4th Sunday of Easter Homily - Good Shepherding leads to freedom.

Jesus as the Good Shepherd, probably one of the most common images we have as Catholics/christians.

In fact, one of the oldest images ever of Jesus was from a tomb in Rome with him as the Good shepherd.

I have seen many different ones.  My grandmother had one that was very pastoral and Jesus carrying this cute little lamb.  It was very nice and sweet.

It seems that most of the images are this way; clean, well kept Jesus standing over the flock.

This also worldwide day prayer for vocations.

So we pray in a special way for vocations to the priesthood.

But this image of the Good Shepherd is not just about priests, it is about us as church.

It is about all of us and how we share the salvation of Jesus Christ.

I believe at that heart of this image that Jesus give is connection.

Think of the words we just heard from Jesus.  He talks about his commitment to his own flock and to those not part of his flock.

He talks of relationship and laying down a life, and of the flock knowing him.  And he contrasts the bad shepherds who do not connect.

We can also read and hear Jesus’ words and think of them as sweet, but these sweet words are tinged with harsh reality.

He laying down his life will be very real.  We celebrated this 4 weeks ago.

This means that clearly we are worth Jesus’ connection.  

We have value simply because we are God’s children, as the second reading makes known.

Our value is NOT what we can do or how much we earn; nor is it according to our “status” in the church.   It is nothing so superficial.

Our value to Jesus, to God, is that because we are.

God desires us because we are God’s children.  There is nothing we can do to make God love us more, nor less.

Jesus shepherds us to this reality, this truth.  The Resurrection is the complete revelation of this!

God knows and sees our value, God loves us.

This the freedom of salvation.  This is to be our joy.

We respond to this Good news by our lives.

The compassion, mercy, the forgiveness, the generosity, the charity, all those good works that we do derive from the reality that we are Loved from God.  

Us connecting to other people shows our gratitude for Jesus connecting to us.

Us, being here at Eucharist, I hope, is not because we HAVE to be here (well maybe for some??), but is a response to that deep sense that We are connected to God because God wants us.

Here is the rest of the story though.

There are so many other flocks that need this good news of God’s freely given love.

Our salvation, our gratitude, impels us to share this with others.

Our Catholic Mission is not to sit here and bask in God’s love, but to GO and share this Good news with others.

It means we need to connect with others, through that same compassion, mercy, love et al.

We need to see others as God sees them.

Because there are so many hurting.

Recently a young man was sharing with me how angry he was at God and himself.  Listening to his story, it began with a priest telling him he would not do the funeral for his mother because of circumstances.  This man thought then that his mom would go to hell; and he blamed himself and God for such cruelty. He did not connect with God.

This was not being a pastor, nor was this being Catholic.

This past week there was news item of the young boy who was crying in front of the Pope, trying to ask him a question.

The boy was invited to whisper the question into the Pope’s ear.  The boy was concerned because his father had died, but was not a believer, and he was thought that he would not get into heaven.  Yet this non believer brought his children to church, and was a good father to them.

The Pope told the boy of God’s mercy, and because the Father did such good things in life, we trusted in the Father’s love.  It was beautiful.

The flip side was that there were people angry at the Pope because he dared to say this about a non-believer.  These people clearly have never connected to God’s love in a personal way. They are are living as Church.

We are called to go out and not just speak of love, but live it.  We are called to shepherd people to the love of Jesus Christ.

The Church is the Sacrament of Jesus Christ.

As St. Teresa of Avila said, we are Jesus’ hands, feet and eyes.  We make real and visible the Good shepherd.

It means we get connected to people, we LISTEN and give time.

It means we smell like them; willing to get a little messy with them.

Because how can we say we are Freed by God’s love, when we are not making it real?