Threshold Training

Learning to sit, stay, and wait for Jesus to lead us

05/01/2023

Jn 10:1-10 Jesus said: "Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers." Although Jesus used this figure of speech, the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell them. So Jesus said again, "Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly."

People have been telling me to sign up my dog Apollo for obedience school. But nowadays you can find everything for free on Youtube so I watched a video on training your dog by Will Atherton, a canine behaviorist in Australia. He gives you five daily training techniques and guarantees that if you do these five things daily, you will have “the dream life with your dream canine companion.” Now to be honest I already knew four out of the five techniques, but the fifth one really surprised me.

This unusual training he called “threshold manners.” This is how he described it: “By threshold what we mean is the entrance or the exit that takes your dog from one environment to the next. It could be going in and out of his crate. It could be a doorway in your house, especially to the outside of the house. It could be gates while you are out on your walk.” Have you ever heard of this kind of threshold training?

Atherton went on to explain: “What threshold manners means is that when you come to a gate your dog should be happy to sit, stay, and wait. He should look to you for guidance and direction, and you go through that threshold first, welcoming them with you in a calm, relaxed state of mind.” And then Atherton concludes: “If you just do this one thing every day, you will be setting yourself up for huge amounts of success, that you wouldn’t believe were fathomable from something you might think is unimportant or trivial.” And by the way, I have tried threshold training with Apollo, but I am still waiting for those “huge amounts of success that are unfathomable.”

In the gospel today, Jesus seems to have watched that same Will Atherton video, too, because he wants to teach his disciples some “threshold manners.” How so? Well, listen to Jesus’ words in John 10, the great chapter on the Good Shepherd: “Whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The sheep hear his voice as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” Jesus goes on with exactly the same advice as Atherton: “he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice.”

Now, what “gate” is Jesus talking about leading his sheep through? Well, primarily it is the gate of heaven. When we walk through the Pearly Gates we will finally find those eternally green pastures and that true rest our souls long for. And that is the ultimate threshold training because humanity, like an obedient canine, was “happy to sit, stay, and wait” while we “looked to Jesus for guidance and direction.” And what did our Lord do? Like a Good Shepherd, he walked through that threshold first, welcoming us in a calm, relaxed state of mind.” And what will we experience if we follow Jesus obediently? We will be setting ourselves up for “huge amounts of success that you wouldn’t believe fathomable.” That success is Paradise.

But there is a secondary sense in which we should learn threshold training from Jesus. Like Will Atherton said, any door we walk through is significant, and we should always follow the lead of our master, Jesus, and not wander off by ourselves. I will never forget the advice my mom gave me when I was first ordained. She told me sternly but lovingly: “Son, always wear your priestly collar. It will keep you out of trouble.” Moms know best!

And so I try to wear the collar all the time, even when it’s host and uncomfortable. And it reminds me: you don’t need to go into that bar; you don’t need to see that kind of movie. In other words, the Roman collar is like a spiritual shock collar for a dog, and it zaps me when I am about to walk into a place I should not enter. In other words, the Good Shepherd is telling me to “sit, stay, and wait” for him to lead me through another threshold.

Another form of threshold training is blessing the main door of your house with four crosses and the letters C, M, B and the current year. Have you ever seen this on a door? Catholics do this during Ephiphany. First they write the number of 20, then a cross, then the letter C, then a cross, then the letter M, then a cross, then the letter B, then a cross, and then the number 23, for the current year.

You see, these three letters CMB stand for the Latin words “Christus mansionem benedicat,” or “May Christ bless this home.” In other words, we want Jesus to bless and protect this house from all the evil goats who try to barge in. Jesus keeps them outside the gate of our front door. Bbut we also want him to warmly welcome into this home all the good sheep who patiently sit, stay, and wait for his lead. Jesus opens the gate of our home to people who help us on our journey with Jesus. In other words, we want Jesus to teach people threshold manners when they stand on the threshold of our house.

My friends, I don’t know about you, but I find it a little hard to relate to sheep. I have never seen up close or smelled sheep. I don’t know how they behave, or how they go through gate. But I can relate to my dog Apollo, and I know well what “threshold training” should look like for him. And I think that is precisely what Jesus is trying to teach us. Even though I may not have taught my dog Apollo very much about threshold training, Jesus has taught me a lot about it as I watch Apollo. So that I can have “the dream life with my dream divine Companion.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!