Homily:
4th Sunday of Easter – Cycle A
In January of 2012, I had the happy opportunity to spend
about two and a half weeks in Rome with my classmates from the seminary. It was a mini-“study abroad” trip as we
studied a mixture of art, church history, world history, and theology through
the visits we made throughout Rome and the surrounding areas. At the end of the trip, all of my classmates
and I were going to make our “canonical retreat”: which is a retreat required
by Canon Law before being ordained to the priesthood. While all of my classmates returned back to
the United States to do this, I decided to stay in Italy to make mine (I mean,
I was already there, so why not, right?)
I decided to make my retreat at a Benedictine monastery in
Norcia, Italy. Norcia is the birthplace
of Saint Benedict and this monastery had been re-established there in the year
2000 by a monk from Saint Meinrad Archabbey right here in Indiana. Norcia is an ancient ancient town nestled
among the Perugian Mountains about an hour and a half northeast of Rome. The old city is still surrounded by the wall
that served to protect it from invaders in times past. Now, of course, the village’s inhabitants
have spread out around the old city.
Nonetheless, it still holds all of its “old city” charm.
Everyday I’d take time to go for a hike in the surrounding
village. This was, in part, because I
had time to do it and I enjoy seeing the “snapshot” of village life that you
get by making such walks. But it was
also because the monastery guest rooms had heat only for about two hours each
day—one in the morning and the other in the evening—and I needed to get my
blood pumping so that I wouldn’t freeze to death!
On my way back from one of these afternoon walks, I
encountered a flock of sheep being led down one of the side streets of the
village. Having grown up in what,
essentially, is a suburb of Chicago, I was a little surprised to see a flock of
animals being led through the streets of town.
I got about as close as I dared so as to watch them pass. As I did, one or two of the sheep would pause
for a second to take a look at me. But
as soon as they did, I heard the shepherd yell something (perhaps it was Italian,
perhaps it was just nonsense), and the sheep immediately turned back to the
flock and continued on their way. It
struck me that they knew the voice of their shepherd. This, of course, stayed with me throughout
the rest of my retreat. I mean, I was
making a retreat in preparation of being ordained a priest of Jesus Christ—that
is, a shepherd after the heart of
Jesus—so I didn’t chalk it up to “coincidence” that I encountered the shepherd
and his flock that day.
Whether the shepherd was leading the flock out to pasture
or leading them back to their pen, I don’t know. What was clear to me, however, was that the
sheep needed a shepherd to get them where they were going. If they were going out to pasture, then they
would need someone to watch over them so they wouldn’t get in trouble. If they were going home, they would need
someone to open the gate for them. I
think that if we take just a moment to think about this, we would realize that
we, too, need a shepherd.
In our Gospel reading today, Jesus gives us two allegories
(which are stories in which the characters and events illustrate and explain a
greater, more abstract idea). These
allegories are meant to help us understand more clearly what Jesus means when
he says “I am the Good Shepherd”. In the
first, we see Jesus as the shepherd who leads the flock to the safety of their
home. The gatekeeper (which is an image
of God the Father in this case) opens the gate (which is an image of the gate
of heaven) for the shepherd, because he recognizes the one who has been
entrusted with the care of his sheep. In
the second allegory, Jesus describes himself as the gate, that is, the means through which the sheep enter the
safety of their home (which is heaven) and by
which thieves and robbers are kept out.
In both, the lesson that we are to learn is that we need Jesus if we want to get to heaven.
Peter, of course, understood this. On the day of Pentecost, when he gave his
impassioned speech to the Jews gathered for the feast, he preached that those
who felt convicted because of having consented to Jesus’ murder should
repent—that is, “turn around”—from their sin and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, for it was only
though him that they would receive forgiveness of their sins. Later, he also taught that the way that his
disciples remain close to Jesus (like sheep remain close to their shepherd) is
to conform themselves to him in every way.
Thus Peter can say that “if you are patient when you suffer for doing
what is good, this is a grace from God… because Christ also suffered for you,
leaving you an example that you should follow
in his footsteps”, like sheep follow the footsteps of their shepherd.
Mary, whom we honor in a special way this month, also knew
this. Sinless from the moment of her
conception, she never thought that it was because of any merit of her own. Rather, from the moment of her fiat, her “yes” to the angel, she knew
(instinctually, if not explicitly) that it was God’s mercy, mysteriously
merited for her by her son, Jesus, even before he was born, that had won this
grace for her. Thus, she was and remains
the first and most perfect disciple of her Son, through whom she now fully
enjoys the glory of heaven.
My brothers and sisters, if Peter, the rock on which Jesus
would build his Church, and Mary, the Immaculate One, both knew that they
needed Jesus to find salvation and everlasting glory, then it must be true that
we need him, too! Any other attempt to
enter the sheepfold without him will get us labeled as thieves and robbers and
will result in our immediate and permanent expulsion from it. Only the shepherd can get us in and only
through the gate can we enter.
Therefore, let us follow him, our Good Shepherd, by
conforming our lives to him, who suffered for doing good. And let us believe in him, in whose name we
have been baptized, for he will help us to turn away from this corrupt
generation and turn towards the incorruptibility of the glory of heaven, where
Mary and all of the saints and angels wait to welcome us; and where Jesus will
lead us out into the green pastures of eternal salvation.
Given at All Saints Parish:
Logansport, IN – May 10th & 11th, 2014
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