2020/05/03 — 4th Sunday of Easter — Year A

Three years ago, on the 4th Sunday of Easter, I posted an overview of "Good Shepherd Sunday" and the readings assigned for the Mass. I think it's still worth reading, and I invite you to do so. Beyond that, I want to share some of what I heard via livestream from St. Anselm Abbey this morning. Fr. Mathias, O.S.B, gave the homily at the monks' Mass. In it he mentioned the Mass as the place where Jesus is shepherd and gate. We hear his voice in the scriptures, and through him we come to the pasture where we are fed.

The pasture has a deeper dimension than we generally realize, and Fr. Mathias illustrated it with a quote from Scott Hahn. As an Evangelical, Scott snuck into a Catholic Mass to see what went on. He was amazed to hear all the scripture quoted, not just in the readings but at other points. It culminated for him when the congregation addressed Jesus three times as "Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world." He knew that the Book of Revelation calls Jesus "the Lamb 28 times. Then the priest held up the Host and said, "Behold the Lamb of God," and he realized that this was equivalent to the scene in Revelation 4-8. He wanted to jump up and shout, "Do you people know where you are? You're in Heaven right now!"

2017/05/07 — 4th Sunday of Easter — Year A

As I wrote last year, "In all three years of the lectionary cycle, the Fourth Sunday of Easter is “Good Shepherd Sunday.” The opening prayer of the Mass (the same all three years) prays that the flock may follow where the shepherd has led, namely, to heaven. Each year’s gospel is taken from chapter 10 of the Gospel of John, in which Jesus calls himself both the gate of the sheepfold and the good shepherd.: Year A, verses 1-10; Year B, 11-18; and Year C, 27-30. The first two readings do not directly relate to the theme of the sheep and the shepherd. The title of Good Shepherd was popular with early Christians. Images of the shepherd with the sheep on his shoulders (Luke 15:5) were common as depictions of Jesus, and the logo for the current Jubilee Year of Mercy develops the image, substituting a human for the sheep."


The first reading — Acts 2:14a, 36-41 — gives the conclusion of  Peter's address to the people on Pentecost. Peter's testimony proves persuasive and the hearers come to faith. The first thing for a believer is to be baptized. We learn two things about the effects of baptism. It brings forgiveness of sins and confers the Holy Spirit. Peter follows this with an indication that the salvation Jesus brings extends beyond the people of Israel: it will include Gentiles. The remainder of the Book of Acts will tell the story of the work of the apostles, including Paul, in spreading the gospel to Jews and Gentiles.


The responsorial psalm — Ps 23 with the first verse as the refrain — is the Good Shepherd psalm, anticipating the gospel reading.


The second reading — 1 Peter 2:20b-25 — tells of Jesus' patient acceptance of his sufferings and death. This is an example for us: we are called to accept suffering which comes to us as a consequence of our good lives. But more fundamentally, Jesus' suffering and death, patiently borne, have freed us from our sins — the forgiveness which we receive at baptism, as we heard in the first reading, as well as access to forgiveness of sins committed after baptism. The reading concludes with another foreshadowing of the Good Shepherd theme.


The image of the shepherd is familiar from many passages of scripture: King David had been a shepherd; psalms refer to God as shepherd of Israel and the psalmist's shepherd; Ezekiel tells of God describing himself as a shepherd who judges between sheep, much like the king in Jesus' parable of the judgment of the nations in Matthew; Jesus tells of the shepherd who seeks the lost sheep. In today's gospel — John 1:1-10 — there are two images Jesus uses for himself. the shepherd and the gate of the sheepfold. In both of them he makes a contrast with the thieves and robbers. There may be a tendency to ask, "Well, which is it: shepherd or gate?" but these are just different ways of illustrating Jesus' care for us. Like the shepherd, he leads us to nourishment and safety. Like the gate of the fold where he gathers the sheep for the night, he protects us from thieves and predators — whatever would take us away from our life in God. Jesus promises us abundant life, eternal life, if we listen to his voice and follow him. Implicit in this is the requirement for us to be careful not to be led astray by voices other than his, by the temptations which come from the devil, from elements of culture which are contrary to the gospel, and from our own appetites and propensities which St. Paul calls "the flesh." But the central message today is one for redemption and eternal life thanks to the saving work of our Good Shepherd.

2016/06/03 — Solemnity of the Sacred Heart

The Feast (technically a solemnity) of the Sacred Heart of Jesus has its roots in medieval devotion to the Five Wounds of Jesus Christ — the last of which is the piercing of his heart by the soldier's lance. The greatest impetus for its becoming a liturgical celebration came from St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, who in the 1670's reported visions of Jesus in which he spoke to her of his Sacred Heart. Especially since 1856, the devotion has been strongly supported by various Popes.


Devotion to the Sacred Heart is based on the heart as the symbol of love. Thus it is a reminder of God's love for us, manifest in the Son of God's taking on of human flesh for the sake of our redemption.


This year's first reading is Ezekiel 34:11-17. The Lord promises the people that he will bring them back from exile to the promised land. He uses the image of himself as a shepherd gathering his sheep who have been scattered.


