Relating to the Risen Jesus as Good Sheep and Good Shepherds, Fourth Tuesday of Easter, May 5, 2020

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
May 5, 2020
Acts 11:19-26, Ps 87, Jn 10:22-30

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

The following points were attempted in the homily:

• This morning, Jesus completes the words on which we’ve been pondering over the last three days about how he is our Good Shepherd. The Church has us pray over these words in the heart of each Easter season so that we can learn better how to respond to him risen from the dead as his good sheep, so that he can give us life to the full, so that we can live united with him. Today he summarizes the whole discourse saying six things:
  • To believe Jesus we need to be his sheep: He says to those challenging him during the Feast of the Dedication in the Temple, “You do not believe because you are not among my sheep.” Many times we think we have to believe first and then follow, but what Jesus is saying is that while of course there is an initial gift of faith, we grow in faith by following Jesus as his good sheep. The old Latin aphorism salva ambulando applies here that Jesus saves us as we follow him. The most obvious application of this is Baptism for those of us who had the great fortune of being baptized as infants. We become his sheep on the day of our infant Baptism and only later are we able to grow in faith of him by the graces working within.
  • His sheep hear his voice: We are able to discern his voice from impostors’ because we’re constantly seeking to attune to his frequency in prayer, through Sacred Scripture, in the crucial work of the magisterium, in the solid example of the saints.
  • I know them: Jesus says that he knows each one by name and we are in a personal relationship with him. There’s the famous parable when those outside the wedding feast are knocking, seeking to enter, and the Lord says, “Truly I do not know you.” Jesus’ sheep have entered into a deep, intimate friendship with him. This is akin to Biblical spousal “knowledge” whereby we not only know the other intimately but come to know ourselves through the experience of being loved and loving in return, from being known.
  • They follow me: If we’re really Jesus’ sheep, we’re seeking to live by his example, to want what he wants, will what he chooses, and love as he loves. We get up from where we are and follow him to where we wants us to go, even when we’d prefer to stay in our spiritual comfort zones. We follow him on the inside and outside, even when others stretch out our arms and drag us to a place we’d rather not go.
  • He gives them eternal life: Jesus gives us the gift of eternal life not just later but now, because eternal life, as he says elsewhere, is to know the Father and Jesus Christ whom the Father has sent. This is what makes sense of the second part of the phrase, “and they shall never perish.” If that were referring only to the afterlife, it would be nonsensical, because no one in heaven will perish; but it likewise refers to now, that if we are experiencing the eternal life that comes from the intimate friendship and communion with Christ, we will never die forever, because death will be merely a change of address, or better, change of state. This truth is what gave so much strength to the martyrs.
  • No one can take them from my hand: I love this phrase. Once we’re in the Good Shepherd’s hands, no thief, no wolf, nothing in all of creation, can separate us from him, just like Jesus says no one can rip us from the Father’s strong, loving hands. The only thing that can take us out of God’s hand is our own free, frankly stupid, sinful choices by which we, like the Prodigal Son, voluntarily leave God’s loving embrace. And so remaining in Jesus’ hands, choosing to entrust ourselves to him, is the wisest decision we can ever make. And even when we wander, Jesus’ hands are still outstretched ready to embrace us back.
• Today in the beautiful scene of today’s first reading we have three examples as to how Jesus seeks to bring all people to relate to him first as sheep disciples — who hear his voice, who have a deep personal relationships with Christ, who follow him, who remain in his hand, and who experience in this world and forever his eternal life — and then as shepherdly apostles, who strive to be God’s instrument to bring others into that same relationship.
