(Fourth Sunday of Easter-Year A; This homily was given on May 6, 2017 at St. Joseph Church in Pascoag, RI and May 7 at St. Joseph Church in Pascoag, RI, St. Patrick Church in Harrissville, R.I. and Portsmouth Abbey in Portsmouth, R.I.; See John 10:1-10)
A number of years ago I was visiting a priest friend who
lives in the region of Italy called Puglia.
If you are looking at a map of Italy, Puglia is located in the heel of
the boot. It is the southern-most region
of the country. At one point, we were
able to drive to the coast and visit the Basilica named “St. Mary at the End of
the Earth” (Santa Maria de Finibus Terrae). The basilica commemorates St. Peter’s apostolic
journey from Jerusalem to Italy, and his fulfillment of Jesus’ command to bear
witness to Him “to the end of the earth”
(Acts 1:8). Before he suffered martyrdom in Rome, it is
believed that St. Peter went to the “end of the earth” as he knew it, and
proclaimed the Good News.
As we were making our way back to the monastery, traveling
on a small, country road, we suddenly saw a shepherd in a nearby field. A small flock of about twenty sheep trailed behind him. I
thought, “Here is a shepherd literally guiding his flock at the end of the
earth!” That is, in fact, the very image
that we get of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, in the Gospels. Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd who would
go to the end of the earth to find us and bring us home. He goes to the very end of Himself, offering
all that He has on the cross, to bring us into eternal life with God. He is indeed the Good Shepherd!
But is it possible for us, of our own volition, to go beyond
the reach of the Good Shepherd? Could we
possibly find ourselves, by our own misused freedom, in a place where we can no
longer hear the voice of the Good Shepherd?
St. John the Evangelist, in the Gospel this weekend, indicates that such
a thing is, in fact, possible. He
relates to us Jesus’ teaching about the Good Shepherd:
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.
—John 10:3-4
They follow the voice of the Good Shepherd, Jesus explains,
but they will not follow the voice of a stranger. Then, tragically, St. John relates how the Pharisees were not able to receive this beautiful teaching about the Good
Shepherd. He explains:
Although Jesus used
this figure of speech, the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell
them.
—John 10:6
They could not hear the voice of the Good Shepherd.
They were unable to realize what Jesus was saying to them, because
they had grown accustomed to not
listening to Him, not hearing
Him.
Time and again, in the synagogue and in the Temple, they had
determined not to listen to what Jesus had to say. Now that He was trying to teach them about
Himself, to call them, they “did not
realize what he was trying to tell them.”
There is every indication that, in the world we live in,
many are not hearing the Good Shepherd.
In the laws that are passed, which violate the gift of human life for
the vulnerable, the sick and the elderly, the unborn, the voice of the Good
Shepherd is not being listened to. In a
culture where crimes are committed and live-streamed on Facebook, the voice of
the Good Shepherd is not being listened to.
Many baptized Christians today, people that we know and love, are
growing more and more accustomed to not hearing the voice of the Good Shepherd.
In the late 18th century, European civilization
and culture began to grow in leaps and bounds during the period known as the
Enlightenment. Scientific advancements
were opening up new avenues of knowledge; discoveries were being made that went
beyond what could have been imagined centuries before. Many at that time began to speculate how poverty, crime and other social ills could be eliminated completely. An “Age of Reason,” would finally replace an
age of religion and superstition, where such things as faith in God were
useless, at best. But then something
unexpected happened. The knowledge that
was aimed at progress was used to coordinate and facilitate the First World
War. Progress was replaced by
destruction of human life on a scale unprecedented, and the Enlightenment
project gave way to a broken world.
In 1920, immediately after World War I, Ireland’s William
Butler Yeats wrote his famous poem “The Second Coming.” It is a dark and ominous poem that begins:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold . . .
Yeats communicated the desperate plight of a culture come
loose from its moorings. Under the guise
of freedom, they had drifted so far from the “falconer” that they were unable
to come back. They could no longer hear
the call to come home.
Things fall apart . . . the center cannot hold . . .
Things fall apart . . . the center cannot hold . . .
There was an article in the Wall Street Journal last August
that focused on the intense current preoccupation with Yeats’ poem. It explained that, in the first 7 months of
2016, “The Second Coming” had been cited by journalists and commentators more
times than in the 30 years preceding it!
Referring to world terrorism, Brexit, and the U.S. elections, the
message was one of apocalyptic despair: Things are falling apart; the center cannot
hold; we have drifted too far away to bring things back together.
It is crucial for us, as people of faith, to recognize that
this is NOT the message of Jesus Christ in the Gospel this weekend!
On the contrary, Jesus Christ cries out to us as the Good
Shepherd, with every indication that we
can, in fact, hear Him. We can
listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd, calling out to us with a message of
hope, a message of peace, and the promise of redemption. As St. Paul proclaims, “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17).
Jesus Christ promises us this weekend that “Whoever enters through me will be saved,
and will come in and go out and find pasture . . . I came so that they might have
life and have it more abundantly” (John
10: 9-10). We thank God that there
are several ways our faith teaches us to listen to that voice of the Good
Shepherd.
Firstly, we can hear the voice of the Good Shepherd when He calls out
to us in the sacramental life of the Church. The moment we are baptized, we enter into the
very life of Jesus Christ. The Holy
Spirit lives and moves in us, calling out to our hearts that we belong to
God. On the altar, the Good Shepherd
comes to us, seeking us out, to give Himself to us in His body and blood. The Eucharist strengthens us to live the
Christian life and to consistently hear the voice of God in a world replete
with distractions. The sacraments allow
us to tune in to the voice of Jesus Christ.
Can we hear Him?
Secondly, we hear the voice of the Good Shepherd when we listen to the
reading of Sacred Scripture in the Mass. The Church teaches us that, when the word of
God is read in the Sacred Liturgy, it is Jesus Christ that speaks to us. We listen to the readings and Christ speaks
to our hearts. We hear the words of
Psalm 23 this weekend, and it is the Good Shepherd that says to us, “I am your shepherd, there is nothing you
shall want; I make you to lie down in green pastures, I lead you beside the
still waters; I restore your soul.”
Are we listening to Him when He speaks to us in the Mass?
And finally, we hear the voice of the Good Shepherd when we take the
time, each day, to be alone and silent before Him. We take some amount of set time each day to
be still with God, to listen to Him and to communicate our thoughts, desires,
fears, hopes and joys. We pray. God is so eager to speak to us, to encourage
and to console us, if only we will open our hearts, trust and believe. Faith is a gift from God, no doubt; but it is
also a response to the one who is calling out to us. Can we hear that voice, that call of the Good
Shepherd?
Because it is absolutely true that God would seek us out
anywhere, and bring us home with great love.
If we were to fall away from God and drift thousands of miles away, He
would seek us out and find us! He most
certainly is the Good Shepherd that goes to the end of the earth to save
us.
But He would much rather speak to us here. Now.
Today, and all throughout this coming week, we ask for the
grace to listen well to the voice of Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd, who constantly
calls us to new and abundant life.
