Formation in the School of the Good Shepherd, Fourth Sunday of Easter (A), April 30, 2023

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year A
April 30, 2023
Acts 2:14.36-41, Ps 23, 1 Pet 2:20-25, Jn 10:1-10

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

The following text guided the homily: 

• During my years as a seminarian and young priest in Rome, I often used to take my motorino down from the area of the Vatican to the Basilica of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, on the road to Ostia, where St. Paul is buried. The Basilica has an incredible outdoor colonnaded atrium, with lots of shade, cool breezes, plants and flowers, where I would sit and pray, reading St. Paul’s letters out loud in Italian to get to know Paul, his thought, and Italian better. I would always lean against a column looking the radiant façade of the Basilica, filled with mosaics. There one sees a vertical triptych of Christ, three different images arranged one on top of each other, an iconographic technique that means they should be interpreted in unison. The top one is a bejeweled Cross, Christ’s throne, underneath which are the words “Spes Unica,” our “only hope.” Underneath is Christ sitting on a throne with his right hand raised in blessing and in his left hand an open book, signifying the words he wants to speak to us. The words come from today’s Gospel. “Oves meae vocem meam audiunt et ego vitam aeternam do eis,” Christ says, “My sheep hear my voice … and I give them eternal life.” The third part of the mosaic is directly underneath Christ’s throne. It’s Jesus depicted as the Lamb looking as if he has been slain triumphant from the dead on the mountain of Calvary from which four rivers are flowing. And coming toward him on the mountain are twelve sheep, depicting the twelve apostles. The symbolism is that before the apostles were ever able to be sent out to shepherd Christ’s flock, they needed to be good sheep of Jesus the Good Shepherd, hear his voice, heed his call, and receive from him the life they seek to proclaim and bring to others. For me, staring at that mosaic for hours, enrolled me, like the apostles before me, like St. Paul, in the school of the Good Shepherd, the Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep on the wood of the Cross, the Shepherd who blesses us and calls us each by name, the shepherd from whose side flowed the blood and water, the restful water to which he leads us, gives respose, and seeks to make overflow.
• The Fourth Sunday of Easter each year is the annual occasion in which the whole Church is called to enroll in this School. It’s called Good Shepherd Sunday, because on this day the Church focuses on a part of the tenth Chapter of St. John’s Gospel of St. John in which Jesus reveals the relationship he wants to have with each of his faithful followers. Jesus says about himself: “I am the Good Shepherd.” And we, his disciples, with the words of today’s Psalm, cry out: “The Lord is my shepherd. I want, I lack, for nothing!” We mark this truth in the heart of the Easter Season each year, because it is the heart of our Easter joy: with the Risen Lord Jesus as our Shepherd, we truly have it all!
• But it’s key for us to believe and live by those famous words of the Responsorial Psalm. In the midst of a consumerist society, in which we’re bombarded with advertisements that pretend that we’ll be happy only if we obtain what they’re pitching, that we’ll be fulfilled only if we have money and houses, fame and fortune, power and position, we focus instead on the Good Shepherd’s and what he gives, publicly confessing that what Jesus provides is far more fundamental to our happiness in this world than all mammon combined and is absolutely essential to everlasting felicity with him in the eternal sheepfold. One of the most famous prayers in Church history, often said by Catholics in the morning as they offer the upcoming day to God, is St. Ignatius of Loyola’s famous Suscipe, in which, after we give God permission to take all our liberty, memory, understanding, will, and all we have and call our own, we declare, “Give me only your love and your grace, which are enough for me, and I ask for nothing more.” This prayer teaches us something very important about being a good sheep of the Good Shepherd: that Jesus’ love and grace are not just sufficient but our true treasure, that if we have him, but don’t have everything or anything else in the world, we’re still the richest and most blessed of human beings.
• What lessons do we learn in the school of the Good Shepherd? How does Jesus the Good Shepherd seek to love us and give us through grace a share in his very life? In the tenth Chapter of St. John, a different third of which we ponder each year, Jesus reveals to us six different lessons and ways by which he loves and blesses us.
  • First, he says, “He calls his own sheep by name” and his sheep hear and recognize his voice. Jesus wants to have a personal relationship with each of us. He knows us. He cares about us. Good sheep of the Good Shepherd recognize his voice in the midst of the cacophony of worldly gurus competing for our attention and follow him. They enter into a mind-blowing I-thou relationship with him, responding to his call and calling out to him by name in return. In his homily this morning during his apostolic visit to Budapest, Hungary, Pope Francis focused on this gift of Christ’s call. “The history of salvation,” he said, “does not begin with us, with our merits, our abilities and our structures. It begins with the call of God. … Jesus came as the Good Shepherd of humanity, to call us and bring us home. … When we, like sheep, had ‘gone astray’ and each one of us ‘turned to his own way’ (Is 53:6), Jesus took upon himself our iniquities and bore our sins, leading us back to the Father’s heart. This is what we heard from the apostle Peter in today’s second reading: ‘You were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls’ (1 Pet2:25). Jesus … comes to us as the Good Shepherd, he calls us by name and tells us how precious we are in his eyes. He heals our wounds, takes upon himself our frailties and gathers us into the unity of his fold, as children of the Father and brothers and sisters of one another.” The first lesson and gift is this personal vocation to loving communion with the Good Shepherd.
