SHEEP! We need to feed...

Greetings!

I'm David Cheong and I belong to the Youth Ministry at OLPS.

About two weeks ago, whilst travelling to school on a bus, I had a sudden flash of inspiration. I felt that I could contribute to our Ministry by contributing to our blog! So I sent an email to Samantha (our elected 'CEO') and she made me a contributor. That was when that 'flash' of inspiration left as suddenly as it came.

But now i've got something to say! And I think it's worth sharing.

So here goes...

WE NEED TO FEED SHEEP!

Sheep? Why Sheep?

Let me explain: Today, our Church (Universal, a.k.a 'Catholic) celebrates the memorial of St Blaise, Patron Saint of Throats. Why throats? I can't remember, anyways, just Google it up.

Now this is where the sheep come in. At the Office of Readings (Part of the only official prayer book of our Church) there contained a sermon from St. Augustine. And the sermon had the following lines:

'After his resurrection the Lord himself said, 'Peter, do you love me?' Peter replied, ' I do.' Three times the Lord asked, three times Peter made the same reply and each of the three times, the Lord said, 'Feed my sheep.'

Saint Augustine goes on to explain the meaning behind those Gospel words:

'How else can you show your love for me except by feeding my sheep? What can you offer me by loving me, seeing that you look to me for all things? You know then what you must do in loving me: 'Feed my sheep.'

This explanation made me realize the meaning behind Christ's commandment, 'To love the Lord your God with all your soul and to love your neighbour as you love yourself.'

Just think about it, how else can we show our love for God? The only way that we can do it is to 'feed His sheep.' That is to say, 'feed His followers.' For me, this ties in perfectly with service. We cannot give anything material to Jesus, to show him that we love him, since everything belongs to God anyway.

Of course, to express our love for Jesus by serving our fellow brothers and sisters of the faith, is not an easy task. I'm thinking of this from the perspective of our participation in Church work.

A few days ago, at a dinner conversation with a group of friends, I mentioned the possibility of their coming forward to serve in ministry. One of the reply that I received was that the politicking between ministry members was a turn-off. Of course, I went on to point out that politicking occurs anywhere.

I understand that serving in Church comes with many responsibilities, requires many sacrifices on our part and many times, we find ourselves saddened or even angered by the behavior and or words of our brethren. But this is where the conclusion of St. Augustine's sermon provided me with a very strong reminder of the reality of our Christian calling. For Jesus Christ, after he had asked Peter three times, to feed his sheep, goes on to foretell Peters' eventual death on a cross.

'He foretold for Peter his own cross, he prophesied his own passion for Peter. That was the intention of Jesus' words: 'Feed my sheep.' It means: 'Suffer for my sheep.'

The experiencing of pain, hurt, suffering, is part of life. We will always encounter misunderstandings, disagreements and 'lack of chemistry' with people we meet and work with at all areas of life. However, it is only by going through all of this, the good and the bad, that happy and the sad, that we learn to become more loving, more human, more Christ-like. And it is only through this life-long process that we can effectively show our love for Jesus.

I hope this entry wasn't too long. I'll try to put more interesting pictures in my next post. I look forward to your comments and suggestions. And I hope that you will continue to strive in serving Jesus' 'sheep.' (I don't know about you but i think sheep are adorable!)

Till my next post (need inspiration!), God bless!