to live a flourishing, loving life now—and forever. Thank You for the grace to also become a gate and shepherd for others. Give me the patient endurance that can turn my hard times this next week into a gate of grace for someone. Teach me, lead me, guide me, Lord.