  • The second lesson is that Jesus guides or leads us. After calling us by name, he says, the Good Shepherd “leads them out. … He goes ahead of them and they follow him.” In today’s Psalm, we see that he “leads us in right paths for [his] names’ sake,” he takes us “besides the refreshing waters” of baptism, to the Sacrament of Confirmation where he “anoints our head with oil,” to the Eucharistic banquet where he “spreads the table” before us and makes our cup overflow, and ultimately toward the “verdant pastures” of heaven. He leads us to the fold of the Church so that, together with his other sheep, he may lead us on a journey, a true adventure, a life-time pilgrimage. The Good Shepherd doesn’t merely point out the path or just accompany us along it, but becomes that path. He tells us elsewhere, “I am the Way,” and today, “I am the Gate.” Good sheep of the Good Shepherd follow the Good Shepherd’s guidance, walk in his ways, and ultimately enter into Him through prayer, the Sacraments, community and charity.
  • The third lesson and grace is that the Good Shepherd feeds us. He “prepares a table for us,” seeking to nourish us in every way he knows we need. He feeds us materially as he “gives us today our daily bread” (Mt 6:11). He feeds our souls with his word, for “not on bread alone does man live, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4). He feeds us, ultimately, on his own body and blood in the Eucharist, the food of everlasting life. Good sheep are not only grateful for this three-fold sustenance, but hunger for it!
  • Fourth, the Good Shepherd protects us. Jesus tells us that there are “thieves and marauders” who are seeking to fleece, milk, kill, cook and consume us. Against those who come “only to steal and kill and destroy,” Jesus sets himself as our protector, as the gate to the sheepfold so that, essentially, in order to get to us they first need to go through Him. He leaves the 99 behind and comes after us when we’re in danger. “No one can take them out of my hand,” he affirms. Good Sheep of the Good Shepherd stay in his powerful, saving, protective hands and learn from him how not to be afraid.
  • Fifth, the Good Shepherd freely gives his life for us. He tells us, “The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” He says later in the chapter, “No one takes my life from me. … I freely lay it down.” His protection goes so far as to die so that we might live. That’s why Psalm 23 exclaims, “Even though I walk in the darkest valley I fear no evil, for he is at my side, with his rod and his staff to comfort me.” Good sheep appreciate with unending gratitude the depth of this shepherdly love and receive the gift.
  • Lastly, he says, “I give them eternal life.” He wants us to have life and have it “more abundantly,” without limit or expiration. Eternal life, he tells us, is knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ whom he sent. It’s not so much a thing but a relationship as we enter into friendship with the one who is the “Resurrection and the Life.” Good sheep of the Good Shepherd have a deep hunger for heaven, to be with the Good Shepherd and his other sheep not just episodically but forever. They are vivacious here on earth because they’re living not from appointment to appointment or pleasure to pleasure, but living in God.
• So in the school of the Good Shepherd, Jesus calls, leads, feeds, protects, and gives his life for us so that we might have life eternal. Our growth as disciples is determined by how we mature in response to that call, guidance, nourishment, protection, saving death and life. But as we see in the mosaic on the façade of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, the full flourishing of our training as good sheep happens when, like the twelve, we are able to make the transition from disciples to apostles, from good sheep of the Master to good shepherds of others, those who care for others, call them for God, guide them in right paths, nourish them, protect them, even give their life for them so that they might come to know Jesus and receive from him the gift of eternal life and love. We see Jesus carry out what might be called this graduate training in the Good Shepherd Academy in his beautiful dialogue with Saint Peter after the Resurrection after breakfast on the seashore of Galilee. In response to Peter’s three-fold denial on Holy Thursday, Jesus asks Peter three times whether he loves him, and after Peter’s affirmative response, Jesus says, “Feed my lambs. … Tend my sheep. …Feed my sheep.” While the sheep would always remain Christ’s — hence his words, “feed my lambs, … tend my sheep,” Jesus’ will is that they would be guided by a sheep like themselves whom Christ would choose, appoint, and strengthen to be a shepherd after his own loving heart. And it’s obvious that St. Peter never forgot this lesson, which he was putting into practice both in today’s first reading, preaching to the crowds, feeding them with the Gospel, and calling them to follow Christ to repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Spirit and salvation, as well as in today’s second reading, writing to the early Christians about how to return fully to Christ, the shepherd and guardian of their souls.
• This connection between being good sheep and good shepherds is one of the reasons why, for the last 60 years, the Church has always celebrated on Good Shepherd Sunday the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, and especially priestly vocations. It’s on this day that we unite ourselves to the Pope and to Catholics all over the world in praying to God to summon and send out laborers, shepherds after the heart of his Son, into the fields.
  • Priests are the Good Shepherd’s indispensable instruments to help us all recognize our divine vocation, that the Good Shepherd is calling each of us to be saints, and to help us to discern how he’s intending us to do that, whether in marriage, the priesthood, religious life or other vocations in the Church.
  • Priests guide Jesus’ flock one-on-one in the ministry of mercy in the Confessional, in spiritual direction and counseling and guide the entire flock in their work as pastors, the Latin word for shepherd.
  • Priests feed Jesus’ flock with himself in the Holy Eucharist, but they also nourish us with his holy Word and the teaching of the Church.
