3 May 2020 - Homily - Good Shepherd Sunday and World Day of Prayer for Vocations - 4th Sunday of Easter - John 10:1-10, Psalm 23

      The fourth Sunday of Easter is known as Good Shepherd Sunday. Today is also the World Day of Prayer for Vocations as declared by our Catholic Church. Some of our readings today directly talk about shepherds, helping us to reflect upon 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.   Christ’s disciples in the Early Church had seen him as the fulfillment of the ancient Jewish vision 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.  

     Throughout Israel’s history, 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 the lamb 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.  

     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 very proud to have a member of our parish, Andrew Bowden, as a seminarian, and Mark Bowden, in the diaconate formation program. Pope Francis leaves us these thoughts on this occasion: “Dear friends, on this day in particular, but also in the ordinary pastoral life of our communities, I ask the Church to continue to promote vocations. May she touch the hearts of the faithful and enable each of them to discover with gratitude God’s call in their lives, to find courage to say ‘yes’ to God, to overcome all weariness through faith in Christ, and to make of their lives a song of praise for God, for their brothers and sisters, and for the whole world. May the Virgin Mary accompany us and intercede for us.” As we are asked to pray today that our Christian communities will be graced with good shepherds and good pastors, we are called to 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 in 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. I will close our homily today with this prayer for vocations that I adapted from the  National Religious Vocation Conference:  

      Holy Spirit,  stir within us the passion to promote vocations to the consecrated life, societies of apostolic life, diocesan priesthood, and permanent diaconate.

       Inspire us daily to respond to your call with boundless compassion, abundant generosity, and radical availability.

Help us to remember our own baptismal call to rouse us to invite the next generation to hear and respond to your call.

Inspire parents, families, and lay ecclesial ministers to begin a conversation with young Catholics to consider how they will live lives of holiness and sacred service.

       Nudge inquirers and motivate discerners to learn more about monastic life, apostolic life, missionaries, and cloistered contemplative life.

       Ignite our Church with the confident humility that there is an urgent need for religious sisters, brothers, deacons, and priests to live in solidarity with those who are poor, neglected, and marginalized.

       Disrupt our comfortable lives and complacent attitudes with new ideas to respond courageously and creativity with a daily 'YES!'  Amen.

19 November 2019 — Mass of Remembrance — Wisdom 3:1-9, Psalm 23, Romans 6:3-9

      “The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.”  This is the opening line from our reading from the book of Wisdom today as we remember the faithful departed during our annual mass of remembrance this evening.  We had this same reading on All Souls Day, on November 2nd, as we prayed for all of those souls who have departed this world and who are going through a purification process to ready them for unification with God in their state of eternal life. It is also customary for Christians to use All Souls Day to offer prayers for all of their departed relatives and loved ones.  Today, in our mass of remembrance here at St Jude, we remember those faithful departed who have died in our parish families throughout this past year.  

     It is so difficult saying goodbye to a loved one when they depart this world, but,  in many ways,  our prayers for our deceased loved ones connect us to them.  Through these prayers, we show our love and reverence for them, keeping them alive to us in their role in the Community of Saints that exists in the Church.  Indeed, if we truly believe the words of the 23rd psalm that is so beloved to so many Christian believers, we see Jesus as the Good Shepherd leading our dearly departed loved ones to the refreshing waters of eternal life after their journey here on earth has ended.

         Praying for the dead has always been a part of our Christian traditions since the days of the early Church.  Indeed, we can find prayers for the dead inscribed in the catacombs outside of Rome.  Early Christians believed that their prayers would provide assistance and encouragement to the souls of their departed loved ones who were undergoing a process of purification in the afterlife.

         Our second reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans addresses our baptismal promise – how we die with Christ in the waters of our baptism and then rise to new life in him in those same waters.  Paul explains that if we are united with Christ in his resurrection in the waters of baptism, then when our days here on earth come to an end, we will be united with him in the resurrection in eternal life.  This confirms our belief that Christ who was raised from the dead indeed lives and dies no more. 

         So while we miss the presence of our loved ones here on earth, we take heart that they are with Christ in eternal life, that their prayers and intercessions accompany us, just as our prayers and intercessions go out for them today in a special way during today’s mass of remembrance.  We lift them up to Christ, who is the life and the resurrection. 

7 de mayo de 2017 - El Buen Pastor - Cuarto Domingo de Pascua - John 10:1-10, Psalm 23

      El cuarto domingo de Pascua se conoce como Domingo del Buen Pastor.  También, hoy es el 54º Día Mundial de Oración por las Vocaciones.  Las lecturas hoy hablan directamente de pastores mientras reflexionamos sobre la imagen de Jesús como el Buen Pastor que cuida de su rebaño.  El párroco es el pastor de su rebaño: él dirige, alimenta, nutre, consuela, corrige y protege a su rebaño, responsabilidades que pertenecen a cada líder de la Iglesia. Los seguidores en la Iglesia Primitiva habían visto a Jesús como el cumplimiento del antiguo sueño judío de un buen pastor.  Pablo y los otros primeros discípulos vieron a Jesús como el pastor de todos los pueblos, no sólo los judíos, ya que querían que todos fueran invitados a ser miembros del rebaño de Dios.

