ONE : Shepherd/Flock

Homily: 4^th Sunday of Easter – Cycle B

          The other day, I got to thinking about this woman I knew named Laura.  I met Laura nearly eight years ago when we both signed up for a summer internship for future pastors and pastoral counselors at one of the hospitals in Carmel.  This was a non-denominational program, so there were Catholics, Protestants, and even those who didn’t claim to belong to any particular faith tradition.  Laura fit into that latter category.  She grew up Catholic but had long since drifted away from practicing her faith in the Catholic Church.  I must confess that at first I judged her unjustly.  Because she was a woman, divorced, in her early forties, and had left the practice of the Catholic Church I judged her to be someone who left the Church for ideological reasons.  Frankly, I assumed that she wanted women to be priests and that this was why she was now pursuing this pastoral career from outside of the Catholic Church.

          As I got to know Laura through working together in the hospital, I grew to respect her deeply.  She had been through a lot of painful situations in her life and I could see that she was trying to make sense of it all while remaining true to who she was and to being a disciple of Jesus.  Nonetheless, I still held on to my prejudice that she had an agenda against the Catholic Church (in spite of the fact that she hadn’t said one negative word against it).  One day, however, she said something that blew me away.  I don’t remember what the conversation was about, but we must have been saying something about the Church or about different faith traditions, because at one point Laura said “That’s why I love the Catholic Church, because it’s so egalitarian.  They take anybody!”  “Wait,” I thought, “you’ve abandoned the Catholic Church to do your own thing but you love it anyway?”  It was confounding to me, but it completely obliterated my prejudices of her and it made me think harder about how I look at people, especially people who don’t “fit” into my idea of a “good disciple”.

          Today, in our Gospel reading, we hear Jesus call himself the “Good Shepherd”.  In fact, in each year of the three year cycle of readings the Gospel for the 4^th Sunday of Easter is taken from the “Good Shepherd” discourse in John’s Gospel.  Therefore, we’ve come to call the 4^th Sunday of Easter “Good Shepherd Sunday”.  This year, we are blessed to hear the part of this discourse in which Jesus calls himself the “Good Shepherd” and then continues to describe how a good shepherd behaves.  The good shepherd “lays down his life for his sheep”, Jesus says, and he knows his sheep and his sheep know him.  We know that Jesus is the Good Shepherd, because we know that he laid down his life for us his sheep.  In every church we keep a reminder of that somewhere and so all we have to do is look to the crucifix over there—is everybody looking at it?—to be reminded that Jesus is the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for us his sheep.  And he knows us and we know him.  Every Sunday (and for some of you even more frequently) we come to Mass and we hear the Word of God proclaimed and broken open for us.  This word reveals Jesus to us so that we can know him and know him deeply.  And, of course, since Jesus is the Son of God “through whom all things were made” he knows us and he loves us: not as some sheep that his Father hired him to shepherd, but as his own sheep for whom he would lay down his life.  And this is all very familiar to us.

          Then Jesus says something interesting.  He says “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.”  You know, if you take a look around you, you’ll notice that we’re a pretty homogenous group of people.  Certainly there is great diversity in our backgrounds, but if someone who didn’t know any of us stood outside and watched as everyone left after Mass, I’d bet that he or she would conclude that, for the most part, we were all pretty much the same.  And if we look around in our community, we can see that there is a large part of it that does not belong to this Church: people of different races and ethnicities, people of different socio-economic status, and people of different religious tradition.  And so when you heard the words of Jesus today—“I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold… These also I must lead”—I hope that some of these people came to your mind.

          In the first reading, we heard Peter proclaim in his speech to the Sanhedrin that there is only one name by which we are to be saved (that is, the name of Jesus).  Notice he didn’t say by which “the chosen ones” would be saved, but rather by which we—meaning all—are to be saved.  Coupled with Jesus’ words that there would be “one flock [and] one shepherd”, we see that we have no claim to exclusivity in the Catholic Church.  In other words, no one has any right to claim “this is my church and I hope that only people like me attend here.”  In fact, none of us even have the right to claim that any church is “their church”.  There is only one person in the entire universe who can rightfully say “this is my church”, and that’s Jesus.  For rest of us, there is only the Church and we, at best, belong to it.

