Tuesday of the 4th Week of Eastertide
Acts 11:19-26 | Psalm 86(87) | John 10:22-30
The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice;
I know them and they follow me.
I give them eternal life;
they will never be lost
and no one will ever steal them from me. (John 10:27-28)
Last week, the venerable American dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster triggered an Internet firestorm, when they added the word “sheeple” to their product. Their currently-listed example is fairly neutral, but the original text was a rather uncomplimentary observation by CNN’s Doug Criss back in 2015:
Apple’s debuted a battery case for the juice-sucking iPhone – an ungainly lumpy case the sheeple will happily shell out $99 for.For those of us who aren’t immersed in the tech world: The more vocal Android smartphone users love to call Apple users “sheeple”, in reference to the late Steve Jobs’ uncanny ability to mesmerize millions into buying “second-rate products with sexy shells”. Apple fans retaliate in turn against “fandroids”, who “blindly chase technical specifications without appreciation for overall product quality”.
This long-running “sheeple-fandroid” war of words had actually simmered down to a bare murmur; each side mostly ignored the other, with a few renegades taking a handful of pot-shots each time a new product is released on either side.
Merriam-Webster, by inadvertently “legitimizing” the Android fanbase’s derision, fanned the glowing coals into a raging inferno. No wonder they backpedaled with remarkable speed, though also without a mea culpa.
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It’s no secret that the non-Christian world at large vocally criticize Christ-followers as “sheeple”, and some Christians even taunt us Catholics as “papist fanbois”. It’s enough to make those of us whose faith is already shaken for one reason or another to simply quit St. Paul’s race altogether:
I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7)
That doesn’t mean that Jesus was wrong when he said “they will never be lost and no one will ever steal them from me”. It is we who walk away from Him; blaming the secular world for stealing us away from our Lord is merely pushing the blame from where it rightly belongs, resting heavily on our own shoulders.
We will be lost…if we choose not to actively follow Christ, by faithfully attending to our faith formation through daily scriptural contemplation and regular Eucharistic celebration.
We will be stolen away…if we choose to listen to the sensual song of the siren that is worldly impiety.
If following Christ in love makes me one of the “sheeple”, then I gladly bear that moniker of “shame”.
And I can think of many worse “fanboi” obsessions than the promise of eternal Life, the fullness of joy in God’s presence.
The secular world thinks of us as fools, being led like sheep to the slaughter.
But I say to you, brothers and sisters, that we are being led by our Saviour like sheep to the ever-after.
As a modern take on Psalm 100 might proclaim:
We are his sheeple, the peeps of His flock.
Jesus fanbois, unite!
Amen.