The responsorial psalm — Psalm 23, with verse 1 as the refrain — expresses our confidence in God as our shepherd who provides for us.


The second reading — Romans 5:5b-11 — tells us of God's love for us in action: the self-sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for us sinners. God loves us despite our sinfulness and wills to redeem us. As Jesus says, there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for another.


The gospel this year is Luke 15:3-7. Here we return to the shepherd imagery. The shepherd seeks out and brings home the lost sheep. As in the passage from Ezekiel, the action is that of the shepherd. The scattered sheep of Ezekiel and the lost sheep of Jesus do not find their way home on their own: the shepherd finds them and brings them back. These passages assure us of what St. Paul tells us directly: God's love is directed to each of us; none of us is outside his love.

2016/04/17 — 4th Sunday of Easter — Year C

In all three years of the lectionary cycle, the Fourth Sunday of Easter is "Good Shepherd Sunday." The opening prayer of the Mass (the same all three years) prays that the flock may follow where the shepherd has led, namely, to heaven. Each year's gospel is taken from chapter 10 of the Gospel of John, in which Jesus calls himself both the gate of the sheepfold and the good shepherd.: Year A, verses 1-10; Year B, 11-18; and Year C, 27-30. The first two readings do not directly relate to the theme of the sheep and the shepherd. The title of Good Shepherd was popular with early Christians. Images of the shepherd with the sheep on his shoulders (Luke 15:5) were common as depictions of Jesus, and the logo for the current Jubilee Year of Mercy develops the image, substituting a human for the sheep.


After the opening prayer, we begin with Acts 13:14, 43b-52. (The omitted verses report Paul's speech in the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia.) Paul's address met with great success among many hearers, which is why a large crowd gathered the following sabbath. But just as Jesus met opposition from those in authority in Jerusalem, so Paul and Barnabas met opposition from the leaders in Antioch. We mustn't think that in Paul's time the Christians saw a distinction between Jews and Christians. Clearly, Paul and Barnabas considered themselves Jews. But gradually they came to realize that in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 49:6 (quoted in v. 47 of today's reading), they must preach to Gentiles as well, and they ended up bringing more Gentiles than Jews to faith in Jesus. Over the course of several decades, with the increasing numbers of Gentile Christians and the opposition of the leaders of Judaism, Christians and Jews came to regard themselves as separate religions; but in Paul's time that had not happened.


In the responsorial psalm  — Ps 100:1-2, 3, 5 with 4c supplying the refrain — we have the themes of ourselves as the sheep of God's flock (meaning that God is the shepherd), and the call of the Gentiles, "all you lands," to join the worship offered by Israel.


The second reading — Revelation 7:9, 14b-17 — begins with a reference to the call of the Gentiles: a crowd "from every nation, race, people, and tongue." Jesus is identified as the Lamb of God who purifies his followers, and, in the final verse, the Lamb is also their shepherd. This leads to the gospel.


In the gospel — John 10:27-30 — Jesus, having earlier identified himself as the good shepherd who gives his life for his sheep, characterizes his sheep as those who follow him because they hear and recognize his voice. The result of following him is his gift to them of eternal life. No one is more powerful than God, who has given the sheep to Jesus, so Jesus' promise of eternal life is solid. Indeed Jesus identifies himself with the Father: "The Father and I are one." How this is true was the subject of decades and centuries of reflection, as the doctrine of the Trinity was developed.


To synthesize the messages: we Christians of all nations have been gathered into a single "flock," the Church, which is being led by Jesus, the Good Shepherd, into the eternal life of heaven.

2015/07/19 — 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Although this Sunday's gospel is not one in which Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd, we can still think of this as a Good Shepherd Sunday. The readings invite us to ask ourselves two questions: “What kind of shepherds are we?” and, “What kind of sheep are we?” They also invite us to be thankful.


Jeremiah — Jer 23:1-6 — begins with a condemnation of the bad kings of Israel. Their failure to follow the covenant had led the people’s hearts away from God, and now king and people are being taken away from the promised land into exile. But this is not the end. God will bring his people back to him and give them good shepherds, and a descendant of David as their king. There are two stages of fulfillment of this prophecy. There was a return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity. Several centuries later, Jesus came as Messiah, and established the Church with its constant supply of shepherds. As Paul points out, Jesus also accomplished a further gathering of God’s scattered people by uniting the Gentiles with the Jews.

So the question, “What kind of sheep are we?” asks how well we follow the shepherds God has given us, our pastors in the Church. Do we respect them and their office? Do we tend to wander off on our own?


The responsorial Psalm is Psalm 23, in which we reflect on the fact that the Lord is our shepherd.


Last week we heard of the sending of the Twelve on their mission. Now we fast forward to their return in Mark 6:30-34. When the Twelve return, Jesus invites them to get away from the crowds and rest. But for Jesus, there is no escape, no rest, other than the nights he spends in prayer. He encounters a crowd that is like the people of Jeremiah’s time: they are without a shepherd, so he teaches them. The shepherd can never neglect the flock. He must always be ready to take care of their needs.

