[stephenkhoo]

UNDERSTANDING THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST THROUGH SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: ACTS 11:19-26; JN 10:22-30
http://www.universalis.com/20140513/mass.htm

Today’s reading concludes the discourse on Jesus, the Good Shepherd. The question that we are confronted with today after hearing Him is, do we know from the depth of our hearts that Jesus is the Good Shepherd? We know from the Old Testament that God was the only Shepherd of Israel. The kings were supposedly the visible representative of God as the shepherds of Israel, but they were unfaithful shepherds. Hence God vowed that He would look after the sheep Himself. He would send in His name a Messiah, who would be a descendent of David, and He would be the shepherd of Israel.


This explains why today’s text is the epilogue to the whole discourse. From the way Jesus had been talking about the Good Shepherd, the Jews knew that He was referring to Himself as the Good Shepherd and therefore the Messiah. But they rejected this claim. In this context, we can understand why the Jews gathered round Him and queried Him, ‘How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.’” In asking this question, it was not because they wanted to establish the identity of Jesus, but they needed a reason to stone Him if He dared to declare explicitly that He was the Christ. How was it that in spite of all the signs that Jesus manifested in His ministry and the discourses He gave, the Jews still could not see that Jesus is the Christ? What was it that prevented them from grasping the truth about Jesus? Why was it that they could not put the signs and the teachings of Jesus together and conclude that He is the Christ?


Jesus on the other hand simply refused to give them a straight answer but continued to speak in ciphers. Why did He not give them a plain answer? The truth is that a plain answer would simply have served as intellectual data for them. Knowing the answer did not mean that they would be enlightened. In fact, giving them the plain answer would have stirred up more confusion. It would have lead to rationalization. Jesus told the Jews bluntly, “’I have told you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name are my witness; but you do not believe, because you are no sheep of mine.” They could not believe because they did not have faith in him.


To know Jesus, one must go beyond knowledge to a personal relationship with Him. This is why Jesus said, “the sheep that belong to me listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.” So only an intimate knowledge of Jesus would help one know the person of Jesus; and consequently to confess Him as the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God!


How do we know that we know Jesus personally? Only through faith in Him. To know Jesus from the depths of our hearts, that He is really our Good Shepherd, implies that we know Him so well that we can hear His voice in the daily events in our lives and especially when we read the scriptures.


Conversely, one of the indications that we do not yet know Him personally is when we read the scriptures and we do not seem to get any closer to Christ. We read, but the scripture text remains only words to us. We know that we are just scrapping the surface when the words do not make much sense to us nor strike us deeply.


What then, is lacking in us? It is the lack of spiritual experience. Inner understanding of the scripture text and the person of Jesus can only come from an intimate sense of spiritual realities. Unless we are in deep intimacy with the Lord, we will not be able to detect His presence in the words we read and in the events of our daily life. In other words, because we do not share in His Spirit, we do not have that Spirit to recognize Him.


The analogy of this spiritual experience can be compared to our relationship with our friends. When we know our friends well, we do not need them to tell us how they feel or what they want. Just sensing their emotions, their expressions and the way they talk, we know what is bothering them. This is what the intimate sense of spiritual realities is all about. When we know someone, we can feel with the person. This means that we know the person so well that we can read his feelings and mind because we are so intimate with him or her. Similarly, if our relationship with the Lord is intimate and personal, then we can read beyond the words in the scriptures, or find Him speaking to us, or at least present in the events of our daily life.


The way to arrive at this spiritual intimacy is of course through our insertion into the life of the Church, the body of Christ. It is through believing, praying and loving intercourse with the Lord and His word with the Church that we can come to know Jesus more intensely and profoundly. Indeed, this was the case of the early Christians. In the first reading, when they were persecuted, instead of feeling angry and resentful or falling into despair, they must have heard the voice of Christ to use that occasion to journey beyond the confines of Jerusalem going as “far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch.”


Yes, we are told that “the Lord helped them, and a great number believed and were converted to the Lord.” Clearly, it was their personal relationship with the Lord in faith that enabled them to witness to the Lord and see Him working in the difficult situation they were in. It was their intimate relationship with the Lord that they could see His Spirit working in their lives. It was their common spirit in Christ that enabled them to come together to help each other, like Barnabas who left for Tarsus to look for Saul. We are told “when he found him he brought him to Antioch. As things turned out they were to live together in that church a whole year, instructing a large number of people.” Appropriately so, because they shared the same Spirit of Jesus. Subsequently, we are told that “it was at Antioch that the disciples were first called ‘Christians’” because they sensed the Spirit of Christ in their lives and were identified with Him.


Hence, unless we have a real relationship with the Lord, we will not have the grace to uncover the deeper mystery of Jesus, His person and His love for us. It is thus important that before we embark on any mission, it is essential that we truly embrace Jesus as our Good Shepherd from our hearts, and not because we have read about Him in the gospel. Let us pray for such spiritual sensitivity so that Jesus can become real in our hearts, especially when we pray, read the Word of God and in the events of our lives.

Written by The Most Rev William Goh