  • Priests also seek to protect the flock of Christ from what Jesus calls in this Sunday’s Gospel “thieves and marauders,” who would seek to harm them. This involves a defense not just from the devil and from earthly gurus who try to lead people from Jesus and the narrow path that leads to life, but all those who, as Pope Francis said this morning in Hungary, who might seek to take advantage of their positions to exploit his flock.
  • Priests give their lives for Christ and his flock, giving up having wives and families of their own to serve Christ’s family, surrendering their earning potential to live in poverty or simplicity of life to show everyone how to depend on God’s providence, and forsaking their autonomy freely to obey him through their bishops and religious superiors just like the first apostles obeyed Christ. This is a form of daily martyrdom that culminates, sometimes, in actual martyrdom.
  • Priests also by their eschatological living point us ultimately to the eternal life that Christ desires to give us through them, the eternal life that begins in the baptism they administer and is meant to grow through coming to know Christ better here in prayer, the sacraments, Christian charity and community they help to foster.
• And so today we pray for the 407,000 priests in the world and the 37,000 in the United, for the 4,800 in seminaries preparing for priestly ordination, and for all those boys and young men, including here at Columbia, whom the Good Shepherd is calling, that they may hear his voice, follow him, so that they might be his instruments to feed, tend, and love Christ’s flock as Christ desires and the flock deserves.
• Today at this Mass we also pray in a particular way for our graduating seniors and graduate students, and Good Shepherd Sunday gives clear content to our prayers. We ask the Lord, first, to bless them with his love and his grace to help them be, and ever remain, his good sheep. We ask him to help them discern his voice and call in life, to help them always follow him up close and faithfully, to nourish their minds, hearts, souls and bodies in every way he knows they need, to protect them from harm in the years ahead, to fill them with life and love, and to bring them, with us, to the eternal CCM reunion when in Christ’s light we will see all things in undying splendor (Ps 36). We also ask him to help them use all that they’ve learned here, all the ways they’ve grown, as well as the prestige that comes from the Columbia degree, to become icons of him the Good Shepherd, people who by their own words and witness, make it easier for others to hear Christ’s call, to follow him, to come to be fed by him, to remain in his strong and loving hands, to imitate him in being willing to give their lives out of love for others, and to help others come to eternal life. Seniors and departing grad students, we thank you for all the ways you’ve used your gifts here to help us become better students in the School of the Good Shepherd. We thank in particular those of you who, because of faith, stepped forward to take on responsibilities among the Catholic community here. We thank you for showing up faithfully to be with the Good Shepherd each Sunday and for inviting others to join you. We thank you for praying with us, worshipping God with us, serving others with us, strengthening our Christian community, and all the other ways as good sheep and good shepherds you helped us. And we thank you in advance for the ways you will continue to support us, by praying for us, by staying in touch and supporting us in the ways you can, and by blazing a truly Christian path in the days and decades ahead. In the Gospel, Christ said that his sheep “come in and go out and find pasture.” We rejoice that by God’s providence you and we have come into to the pasture he has set up for Catholics here at Columbia and that our paths following the Good Shepherd have overlapped. As you prepare to “go out,” please know you go with our prayers, our holy pride, and our gratitude. In the romance languages that have developed out of Christian culture, the traditional way we say “goodbye” is adieu, adios, adeus, addio, all of which say the same thing: we bid adieu literally entrusting each other a-Dieu, to God. So as we say good bye and as we recognize how much we will miss you and feel your absence, we nevertheless do so with joy, knowing that we are giving you to the God who has placed you in our life, the Good Shepherd who loves you, and who has committed to be with you always until the end of time. May he bless you always with the full outpouring of his love and grace.
• Jesus is the Good Shepherd who will never leave his flock untended. After having listened to the Good Shepherd’s voice speaking to us in the Gospel, we ask him to fill us with gratitude for the “table he has prepared for us” and for the priesthood that uniquely makes this great banquet of life possible. We beg him to make us ever more attentive to his voice as he says, “This is my Body,” “This is the chalice of my Blood,” giving his life for us and to us so that we, increasingly each day, might advance in the Good Shepherd’s school, have life to the full, and be strengthened on the pilgrimage of life to follow him all the way to the eternal sheepfold in heaven’s verdant pastures for which this banquet is the foretaste. With the Lord as our Shepherd, who never ceases to give us his love and his grace, we truly want for nothing. Amen!

Gospel
JN 10:1-10

Jesus said:
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate
but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.
But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice,
as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he has driven out all his own,
he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him,
because they recognize his voice.
But they will not follow a stranger;
they will run away from him,
because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.”
Although Jesus used this figure of speech,
the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell them.

So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
I am the gate for the sheep.
All who came before me are thieves and robbers,
but the sheep did not listen to them.
I am the gate.
Whoever enters through me will be saved,
and will come in and go out and find pasture.
A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy;
I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”

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