          And so, my brothers and sisters, we see that my friend Laura was right.  The Catholic Church, that is, the universal Church, is the Church for everyone, because it is Jesus’ Church.  In fact, it has to be for everyone; because if it devolves into being “my church” then it loses its very reason for existence: to be the one flock of the one shepherd, Jesus Christ.  In our second reading from the letter of Saint John we read: “Beloved, we are God’s children now.”  My brothers and sisters, there is no greater dignity than this: to be children of God.  Therefore, any distinction between us and those around us—either here in the pews or out in the community—are distinctions in this world only.  In God’s eyes, we are either his children or those who will potentially become his children through baptism.  Our task is to erase every other division and work solely so that there would be one flock for our one shepherd, Jesus Christ.

          Now, I would be remiss if I didn’t take the opportunity, on this Good Shepherd Sunday, also known as “World Day of Vocations”, to speak about vocations: especially vocations to the priesthood and consecrated religious life.  The priesthood is the visible presence of Christ in our community—the many manifestations of the “one shepherd” for the “one flock”.  Therefore, we must be bold in encouraging young men to ask God if he is calling them to the priesthood so that the presence of the Good Shepherd will always be visible to us.  Consecrated religious persons are bright sparks of light in the Church, of which currently there are too few.  Therefore, we must also be bold in encouraging all our young people to ask God if he is calling them to consecrate themselves in a special way to be a bright flash of light of God’s love in the world, which is shrouded today in so much darkness.  In both, we must do so without prejudice, knowing that God “does not call the qualified, but qualifies the called.”

          Friends, as we continue to revel in our Easter joy, let us show God how grateful we are to be called His children by renewing our efforts daily to build up His Church into the one flock for whom Jesus the Good Shepherd laid down his life; and for whom he will one day return to shepherd into the eternal joy of heaven.

Given at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – April 22^nd, 2018

Don't be deadly; be salt and light

          On this World Day for Consecrated Life, let's pray for consecrated persons!  They are beautiful witnesses of Jesus' instruction to be salt and light in the world.  Here are some links to communities of consecrated persons living and/or working in our diocese (or close to it):

Sisters of Saint Francis of Perpetual Adoration: These sisters run Franciscan Health and also teach at Central Catholic High School in Lafayette

Poor Clare Sisters: These sisters have a cloistered monastery in Kokomo.  Their apostolate is one of prayer and sacrifice for the Church.

Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Albert the Great: These friars serve at St. Thomas Aquinas parish on Purdue's campus in West Lafayette.

Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia: These sisters teach at Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in Carmel and at St. Theodora Geurin High School in Noblesville.

Little Sisters of the Poor: These sisters run St. Augustine Home in Indianapolis, providing assisted living and nursing care for the elderly poor.

Franciscan Friars Minor: Friars who work in and around Fort Wayne who engage the culture in order to evangelize.

May God choose many of our young people to follow the path of consecrated life!

Also, please consider taking your family to the Indiana Holy Family Catholic Conference on February 25th!

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Homily: 5^th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle A

          Today Jesus uses the metaphors of salt and light when teaching his disciples about how they are supposed to be in the world.  For us I can’t imagine that there are many better metaphors that he could have used.  This is because, if we think about it just a little, each of us could name the benefits of salt and light.  Salt enhances the flavor of things: in other words, it takes whatever flavor a thing has and makes it bolder.  Light, of course, functions to extend the day: in other words, it’s something that conquers darkness.

          Jesus uses these metaphors of salt and light to teach his disciples about the effect that they should have on the world.  In using these metaphors he is teaching them that they must enhance the world, bringing forth its goodness and making it stand out so that others might enjoy its flavor; and they must shine amidst darkness, illuminating the way for others and, thus, eliminating the dangers inherent in trying to make a way through the darkness.  In this way, Jesus demonstrates that the flavorlessness and darkness of the world is not God's plan for the world; but rather that God wants it to be bold and bright.

