The fourth Sunday of Easter is known as Good Shepherd Sunday. Today is also 54th World Day of Prayer for Vocations as declared by our Catholic Church. Some of our readings today directly talk about shepherds as we reflect on the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd who devotedly takes care of his flock. The title of the parish priest, "pastor," actually means “shepherd”. A shepherd leads, feeds, nurtures, comforts, corrects, and protects his flock—responsibilities that belong to every church leader. Followers of the Way of Jesus in the Early Church had seen Jesus as the fulfillment of the ancient Jewish dream of a good shepherd. Paul and many of the other early disciples saw Jesus as the shepherd of all peoples, not just the Jews, as they wanted everyone to be invited to be members of God’s flock.
Before Jesus, in the history of Israel, the Jewish people had many shepherds that God selected to lead them and guide them on their journey. The Jews had a very interesting legend that has been passed down through the generations to explain why God chose Moses to be the leader of His people. It explains that when Moses was tending the sheep of his father-in-law in the wilderness, a young lamb ran away. Moses followed it until it reached a ravine, where it found a well to drink from. When Moses got up to it, he said: “I did not know that you ran away because you were thirsty. Now you must be weary.” He took the lamb on his shoulders and carried it back. Then God said: “Because you have shown pity and mercy in leading back one of a flock belonging to another man, you shall lead my flock Israel.” In our faith we are comforted by the images of shepherds, whether it be the image of the Lord as the Good Shepherd in the 23rd psalm, the image of Moses shepherding the people of Israel, or Jesus as the true shepherd who has love and concern for his people.
When I am on the pilgrimage route in Spain, I love seeing the sheep being led to their fields by the shepherds and the sheep dogs. I remember when I was resting on a bench drinking some water and eating a snack, I saw a shepherd leading his flock out of a barn to a pasture where they could graze. The fluid movement of the sheep by led by the shepherd and the dogs was a fascinating sight to behold, one we don’t often see in modern America. In the second parable in today’s Gospel, it is good to know a little bit about the culture in Jesus’ day, when the shepherds would bring the sheep down from the hills in the evening to protect them at night from wolves, mountain lions, and other predators. The shepherds would gather their sheep together at night, leading them into large pens with high stone walls. The shepherds put thorny or prickly briars along the top of the wall to prevent the predators from jumping over into them. The doorway to these pens was about two feet wide, being a narrow space in the front wall facing a wood fire lit outside at night. The shepherd himself would sleep there in the doorway of the wall facing the burning fire with his club and staff. If a predator tried to enter, the shepherd would fight it off. Thus, literally and actually, the shepherd himself was the door to the pen or the sheepfold. So, in our Gospel parables, Jesus compares himself to both the shepherd and the gate. Jesus is the true master and shepherd of his sheep. From his leadership, Jesus is also the gate, the only way through which the sheep may enter. Jesus is the mediator we have between God and humanity. We go through Jesus to achieve salvation. We go through the Body of Jesus, the Church. Jesus assures us today that if we enter through him, we will be safe and cared for. There indeed safety and security in being a Christian, in living with Jesus and his Church, in being one with the disciples of Christ and with the Christian family.
In praying for vocations today, on Good Shepherd Sunday, hopefully it is obvious to all of us that our Church today is in great need of good shepherds, the shepherds who are totally committed to the Way of Jesus. We are asked to pray today especially that our Christian communities will be graced with good shepherds and good pastors. But, we should not narrow the term “vocation” to those who feel called to the priesthood or to religious life as a sister or brother or monk. We in the Church emphasize that every single baptized person has a vocation, with each being called by God not just to a vocation in which he lives out his professional life or trade, but also that each person is to have a specific role in the Christian community and in the wider community. Indeed, unless we Christians see that vocation as something that we are all called to, it is not likely that there will be enough people to meet the service needs of our Christian communities. Our Christian communities can only grow and thrive when every member makes a contribution to the well-being of the whole. Right now at St James, we are looking for adults to work with our youth, to teach or be an administrator in our religious education program, to join our choir or to be a part of our music program, to serve in our various ministries. I will close our homily today with this prayer for vocations that I adapted from the US Bishops’ website: God our Father, we thank you for calling men and women to serve in your Son’s Kingdom as priests, deacons, religious, consecrated persons, and lay leaders. Send your Holy Spirit to help us respond generously and courageously to your call. May our community of faith support vocations of sacrificial love in our youth and our children. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment