As you might’ve guessed, this Fourth Sunday of Easter is Good Shepherd Sunday. As a result, we typically hear a lot of pastoral references, similes, metaphors, and allegories. But in reality, these don’t make a lot of sense to most people today. This is not to assert that these things are incomprehensible to most of us. It’s just to say that unlike the people of the early first century Levant, such things are not part of our everyday experience or even part of many of our life experiences.
In thinking about Good Shepherd Sunday this week, I became very aware that being designated as “sheep” is not very flattering. Sheep are docile, easily led, seemingly not capable of independent thought. Now, this is not to say that the point of any passage from the scriptures is meant to flatter to us. I guess my point here is that the People of God are not called to be “sheepeople,” as it were. On the contrary, Jesus's call to follow him is a call to intentional living and responsibility.
Philosopher Emmanuel Levinas insisted “that it is only through responsibility for others, only through caring for the needy and even one’s enemies that human existence advances and grows.”1 What Levinas dubbed diakonia has been described as “responsibility and care for others.”2 Responsibility, then, constitutes “the heart of what it means to exist as a human being and to transcend the isolation and trap of one’s own ego.”3
Each year, the World Day of Prayer for Vocations falls on the Fourth Sunday of Easter, that is, Good Shepherd Sunday. I think this year especially, it is important to point out that all of us who are baptized have received a vocation, a calling from God. To quote Jake Blues, by virtue of our baptism, we’re on a mission from God. The vocation each of us received at baptism is to follow Christ. All other vocations, whether to orders, matrimony, religious or single life, are the different ways of living out our baptismal vocation.
Baptism, not ordination, is the fundamental sacrament of the Christian life. Our dying, being buried, and rising with Christ to new life is our rebirth as children of God, the means by which we become “a new creation.”4 For proof of this we need look no further than our first reading today, taken from the Acts of the Apostles.
As a result of Peter’s preaching on that first Christian Pentecost, many people responded with faith and were baptized. The phrase “filled with the Spirit” is used many times in the early chapters of Acts. Lest we forget, Saint Paul teaches us what the gifts of the Holy Spirit are: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”5 A few verses earlier, the apostle insists: “the whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”6 Following Christ means making yourself a neighbor to others, especially the person who needs your help.
All of this ties in with our epistle reading, which once again comes from 1 Peter. Our passage begins by stating that it “is a grace before God” to suffer for doing what is good.7 In taking responsibility for the other, especially those who are outcast and looked down upon, it is often the case you are reviled rather than rewarded.
The inspired author of 1 Peter goes so far as to say that it is our vocation as Christians to suffer doing good following the Good Shepherd, who, “When he was insulted, he returned no insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten; instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly.”8 Jesus calls his followers to do the hardest things imaginable. This is rolled up into the Spiritual Work of Mercy that bids us suffer wrongs patiently, trusting in the one who is returning to “judge the living and the dead.”9
We suffer for doing good when we feed the hungry on the street despite city ordinances that seek to prohibit this, or are arrested and brought to trial for leaving water in the desert so immigrants, many of whom are actually refugees fleeing for their lives, don’t die of dehydration, or standing up for the dignity of human life across many issues: abortion, euthanasia and suicide, the death penalty, firearms, etc., or affirming the rights and dignity of those who are incarcerated. Sadly, you run the risk of being denigrated by fellow Christians for speaking up on behalf of and reaching out to LGBT people, as Pope Francis did this past week, giving much-needed financial aid to a group of transgendered people in Italy, who approached the priest of the parish in which they live for assistance.10 Very often, no good deed goes unpunished.
In one of Isaiah’s Servant Songs, it is said that Israel’s deliverer, rather than vanquish their enemies violently, would be “Like a lamb led to slaughter.”11 But unlike sheep, we are all-too aware of what happens to us when life takes an unpleasant turn, especially when this rises to the level of suffering. Rather than being like a sheep that has no idea it is about to be slaughtered, our experience or anticipation of suffering makes us hyper-aware. To endure this gracefully, we must embrace it intentionally, like those who form the great cloud of Christian martyrs down through the ages of the Church.
Instead of the bliss of ignorance, you must decide whether to follow the Good Shepherd, to be obedient to the call he has given you, to enter through the narrow gate, or choose another road. Remember, “obedience” comes from the Latin verb obidere, which means to listen. Three times in today’s Gospel reading Jesus is quoted as saying his followers, each of whom he calls by name, as you were in baptism and confirmation, recognize his voice and follow him. Later in the same chapter from which today’s Gospel is taken, Jesus says: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”12
1 William T. Donovan, The Sacrament of Service: Understanding Diaconal Spirituality, 22.↩
2 Ibid.↩
3 Ibid.↩
4 2 Corinthians 5:17.↩
5 Galatians 5:22-23.↩
6 Galatians 5:14.↩
7 1 Peter 2:19.↩
8 1 Peter 2:23.↩
9 Roman Missal, "The Order of Mass," sec. 19.↩
10 See “Pope gifts funds to transgender community.”↩
11 Isaiah 53:7.↩
12 John 10:27.↩
Thank you Deacon for this homily.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.