Liturgical
Year
B-Cycle II 4th
Sunday of Easter by Fr. John Carney Topic:
The Good Shepherd + + +
Gospel
Jn 10:11-18
Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life
for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are
not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and
the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay
and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know
mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the
Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep
that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will
hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why
the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up
again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have
power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I
have received from my Father.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One
of the
most enduring images that we have of God is
that of Jesus as the Good Shepherd.
Indeed, even before Christ, our Jewish forefathers honored God as the
Good Shepherd in the scriptures. In fact,
there are 22 references to the Messiah being the shepherd, the Good
Shepherd,
who will care for his people. Of
course, in
the early church, this was one of the
primary ways of looking at Jesus; as our shepherd, our protector, as
the one
who leads us. On many ancient vessels,
chalices, and embroidery there are images of Jesus as shepherd.
In fact, if any of you have been to the
catacombs of Priscilla in Rome,
there
is a fresco there of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. He has one sheep
over his shoulders and two
at his feet and that fresco was painted about the year 250. It is
remarkable that it exists today. It is an enduring and long
lasting image of
God and a very beautiful one. We think
of God as our Good Shepherd, Jesus as our Good Shepherd, in Psalm
23.
Oftentimes, when I’m called to the deathbed
of someone that’s the psalm that I read and pray and inevitably the
family
begins from their heart to pray with me that psalm of Jesus the Good
Shepherd. Of
course,
shepherds were a familiar image in the days of
Christ. We don’t see too many
today. A few in New Mexico remain. Nevertheless, shepherds
were very common
because sheep were very common and most sheep were raised for their
wool and
milk. They lived a very long life and
the shepherd knew each of them personally.
He knew their names and they knew his voice. Sheep, of course,
are not the perfect animal
in many ways. In fact, I remember in
seminary there was this one fellow who said, “I resent being called a
sheep.” He didn’t like this notion and
he said it was because sheep are stupid.
I just looked at him. They need
to be protected. A sheep cannot even
defend itself. They need to be
protected, especially at night. There
is a
beautiful passage where Jesus describes
himself as the gate or the gatekeeper. In
the rural area around and in Israel and the holy land, there are a
number of
corrals that exist that over the years have been used at night so that
the
sheep can be gathered together to protect them from thieves and wolves.
There were no gates on those corrals. The shepherd himself
would lie across the
entrance to the corral. If the wolf was
to get to the sheep, it would have to be over the shepherd’s dead
body. Sound familiar? Jesus uses this image himself as the
gate, as
he lays across that entrance protecting us.
So, if evil is to get to us, it’ll have to be over his dead body.
Beautiful image. Jesus
is our
Good Shepherd. He is the way, the truth, and the light. He
leads us and guides us through this
difficult life. We hear his voice
today. We hear it in sacred scripture
and we hear it in the Magisterium, the teaching authority of Holy
MotherChurch.
The spirit is alive in
the church. Jesus promised that he would be with us,
always. He did not abandon us then and he
continues to teach us. Of course he
does. That was his plan. He did not want to abandon us and
he did not
wish us to be divided. Of
course, one
aspect of the shepherd that we love so
much is that he always seeks the lost sheep.
He seems to prefer it. He’ll
leave the 99 to go after the one that’s lost.
Jesus seemed to prefer sinners.
Indeed, those who were not considered sinners, the righteous, the
Pharisees, and religious leaders were not on his “A” list. The
lowly sinner was. He said, “I have come to save the lost”.
Of course, we know we are on that list. There is not one person
here in this church
this morning, who has the right to brag about his or her spiritual
goodness. Any goodness you have, is a
gift of God that you have accepted. We
give him the glory and the honor. If
we’re not living a life steeped in sin, then we give God the credit and
the
thanks for that. We don’t judge others
who are not here, who are living in sin.
We are they and they are us. You
know, many
sheep have a tendency to nibble themselves
away. They just keep nibbling and moving
away, never lifting their heads to look up to get their bearings and
when they do,
they have no idea where they are. I
think that’s a good analogy of a lot of folks.
Perhaps if you look back over your life you could see periods of time
when you were like that. We certainly
have the tendency to go astray from ourselves, from our loved ones, and
from
God. We know many, all of us, who have
strayed from the faith. Some have
rejected the faith intellectually but not many.
In fact, those who pursue the faith intellectually usually will end up
here, interestingly. Some have gone to
other churches. They shop for the best
deal. Some have been hurt and left. We are all aware of the
many that have been
hurt by the clergy, by priests and bishops.
It’s not only the big stories.
There are many little stories that are not told, where priests have
hurt
people. I
have been a
priest only 15 years but I can look back
and remember five or 6 times when I was intemperate, when I lost my
temper,
when I said something that was unkind or unnecessary. I suspect
that there are people out there
today that are no longer in the church because of me and I wish I could
find
them and apologize to them. Some
people have
left because they’ve been hurt. You know most people who have
strayed from
the fold, and they’ll admit this to you if you really question them,
are
lazy. They just forgot about what is important. Not a month
goes by and more often than that,
every week someone will come to see me and say, “I need to come
back.” Oftentimes, it is an elderly person or
persons, a couple and they’ll say, “We strayed and now we’re old and
we’re
going to die and we want to do that right.
What do we have to do to get back in God’s good graces, to get back in
the churches good graces?” I say,
“You’ve already done it. You have walked
through the door. Now go to confession
and we’ll see you on Sunday at Holy Communion.” It’s that
easy. It really is.
Everyone
is
welcome home, by God, by this church, and by
every one of us. Every person is
precious in God’s eyes. You know the
Lord’s pleased that we are here this morning but he is also hurting
because
some are not here. I am not so sure that
if he was standing here, he’d leave and go get that person or search
for him or
her. That was his “M.O.” William Butler Yeats, the great
Irish poet
said, “The love of God is infinite for every human being because every
human
soul is unique. No other can satisfy the
same need in God than that particular soul.”
God is the hound of heaven. You
know last
week we celebrated First Holy Communion and
I cannot even say that without smiling. It brings me such joy
every year. It’s my favorite weekend, I think, or one of
them. I was surprised at the reaction of
some of the nine year olds. In a few of
the homilies, I mentioned that no matter what you do, Jesus will be
there for
you. If you turn your back on him by
sinning, when you turn around, he will be there with his arms open to
take you
home. He won’t say, “I told you
so”. He will not say, “This is your last
warning, young man”. He will just take
you home. Several of the children had
tears in their eyes because they understood that. They love this
God who loves them. They love this God who always will be there
for them, his arms open, guiding them and leading them. Nine year
olds seem to understand that very
well.
May
the rest of
us figure it out as well.