May 3, 2020 Father Peter Gideon

Homily for Fourth Sunday of Easter

“I am the gate. Anyone who enters through me will be safe.”

Gates and doors play a major role in the symbolism of our spiritual lives. We may remember the Holman Hunt painting The Light of the World, depicting Jesus knocking on a long-neglected door which has no handle on his side. The Romans were inordinately fond of their triumphal arches built for conquering generals and emperors. A common traditional image of life after death is that of the “pearly gates” with St Peter checking people in. It is a symbol that celebrates the threshold to something new but it also carries with it the thought of closure and no entry.

Two little stories illustrate both sides of this symbolism. Anthony de Mello develops the idea of the sheepfold in that he imagines it as having a hole in the wall through which the sheep escape. Jesus, the good shepherd, goes in search of the lost sheep and brings them back, but he does not repair the hole. At the other end of the spectrum, the German author Franz Kafka has a short story of the appellant who comes to sit at the door of the law, waiting for his case to be heard. After many years a functionary finally appears, and the man asks him why he has seen no other appellants appearing at the door. The functionary replies: “That is because this is your door, and I am now going to close it!” Towards which end of the spectrum do your life experiences lead you?

The parable told to his disciples by Jesus in today’s Gospel obviously tends towards the positive end of the symbolic spectrum. The disciples fail to understand the story when it is first told to them. As usual we look to the end of the story to see what point is being made. Jesus is warning his followers about being led astray by those who are not preachers of the truth. As sheep recognise the voice of their shepherd, his followers too need to recognise his voice and follow him. In his explanation of the parable Jesus then develops another thought. He offers the idea that he is the gate of the sheepfold. It is through him that the sheep go safely in and out.

His words are an anticipation of how he will help his disciples come to terms with his leaving them, saying that they know the way to where he is going. Thomas objects that they do not know where he is going, so how can they know the way? To which comes the famous reply that Jesus himself is “the Way, the Truth and the Life”. It is very much a theme that recurs in John’s Gospel, this centring of our belief on the person of Jesus. It is by believing in him, recognising his voice, clinging to him that we receive the gift of eternal life. Once we do that we are free to come and go through the gate, always sure of finding nourishment. The intention of thieves is to steal, kill and destroy; the aim of Jesus is to offer us life in all its fullness.

Do we see gates as the threshold to freedom or insurmountable barriers? In his epic poem Divine Comedy, the fourteenth-century writer Dante imagined the gates of hell had “Abandon hope all you who enter here” written above them. The parable speaks of “thieves and brigands” trying to enter through the gate. When cities were walled their gates were often the only way of entering and so were guarded carefully and closed at night. But another stratagem of thieves and brigands was to enter the city surreptitiously and then open the gates illegally in the middle of the night. The capture and destruction of Troy by the Greeks, described in Homer’s Iliad, is the most famous example of this.

We now lock our doors much more than we did in the past, and even church doors are often kept locked for security reasons. These fears and habits inevitably make it much more difficult for us to understand or live by the practices offered by Jesus. Perhaps we prefer to keep his instructions to a highly spiritual level, which allows us in our minds to open our doors to him while closing them to everyone else. Do we keep open house, do we welcome the stranger, do we make hospitality our special care? Do we enable people to enter through the gate of Jesus the good shepherd, and to find a home in him?