Days 97 – 2 hours     Day 98 – 2.5 hours   313 to go

John 10: 27 My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father's hand. 30 The Father and I are one."

Tonight’s Gospel reading is why we have to be careful to not take scripture out of context.  Homilies will be about the Gentiles, the Christian church being the sheep that follow their shepherd, Jesus.  Priests will speak about how we accept the Father if we accept the Son – but read on 31The Jews again picked up rocks to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?" 33 The Jews answered him, "We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy. You, a man, are making yourself God." 34  Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, "You are gods"'? 35 If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came, and scripture cannot be set aside, 36 can you say that the one whom the Father has consecratedand sent into the world blasphemes because I said, 'I am the Son of God'? 37 If I do not perform my Father's works, do not believe me; 38 but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize (and understand) that the Father is in me and I am in the Father." 39 (Then) they tried again to arrest him; but he escaped from their power.

This chapter is about how the Jews were offended that they were being told that they were not the sheep.  They were looking for a warrior king, a Messiah that would rescue them from the Roman tyranny; but this King performed works of mercy and of love.  This King taught obedience and humility – this King was a gentle man; one whose entire life was about the will of His Father – so He was a blasphemer, someone who should be stoned to death for calling himself the Son of God.  He performed miracles, but not the ones the Jews wanted to see – He healed, He showed pity, He loved sinners – so the Jews pondered; who was this carpenter who called himself the Christ?

HE IS THE ONE WHO WAS ONE WITH THE FATHER – HE IS GOD & MAN – HE IS THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD

Put this back in context – we are the sheep, the people who need to be herded and directed – who needs the Shepherd to constantly find us when we keep wandering off and become lost in the allures of this world – we are the sheep who reject His Word because it is too difficult – because the Shepherd teaches us that we must believe that we are nothing without God and that idea is contradictory to what the other sheep are telling us – the world tells us that it is OK to believe that it is all about us – that we should have everything we want

One final thing to ponder from yesterday’s OOR from Saint Ephrem – “He who was also the carpenter’s glorious son set up His cross above death’s all consuming jaws and led the human race into the dwelling place of life.  Since a tree had brought about the downfall of mankind, it was upon a tree that mankind crossed over to the realm of life.  Bitter was the branch that had once been grafted upon that ancient tree, but sweet the young shoot that has now been grafted in, the shoot in which we are meant to recognize the Lord who no creature can resist.”

My chaplets were for the earthquake victims in Haiti & for my cousin Barbara and Dan’s uncle France who both died this week and are with their Maker

Peace