     Antes de Jesús, en la historia de Israel, el pueblo judío tenía muchos pastores que Dios escogió para guiarlos en su camino.  Los judíos tenían una leyenda muy interesante que transmitía a través de las generaciones para explicar por qué Dios escogió a Moisés para ser el líder de Su pueblo.  Esta leyenda explica que cuando Moisés cuidaba de las ovejas de su suegro en el desierto, un cordero joven huyó.  Moisés lo siguió hasta llegar a un barranco, donde encontró un pozo. Cuando Moisés se levantó, dijo: "No sabía que huías porque tenías sed. Ahora debes estar cansado.”  Tomó el cordero sobre sus hombros y lo llevó de vuelta. Entonces Dios dijo: "Porque mostraba compasión y misericordia a un cordero de los rebaños de otro hombre, tú guiarás a mi rebaño de Israel".  En nuestra fe somos consolados por las imágenes de los pastores, como el Buen Pastor en el salmo 23, la imagen de Moisés pastoreando al pueblo de Israel o Jesús como el verdadero pastor que tiene amor por su pueblo.

      Cuando estoy en la ruta de peregrinación en España, me encanta ver las ovejas conducidas a sus campos por los pastores. Recuerdo que cuando estaba descansando en el banco, vi a un pastor que conducía su rebaño fuera de un granero a un pasto donde podían pastar. El movimiento de las ovejas conducido por el pastor y los perros era un espectáculo fascinante para contemplar, uno que no vemos a menudo aquí en los Estados Unidos.  En la segunda parábola del Evangelio de hoy, es bueno saber un poco acerca de la cultura de Israel en la época de Jesucristo, cuando los pastores sacarían las ovejas de las colinas por la tarde para protegerlas de lobos y otros animales.  Los pastores reunían a sus ovejas por la noche, llevándolas a corrales con muros altos de piedra.  Los pastores ponen las ramas con espinosos a lo largo de la parte superior del muro para evitar los lobos que pueden salten sobre ellos.  La puerta de acceso a estos corrales era de dos pies de ancho.  El pastor dormía allí en la puerta del muro con su palo y su bastón. Si un lobo intentaba entrar, el pastor lo combatiría. Así, el propio pastor era la puerta de la corral.  Así, en la parábola del Evangelio, Jesús se compara con el pastor y la puerta. Jesús es el pastor verdadero de sus ovejas.  Desde su liderazgo, Jesús es la puerta, el único camino por el cual las ovejas pueden entrar. Jesús es el mediador entre Dios y la humanidad. Pasamos por Jesús para alcanzar la salvación. Pasamos por el Cuerpo de Jesús, la Iglesia. Jesús asegura hoy que si entramos a través de él, estaremos seguros y cuidados. De hecho, hay seguridad en ser cristiano, en vivir con Jesucristo y su Iglesia, en ser uno con los discípulos de Cristo y con la familia cristiana.

       En la oración por las vocaciones de hoy, en el Domingo del Buen Pastor, reconocer que hoy hay una gran necesidad de pastores en la Iglesia, pastores totalmente comprometidos con el Camino de Jesús.  Oremos hoy especialmente porque nuestras comunidades cristianas serán agraciadas con buenos pastores y buenos párrocos. Pero, no debemos limitar la palabra "vocación" a aquellos que se sienten llamados al sacerdocio o la vida religiosa como hermanas o hermanos o monjes.  Nosotros en la Iglesia reconocemos que en el bautismo, todo el mundo tiene una vocación, la llamada por Dios que no sólo tenemos una vocación en nuestra vida profesional, sino también que cada persona tenga un papel específico en la comunidad cristiana y en la comunidad en general.  Nuestras comunidades cristianas sólo pueden crecer y prosperar cuando cada miembro contribuye al bienestar del todo. En este momento en nuestra parroquia de St James, buscamos los adultos para trabajar con nuestros jóvenes y nuestros niños, para enseñar en nuestro programa de educación religiosa, para cantar en el coro o para ser una parte de nuestro programa de música, o para servir en nuestros ministerios en la parroquia. Terminaré hoy nuestra homilía con esta oración por las vocaciones que yo adapté de los Obispos de los Estados Unidos:

Oremos: Dios, nuestro Padre, te damos gracias por haber llamado a hombres y mujeres para servir en el Reino de tu Hijo como sacerdotes, diáconos, religiosos, laicos consagradas y líderes laicos. Envía tu Espíritu Santo para ayudarnos a responder generosamente y humildemente a tu llamada. Que nuestra comunidad de fe apoye las vocaciones de amor sacrificial en nuestra jóvenes y nuestros niños. Pedimos esto en el nombre de nuestro Señor Jesucristo, que vive y reina contigo y el Espíritu Santo, un solo Dios, por los siglos de los siglos.  Amén.