Father Tim Lemlin
Our gospel today is the summary of two shepherd stories in the tenth chapter of John's gospel. The first is the longer of the two. The second is the shorter. The emphasis in each, as we hear today, is upon being known and knowing. Like the shepherd, God initiates the knowing. Somewhere within each of us, beneath all of the clutter, we know that we are known. It is something that we glimpse. Once glimpsed, we are sustained, and we have a sense of being connected with a reality that is much bigger than us. The difficulty is that most people don't know how to receive such a glimpse, or are too busy with all of the clutter within them (that they believe to be important), that they miss seeing when the opportunity presents itself.
When we know that we are known we experience the sacred. We live our lives from a singular point instead of many scattered points. Life seems crystal clear. We feel like we are connected with everything and everyone. Our values - that which we hold to be important - change and develop from our experience of being known. We lose momentarily the fear that often drives our lives and we are filled with a sense of well being.
When we go through life without an experience of the sacred - of being known - our lives are ruled by whatever appears to be important. We feel like we have to make ourselves known to God and others. We do this in varied and sundry ways, but it usually involves proving to others, and therefore proving to God, and ourselves that we are worthy of being known.
Instead of relaxing and simply knowing that we are known, we invest huge amounts of energy into becoming known. The more complex the process, we think to ourselves, the better chance we have to become known or, in this case, liked.
The truth is we don't have to do something to get noticed by God. God already knows us. We simply need to quietly allow God to reveal to us that we are known. The fruit of knowing that we are known by God is an ability to relax in the presence of others. We don't feel the need to perform. We simply are.