• The first example involves the Cypriots and Cyrenians who, scattered by the persecution against Christ’s followers, came to Antioch. There they did a first. They went not just to the Synagogues to meet Jews and God-fearing Gentiles, but directly to the Gentiles to share with them the Good News of the Lord. Previously the Gospel had been shared with the Samaritans, who were half-Jews. St. Peter had been led by the Lord to go to Caesarea Maritima to share the Gospel with Cornelius and his family. But Antioch, thanks to these anonymous sheep-shepherds from Cyprus and Cyrene, was the first place Gentiles were directly blessed with the gift of the Gospel. And they received it on good soil. They became Jesus’ sheep, heard his voice, developed a personal relationship with him and others in him, followed him, and through the Sacraments received the down payment of eternal life. It was here that Jesus’ sheep were first called “Christians,” literally, “little Christs,” because they, like Christ, were becoming Good Shepherds, desirous of sharing the faith with others, as we’ll see tomorrow. Antioch was the first place of evangelization among the Gentiles and the first place we see evangelized evangelizers.
• St. Barnabas is the second example. As we see in today’s first reading, after the Church in Jerusalem had heard of how many converts were entering the Church in Antioch, they sent Barnabas to encourage them “to remain faithful to the Lord in firmness of heart” and to guide them into a deeper grasp of the Gospel. He was a “good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith,” who generously had sold his property and given it to the apostles. Named Joseph, he was nicknamed Barnabas, which means “son of encouragement” or “son of consolation,” because he filled others with strength and joy. St. Luke tells us today that his preaching and exhortation only served to make more converts. He was a great spiritual Shepherd after Christ’s example.
• The third figure is one whom St. Barnabas helped to form. Barnabas was God’s instrument to help form and employ in the task of the Gospel Saul turned Paul, whom Jesus had said at the latter’s conversion would be his instrument to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles. It was Barnabas who prevented Paul’s gifts from being wasted, vouching for him with the leaders and members of the Church in Jerusalem who didn’t trust him because of his murderous past, and  launching him on the trajectory that led to his founding so many Churches across the ancient world and bringing so many others into Jesus’ fold and hands. Eventually, after Paul’s life was endangered by people seeking to kill him, Paul was sent by the Church back to his native Tarsus, but Barnabas wouldn’t leave him there for ever. St. Paul’s story we know well. He was already a follower of God before his dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus, but he was following God in a partial way, trying to destroy what turned out to be God’s plan for salvation by seeking to extirpate what he thought was a blasphemous sect. But when Jesus struck him down and spoke to him on the Road to Damascus, saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?,” Saul entered into a relationship with Jesus and for the rest of his life tried to serve him with even greater zeal than he had shown before as, mistakenly, he tried to destroy Christ’s Mystical Body. So great would his union with the Good Shepherd become that he would eventually say, “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me,” and “For me to live is Christ.” St. Paul shows the way we’re supposed to follow the Good Shepherd until the end, laying down our lives for him who gave everything for us, and seeking to bring as many as possible into the Lord’s hands. And so when in Antioch, Barnabas recognized that he did not have the time to guide all of the converts himself and needed other expert help, he traveled to Tarsus to find Paul and bring him back to Antioch. And in Antioch “for a whole year they met with the Church and taught a large number of people,” forming them in the love of the Lord, as much loved sheep who would be tasked to feed and tend Christ’s sheep and lambs as well.
• Today we come to the Good Shepherd in the Holy Eucharist and through the intercession of Saints Paul and Barnabas we ask for the grace to place ourselves so firmly in the hands of the Good Shepherd who so humbly places himself in our hands and mouths, that we may never cease to be embraced by him and that we may come one day to experience the eternal life of knowing the Father and Son to which every Eucharist is a bridge and foretaste!

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

Gospel JN 10:22-30

The feast of the Dedication was taking place in Jerusalem.
It was winter.
And Jesus walked about in the temple area on the Portico of Solomon.
So the Jews gathered around him and said to him,
“How long are you going to keep us in suspense?
If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
Jesus answered them, “I told you and you do not believe.
The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me.
But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep.
My sheep hear my voice;
I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
No one can take them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all,
and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.
The Father and I are one.”