          Today, the Church celebrates the World Day for Consecrated Life—a day to celebrate the men and women of religious communities throughout the world who have consecrated themselves to God and to his service in the Church through vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience—which is fitting, since, in a particular way, consecrated persons are truly salt and light for our world.

          Consecrated persons, because they have responded to a particular call from God, have taken a step away from the “ordinary” world in order to dedicate themselves in a unique way to discipleship.  Because of this, they are often “hyper-concentrated” salt and “super-bright LED” lights in the world.  In other words, consecrated persons live the joy of the Gospel in a vibrant way, such that many are inspired by them to live the joy of the Gospel in their own lives.  Thus, like salt, they enhance all that is around them and, like light, they shine amidst darkness.

          One poignant example of how consecrated persons inspire others is Dominican Sister Mother Mary Alphonsa, who was born Rose Hawthorn.   Rose was the daughter of famous American writer Nathaniel Hawthorn.  Her faith upbringing was in the Unitarian church, but when Nathaniel’s work took the family to Europe, Rose was exposed to the “Roman Church”.  She and her family were impressed by the beauty and grandeur of the church architecture and the richness of the Catholic culture, but were turned off by the mediocre way that Catholics seemed to live their lives.  Eventually, however, she did convert to Catholicism.  There she first encountered and was deeply impressed by Catholic women who were living vibrant lives of faith.  These were Catholic nuns: women who had consecrated themselves completely to God.

          From that inspiration, Rose decided to dedicate herself more completely to God.  To that end, she pursued studies in nursing and opened a hospital to care for terminally ill cancer patients.  Eventually, she herself would consecrate herself completely to God as a Dominican sister and found her own congregation of Dominican sisters.  Today, the Hawthorn Dominicans continue to do the work of their foundress and continue to be salt and light in the world.

          Hopefully this example was enough to see that we need to see more consecrated persons in the Church!  In order to see them, of course, we need to have more consecrated persons in the Church.  In order to have them, every one of us needs to take responsibility for inviting young people to consider consecrated life.  That means parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers, coaches, and, of course, spiritual leaders all need to be intentional about talking to the young people in their lives about considering the consecrated life.  Still more, we all need to work together as a parish to provide opportunities for our young people to experience consecrated life, by making visits to convents, priories, and monasteries.  And we need to commit ourselves to support our young people who wish to explore the consecrated life financially by helping them to pay off any debts that they may have that may prevent them from entering a community.

          Really, however, the greatest way to ensure that young people will consider consecrated life is by living a healthy and balanced Catholic life: in such a way that our young people experience the faith as a culture to be lived and not as a burden attached to life.  This means that we do things like praying together as a family, going to conferences together (like Holy Family Catholic Conference on the 25th), doing holy things on vacation (like visiting basilicas and cathedrals in the places in which we are visiting), and serving together in our community.

          Even more simple: what if we kept magazines around the house that talk about Catholic life and faith and what if we participated in "Catholic culture” events, like May Crowning and Eucharistic Adoration?  You know, I got into cars because I'd pick up my dad's car magazines and read about them and my dad would take me to "car culture" events like car shows and swap meets.  Imagine if I would have found a magazine that had articles about happy Catholics—especially consecrated persons—living joyful lives, and imagine if I had spent an equal amount of time at car shows as I did doing service among other Catholics?  As we strive to build a Catholic culture around our young people, they will open their hearts to hear when God calls them to the consecrated life.

          My brothers and sisters, consecrated persons are salt and light in this world.  We don't have to be consecrated like them to be the same, but we do need to be salt and light in our own lives.  And so your homework this week is this: if you have been called to do big things (like consecrate your life to God through the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience), great!  Start today to do them and you will be salt and light in the world.  If you’re not called to do big things, that’s fine!  Just begin to do the small things of your life with great love and you, too, will be salt and light in the world.  Whatever you do, however, don't do nothing!  Nothing is comfortable, but deadly!  Don’t be deadly; be salt and light.

          Inspired by the grace that we receive from this Eucharist and the example of consecrated persons throughout the world, may we be moved to use the ordinary things of our lives to enhance and shine light into the world around us, so that those around us will see our good deeds and glorify our Father in heaven.

Given at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – February 5^th, 2017