Witnesses usually achieve fame or notoriety only when the events they have experienced lead to a conflict of evidence in court or before a tribunal.  Then, the query arises whether the persons in question know anything really significant and whether they are speaking in an objective and truthful way.  Opposing legal eagles often discredit witnesses on one or another score, perhaps drawing from other aspects of their lifestyle to intimidate the fearful but honest persons.  In court, the best witness is often quite objective and is not personally involved in the outcome of the case.  It was somewhat different when Jesus sent the disciples out as witnesses to his life, message and resurrection.  He was sending them into  a world more searching and dismissive than any court or tribunal.  But they were not merely reliable reporters of the past but were to be people whose own lives had been radically changed by the good news which they were recounting.

It is such committed witnesses that the world and the church need today.  A heresy of our time is neutrality about values.  Jesus was far from neutral about truth, justice, forgiveness and charity.  Neither can his followers be neutral.  Each one, alone and together, is promised power from on high to enable us to be courageous witnesses to the gospel by how we live and how we speak.

This is today’s message.

Fear touches our lives in many ways.   There is the fear of pain, hunger, illness, of being redundant, rejected or ridiculed.  Often there is such a real basis for these fears that it would be fool-hardy not be anxious.  But there is another fear, a personal inner fear that blocks one from accepting one’s own goodness, from trusting the goodness of God or of other people.  This is a fear that stops one reaching out with the act of kindness lest one appears to be a soft touch and so be exploited.  It deadens the world of praise or good news even before it is voiced lest another be affirmed or encouraged.  It postpones indefinitely the initial hug of forgiveness that could balm an aching heart and begin a deepening relationship.  This fear ensures that a challenge to generosity, fidelity or truth is not uttered lest it transforms the heart of an individual, a family or a community.  It traps an individual in the darkness of one’s own self-centredness and limitations.  It can show itself in defensiveness, arrogance or addiction.  It destroys all joy in one’s heart.

Today’s gospel offers an escape from the web of fear that can entrap anyone.  The escape route is the peace Christ promises to each one of us.  To be healed of fear is a cornerstone of the Christian’s calling.   It is the challenge facing God’s people today.

One opinion is that the first child in a family is often the quickest to be articulate because the parents constantly chat up their first arrival.  Others might think that it may be a later child, the third perhaps who progresses most rapidly as the elder two coax, cajole and encourage the younger one to repeat what they say.

Whatever about the differing opinions, the fact is that we develop our talents and skills, our attitudes and lifestyles, by imitating others.  Imitation makes us what we are.  Our uniqueness will later enable us to be creative, but firstly we are imitative.

To imitate Christ is to be Christian.  To recognise his values, and to make them our own in how we live, is to be true to our destiny.

Today’s gospel points out that the crucial imitation is to love the other person just as Jesus loved each of us first.  His love knew no bounds.  He forgave his executioners and he loves each of us as much as he loved them.  Secure in that love, we must reach out to one another.

It is on this love that salvation is based, and not on private religious practices.  The challenge is intimidating, but love of the neighbour is the identity badge by which the followers of Jesus will recognise each other, and, in turn, be recognised by people everywhere.

For one’s own long-term benefit, it is important always to carry this essential means of identification and to update it daily.

Good Shepherd Sunday

Today, the fourth Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday, is the day chosen as the ‘World Day of Prayer for Vocations to the Priesthood and Consecrated Life’.  In the message for Vocations Sunday, the Holy Father focused on “Vocations as a sign of hope founded in faith”, and reminded us of the importance of prayer in sustaining vocations.  Please pray for all people who are discerning a vocation to the priesthood or consecrated life, those who are preparing for ordination or religious profession and for all priests and consecrated men and women.