Fourth Sunday of Easter
On this Good Shepherd Sunday, we join with 1.4 billion Catholics from all over the world in expressing our thanks to God who, like the Good Shepherd who tends lovingly to the needs of his flock, has blessed us with the selection of Pope Leo XIV as our 267th pope. While the Feast of Pentecost and the great celebration of the Holy Spirit is still weeks away, the power of the Holy Spirit was on full display this past week as the 133 voting Cardinals sent white smoke from the Sistine Chapel and announced to the world that “Habeas Papam.” May Pope Leo be blessed as he follows in the footsteps of the fisherman Peter and may we, as we do every time Mass is offered, hold him in our prayers.
Jesus the Good Shepherd
As we reflect this weekend on Jesus, the Good Shepherd, we are especially reminded of two things: first, that because of the one shepherd, we are one flock and, secondly, of our need to listen to Jesus, the Good Sheperd who calls to us. The call to be one and the call to follow the Good Shepherd, were calls that were echoed by Pope Leo this past week. Let us reflect on each of those calls.
The Call to be One Flock
We begin with the call to be one. Today’s first reading comes from the second half of the Acts of the Apostles. While overall, Acts of the Apostles tells the story of the beginning of the church, it also, in a special way, chronicles, in the first half of the book, the work of St. Peter as he proclaimed the Gospel to the Jewish people. Up until this Sunday, the readings at Mass have been about Peter’s work. Starting this Sunday, however, we begin hearing passages from the Acts of the Apostles that tell us of St. Paul’s missionary work to the Gentiles. Paul’s message today and in the coming days that Jesus has entered our humanity and come so all might be saved is lived out as he brings the Gospel to the Greek and non-Jewish world. Paul’s missionary work reflects the salvific death and resurrection of Jesus who as the Good Shepherd has laid down his life to save all humanity and bring all people into one flock.
‘In the One, we are one’
We live in a world in which we are very conscious of what divides us. Countries wage war against one another. Political parties and special interest groups demonize one another. People are labeled, put into categories and dismissed. In his Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul tells us that this happened even in the early church as some Christians would say “I belong to Paul,” and others would say “I belong to Apollos.” As we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday, I am especially mindful of Pope Leo’s Episcopal Motto. It comes from St. Augustine’s Exposition on Psalm 127 and “In the One, we are one.” The One is Jesus, and so “In Jesus, we are one.” For Jesus is the Good Shepherd who leads us. And Jesus is the one in whom we are reborn. And it is Jesus who, St. Paul says, “lives in him.” May we be instruments of unity, a unity that Jesus brings about by offering his life on the cross so that he might live in us.
Hearing the Voice
Let us now turn our attention to listening to the voice of the Good Shepherd. In today’s Gospel, Jesus also says, “My sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me.” I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced a shepherd calling his sheep. While it did not involve sheep, I can distinctly recall one of the first times that I witnessed animals reacting to a human voice calling out to them. My grandfather was a dairy farmer in upstate New York. While he didn’t have sheep, there were many cats that lived in the barns and various buildings. They were undoubtedly there to keep the mouse population down. Most of the time, I would never see them. When, however, my grandfather would put out daily bowls of milk and soggy bread and call to them in a sing-song voice, “Kitty, kitty, kitty. Here Kitty, here kitty,” they would suddenly come running out of doors and open windows and stream toward him and their meal. It was quite a memorable scene to watch as these animals as they came bounding towards that farmhouse porch from all different directions.
‘Who do people say that I am’
And so what about ourselves? How might we best listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd and respond accordingly. At the Mass with the Cardinals on the day after he had been selected as our new pope, Pope Leo spoke of how there are two possible answers that St. Peter might have given to Jesus’ question, “Who do people say that I am?” The first answer is the one given by someone like Herod who saw Jesus as “a completely insignificant person, at best someone with an unusual and striking way of speaking and acting. And so, once his presence [became] irksome because of his demands for honesty and his stern moral requirements, this ‘world’ will not hesitate to reject and eliminate him.” But the second way is that of ordinary people, who saw Jesus as “an upright man, one who has courage, who [spoke] well and [said] the right things, like other great prophets in history of Israel.” These people were willing to follow Jesus as long as it wasn’t too much of an inconvenience. Once, however, it became too dangerous, they abandon him.
Who do you say that I am?
Pope Leo then made the point that in some ways the two groups of people are not all that different from people today. The first group did not believe in Jesus and the second group may have said they believed in Jesus but in practice they too were unbelievers. In a world in which material things and power are of primary importance, people continue to see Jesus and His call to care for the least among us as totally irrelevant. Let us be reminded that Jesus came to redeem this world also and as disciples of Christ and members of the church, we are called to help bring the message of the Good Shepherd to those who are lost in the world of materialism or power. When it comes to the second group, however, let us be reminded of the need for each of us to be continually open to the voice of the Good Shepherd calling to us. How do we do this? “It is essential,” Pope Leo again told us, “to do this, first of all, in our personal relationship with the Lord, in our commitment to a daily journey of conversion.” The voice of the Good Shepherd, in other words, is a voice that calls to us daily amidst our interactions and interruptions and inconveniences. It is a call us to enter ever deeply into the life of Jesus and the Father. It is a call to share in the fullness of life.
Grateful, open and prayerful hearts
Let us, as we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday on this historic weekend, give thanks and praise to God for the ways that he calls us as one flock and let our hearts be open to the Good Shepherd who leads us to verdant pastures. And, on this Vocation Sunday, let us also pray for young people who are discerning a vocation in life. May those who are being called to serve God as a priest or religious brother or sister, respond with open hearts and know the joy and blessings that come from following the call of the Good Shepherd. May God bless Pope Leo and our church.
