As often happens, the current of Sunday's conversation carried me into morning mass where Christ revealed Himself in a new, unexpected way. The Good Shepherd becomes the Lamb of God. He lays himself down to be devoured by wolves, not in the form of a shepherd, but as one of the flock -- the smallest, most vulnerable, most innocent among us. I was more horrified by this than I have ever been before in contemplating Christ's sacrifice. As sheep myself, in my imagination, I watched in helpless anguish as the lamb was torn to pieces and died.
The flock is spared. The flock is free to live without fear. But we can't forget the crisis that brought us our salvation -- neither the danger we were in nor the price that was paid. It seems to me that knowing the enormity of our Shepherd's sacrifice we can't help but live in a state of mourning that is at the same time grateful, relieved, jubilant. In other words, as Ron noted in his posting last week, a state of paradox.
The Mystery of Faith also took on new meaning when contemplating Christ as Shepherd:
"The Shepherd has died, the Shepherd has risen, the Shepherd will come again."
The same for Christ as Lamb.
"we can't help but live in a state of mourning that is at the same time grateful, relieved, jubilant" is a way of stating the second beatitude, Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.
ReplyDeleteJesus says in Luke 10:3 "Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves." Not exactly, "The flock is spared." But yes, "The flock is free to live without fear."