It's not explicitly in this passage, but building on the promise of (plural) shepherds in Jeremiah and the conferral of authority on Peter and on the Twelve in Matthew, we can realize that Jesus wants his people always to have a shepherd, so he will establish a church with its shepherds.

As Christians, we share in Jesus’ mission. Certainly, in many ways, the people of our time, immersed in its spirit, need real guidance. At times we are to be the ones who teach God’s message. We are to be the shepherds for those who need to be guided and cared for. While we may be called on to be shepherds on various occasions and in some ways generally to the world around us, there are various specific relationships in which we are shepherds: parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, godparents, teachers, coaches, group leaders, supervisors, mentors. Some have explicit duties of teaching the faith. All have the responsibility of modeling Christian behavior. What kind of shepherds are we? Do we show people the joy of the gospel? Does God’s love shine in us? Do we gather God’s people, or do we scatter them? Do we drive people away from God’s flock by being unwelcoming or excessively demanding or critical?


If we have to ask ourselves how we’re doing, and to ask for whatever grace we need to be better and do better, we also need to take a few moments to realize what God has done for us. The second reading —Ephesians 2:13-18 — tells us something of God's goodness. Most of us are Gentiles, not descendants of the Israelites. Our ancestors 2,000 years ago didn’t know what God had taught the Jews. They were those whom Paul categorizes as "far off" from Israel and God's promises. But with the saving act of Jesus, reconciling both Jews and Gentiles with God through his cross, the time had come to spread knowledge of salvation to the whole world. God wanted us as well as the Jews to be his people so he extended the covenant to us. Of course the fact of our sharing in redemption is something we should always be thankful and praise God for. It’s really good news!


So in light of this Sunday's readings above all we thank God for seeking us out and calling us into his flock. We seek to realize what it means. We ask Jesus to teach us as he taught his disciples, how to live as his people. We ask him to teach us how to continue his work and to enable us to be good shepherds to those he has placed in our lives and — as far as possible — to the world of today.

2015/04/26 — 4th Sunday of Easter

This Sunday is often called Good Shepherd Sunday. The Church has a three year cycle of assigned readings for each Sunday; and on the Fourth Sunday of Eater, the Gospel passage is draw from the words of Jesus in the tenth chapter of the Gospel of John. This year we hear John 10:11-18, in which Jesus calls himself the good shepherd who  "lays down his life for his sheep"— unlike the hireling who runs away when he sees a wolf. In this way, the good shepherd accomplishes two things. He keeps the wolf from catching the sheep and from scattering the flock. Of course, we see Jesus fulfilling this description of himself when he lays down his life on the cross.

Jesus notes that he has other sheep that he must join to his flock so that there will be one flock and one shepherd. This he accomplishes through the missionary activity of the Church. The mention of one flock and one shepherd recurs in a more extended form in Jesus' prayer at the Last Supper (John 17:20-23), where Jesus prays for his disciples and those who will believe through their word, that all may be one.

Today's passage concludes with Jesus saying that he lays down his life freely, and that he has power to lay down his life and to take it up again. So we have a reference not only to his death on the cross but also to his resurrection. As risen Lord, he is still the shepherd of the flock. We are al called to listen to his voice and to seek the unity which is his will for those who follow him.


The first reading (Acts of the Apostles 4:8-12) recounts words of Peter to the Sanhedrin. Peter had cured a crippled man who used to beg at the gate of the Temple, and when an amazed crowd had gathered, Peter had proclaimed the resurrection and lordship of Jesus, supporting his proclamation with references to the Hebrew scriptures. (As we heard last week that Jesus had explained the scriptures to his disciples, now we see them presenting those explanations to those they are evangelizing.) The Sadducees had Peter and John, who was with him, arrested for proclaiming the resurrection, and the next day Peter and John found themselves before the Council, and Jesus had previously been. Today's passage gives Peter's proclamation. He attributes the healing of the cripple to Jesus, proclaims the resurrection, quotes on of the scriptures which refer to Jesus (Psalm 118:22), and concludes by affirming that there is no salvation except through Jesus. Jesus is far more than a sublime teacher of moral life. He is the one who brings salvation — resurrection and everlasting life — to the human race. The first reading is followed, as always by psalm verses. This Sunday it's verses from Psalm 118, including the verse, "The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone," Jesus, the one source of salvation.


The second reading is again taken from the First Letter of John (1 John 3:1-2). This brief passage tells us that we are children of God. Beyond that, at the resurrection, we shall see God as he is, and that "beatific vision," as it has traditionally been called, will make us like him. There is a further Easter connection here, since Baptism is an Easter sacrament, and just as the Father proclaimed Jesus his son when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, so the Father adopts us as his children when we are baptized. Here the image of the Church is of family, not flock as in the Gospel. But whichever image we use, the reality is of a community of believers following Jesus to the Father.

In summary Jesus has freely and lovingly laid down his life and risen for us, the community of those he will lead to the Father.