Homily: 4th Sunday of Easter – Cycle B
Friends,
for the first three weeks of this Easter season we have celebrated the utterly
strange, powerful, and shocking reality of the resurrection. We’ve considered how this reality is meant
not only to demonstrate God’s awesome power, but also to be shared with us. And we’ve considered how our encounter with
this reality demands that we give testimony to it. This week, our readings invite us to take a
step back and to consider the bigger picture, so let’s take a look at what they’re
trying to show us.
First,
I’m going to say something that may sound wrong to you, but I’ll try to explain
myself: You are not necessary. In fact,
none of us is necessary. Now let’s try
to understand why. In the beginning,
before the universe was, there was God; and God was perfectly complete in
himself. He didn’t need anything. He was supremely perfect and, therefore,
supremely happy. He is a community of
persons, perfectly in harmony. Nonetheless,
in his perfect will, he decided that he wanted to share his supreme happiness
with other persons, like him but who weren’t him. And so, perfect in his own free will, he
decided to create the universe and to place his most exalted creature,
humankind, the one creature created in his image and likeness, in it so that he
might dwell in perfect harmony with him for all eternity. And so we see that none of creation is
necessary, but rather that all of it is willed intentionally by God.
This
is the good news of creation: that although none of us is necessary, each of us
is desired. Each of us is willed
intentionally into being by God for one reason and one reason only: because he
desires to share the perfect, inter-personal harmony that he is himself with
other persons. Maybe this doesn’t sound
very exciting—“living in perfect inter-personal harmony forever”—but it should! Just think for a moment about what causes the
most strife in the world. Is it not the
disharmony of persons? In other words,
is it not the fact that people work against others in order to gain an
advantage over them? Now just imagine a
life in which there is no disharmony, but only harmony between persons. It would be so good! No conflicts, no arguments… just people
living together in peace. Doesn’t this
sound like heaven? My friends, this is
why God created us: not to be slaves that work only for his pleasure, but so
that we could enjoy the perfect inter-personal harmony that he is himself for
all eternity! And so, no, you are not
necessary, but you are desired. And Jesus,
the good shepherd, proves this to us. ///
When
the human race had fallen into sin and lost the possibility to live eternally
in that perfect harmony of persons who is God, God decided to send his Son to
shepherd his people back to him. Jesus,
God in human nature, looks on us like a good shepherd looks upon his flock:
with loving care and a deep sense of responsibility. He loves us and so takes responsibility for
us. Therefore, when we were lost because
of sin, like a good shepherd, he went looking for us; and when he found us
being devoured by Satan, the enemy, he sacrificed his life to save us and set
us free.
Certainly,
we all might know someone who would be so courageous as to sacrifice his/her
own life to save us from some danger.
What that person won’t be able to do, however, is to raise him/her self
up from the dead. This is only something
that God could do. Therefore, we hear
Saint Peter declare in the first reading, “There is no salvation through anyone
else…” Only Jesus, who died but rose to
life again, has the power to effect salvation—that is, to make us free to live
in God’s perfect harmony once again.
Therefore, he is the good shepherd—the only good shepherd—because only
on him can we rely to lead us back to perfect harmony—that is, perfect
happiness—in God, because only he has overcome the power of death—that is, the
one thing that can keep us separated from God. ///
Friends,
as Saint John said in the second reading, “we are God’s children now”. As children, we are willed into existence in
order to enjoy the inheritance of the Father.
This is a sign of the Father’s love for us! Part of the Father’s desire for us, however,
is that we participate in his Son’s shepherding of his children back into
perfect harmony in him. Therefore, when
he thought us into existence, God included a particular way that we could
participate in this shepherding. This is
our vocation: a calling that God asks us to embrace to bring about a greater
harmony among people in this world, in anticipation of the harmony he has made
us to enjoy in the next.
The
most direct way that we shepherd people towards God is in the family. Mothers and fathers, who have already
cooperated with God to produce their child, continue their cooperation by
raising each child to know God, to know God’s desire for him/her, and to know
the particular vocation to which God has called their child for the building up
of his kingdom. Priests and deacons are
called to sanctify and serve the laity in their efforts to fulfill their
vocations. Religious are called to
witness to the harmony of communal life for which we are destined even as they,
too, serve to shepherd others toward it.
My friends, on this World Day of Prayer for Vocations, in which we are
reminded that none of us is necessary, but rather that each of us is willed and
desired by God, we are called to pray (and to act) for an increase in the
number of people who are embracing their call to shepherd others to the life of
perfect happiness in God, even as we rededicate ourselves to do the same.
If
you are a young person still thinking about where this life might take you, I
challenge you to resist trying to answer the question, “what do I want to be
when I grow up?”, and try to find the answer to this question, instead: “what
has God intended me to be?” In
discovering this answer and choosing to become it, you will discover that,
while you are not necessary, you are desired for your own sake and you are
invited to play an important part to help shepherd others towards their perfect
happiness in God. Do not be afraid to
ask this question, “what has God intended me to be?”, and to respond generously
to God when he reveals it to you. In
doing so, you will discover a sense of joy and purpose for your life while also
helping to bring about greater happiness in the world. And who doesn’t want more happiness in the
world? ///
My
friends, our Good Shepherd is here to guide us and to protect us. As we celebrate the proof that he is the good
shepherd who has laid down his life and has taken it up again, let us give him
thanks and re-commit ourselves to discerning and becoming who he has intended
us to be: children of the Father bringing about his kingdom of harmony and
peace as we await the day that we will enjoy the fullness of this harmony and
peace in him in heaven.
Our
Blessed Mother, Mary, already enjoys the fullness of this harmony. Let us turn to her who, embracing her
vocation, gave birth to our Good Shepherd, and ask her for her help in this
good work: Hail Mary…
Given at St. Joan of Arc Parish: Kokomo, IN – April 20th,
2024
Given at the Monastery of the Poor Clares and St. Patrick Parish:
Kokomo, IN – April 21st, 2024
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