The Merciful Heart of the Great Shepherd of the Sheep, Fourth Saturday in Ordinary Time (I), February 6, 2021

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• We have been pondering the letter to the Hebrews for the past four weeks. The climax of it happened earlier this week — we didn’t read it this year because Tuesday was the Feast of the Presentation with its proper readings — when the sacred author tells us, “Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith.” The point of the Letter, the point of the Christian life, is to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, to learn from him, to follow him, to see where his eyes and heart turn. It’s to keep our eyes fixed on him who was tempted in every way we are but never sinned. It’s to keep our eyes fixed on him who is our high priest piercing the veil so that he can lead us all of the way home.
• Today as we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, we zero in on his heart. The Gospel tells us that Jesus’ “heart was moved with pity for the crowds for they were like sheep without a shepherd.” Jesus’ viscera explode with compassion on the crowds. And today as we look at him, we see how he addresses our most fundamental needs as Good Shepherd. Receiving and responding to that help is what will make us good sheep. Imitating Jesus in caring for others as he does will be the way that we can in him come Good Shepherds. Today in the readings are highlighted five ways he seeks to shepherd us.
• We see, first, that he takes us apart to be with him. “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while,” he says to the apostles after they had returned from a journey. The Good Shepherd knows that we need time of prayer. Jesus wants us to have rest, but a particular type of rest. In the Psalm we pray, “In verdant pastures he gives me repose. Beside restful waters he leads me; he refreshes my soul.” Jesus does this in prayer and he’s always, every day, seeking to lead us apart from the crowds for a while to refresh us in this way. He says elsewhere, “Take my yoke up you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for yourselves.” Prayer is a time to yoke ourselves and all we do to him, because it’s by taking upon his yoke that we will find that rest.
• Second, he teaches us, just like he “began to teach them many things.” We pray in the Psalm, “He guides me in right paths for his name’s sake.” Jesus has come to teach us about God, about ourselves and about how to become like God. That work of teaching never ends. Teaching is a great act of mercy.
• Third, yoking us to himself on the inside, he wants to teach and help us to do the Father’s will within us as a result of this communion. He wants to instruct and assist us to turn our work and all our actions into prayer. In today’s first reading from the conclusion of the Letter to the Hebrews, we read that God the Father “who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep” seeks to “furnish [us] with all that is good, that you may do his will.” And he does this by “carry[ing] out in you what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ.” This is why the Letter says to us about prayer, “Through Jesus, let us continually offer God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.” The praise we offer is through lips confessing his name, not silently, not merely in prayer, but among others, especially through the work we do, which is, for most of us, at least a third of our existence. Jesus precisely helps us to do this. He also transforms us on the inside to help us love others with the love with which he loves us to overflowing. That’s why the Letter says, “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have; God is pleased by sacrifices of that kind.” The sacrifice of praise that is not just of our lips but of our charity.
• Fourth, he seeks to lead us, including through suffering and death, as we’ve been pondering throughout the Letter to the Hebrews. The Psalm says, “Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side with your rod and your staff that give me courage.” Jesus is the Good Shepherd who makes sure we lack for nothing, even when he’s guiding us through dark valleys where we can see very little because of our fear. But these dark valleys are opportunities for us to enlarge our eyes and our ears in faith. As we keep our eyes fixed our him our ears can become more attentive. The Gospel verse says, “My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord; I know them, and they follow me.” When we’re in dark valleys we’re much more dependent on the Lord’s voice and guidance and that’s why he allows them. He perfects our faith through them. One of the ways he leads us is through obedience. The Letter to the Hebrews talks about the importance of loving obedience. “Obey your leaders and defer to them, for they keep watch over you and will have to give an account, that they may fulfill their task with joy and not with sorrow, for that would be of no advantage to you.” The more we fill them with joy by our openness and response, the more we’ll be able to receive from God through them.
• Finally, the Good Shepherd feeds us. His concern for the apostles was because they “had no opportunity even to eat” because of the great numbers coming to them. We see in the Gospel his care for the crowds that led to the multiplication of loaves and fish. In the Psalm we see the Good Shepherd’s aim, “You spread the table before me.” The Lord wants to nourish us in body and soul.
• Today the Church celebrates the feast of St. Paul Miki and his 25 Companion Martyrs, who were crucified in Japan in 1597. They show us how the Good Shepherd transforms us by his heart-bursting compassion in each of these five ways so that we might in turn share that compassion with others. They were the first of the nearly 35,000 Japanese converts who died heroically for the faith between 1597-1639. Because the imperial minister Toyotomi Hideyoski feared that missionaries from the Philippines were actually Spanish insurgents seeking to overthrow Japan, he responded by sentencing these 26 Catholics — 3 native Jesuits, 17 lay Catholics including children and six Franciscan missionaries — to death by crucifixion. They were marched an unbelievable 600 miles to Nagasaki — the distance between New York City and Grand Rapids, or Indianapolis, or Colombia South Carolina —  suffering so many indignities and tortures along the way to try to frighten any Japanese from seeking to convert to Christianity. But while the Japanese authorities were trying to use this death march as an advertisement against becoming Christian, these 26 were using it as propaganda fidei, showing the joy that comes from our faith. They were praying along the way and strengthening each other in prayer. They were sharing the teaching of Christ, particularly about picking up our Cross to follow him, with each other and were announcing the kerygma to those attracted to the spectacle. As St. Paul was being crucified, he used the pulpit of his Cross to announce that he was giving his life for the Lord’s teaching: “The sentence of judgment says these men came to Japan from the Philippines, but I did not come from any other country. I am a true Japanese. The only reason for my being killed is that I have taught the doctrine of Christ. I certainly did teach the doctrine of Christ. I thank God it is for this reason I die. I believe that I am telling only the truth before I die. I know you believe me and I want to say to you all once again: Ask Christ to help you to become happy. I obey Christ. After Christ’s example I forgive my persecutors. I do not hate them. I ask God to have pity on all, and I hope my blood will fall on my fellow men as a fruitful rain.” He and the others were being strengthened by the Lord on the inside as he was leading them on the journey through the dark valley, accompanying them with his rod and staff. And along the way, even though their guards were only giving them enough food to survive the journey, he was stoking their hunger for the eternal banquet in verdant pastures, having already fed them on himself. We prayed at the beginning of Mass that we might receive from the great Shepherd of the Sheep on the Cross the strength we need to live in his mercy faithfully until the end: “O God, strength of all the saints, who through the Cross were pleased to call the Martyrs Saint Paul Miki and companions to life, grant, we pray, that by their intercession we may hold with courage even until death to the faith that we profess.”
• Today we have begun this day by coming away from the crowds to be with Jesus, so that we might pray and fix our eyes on him, so that the Good Shepherd can teach us, feed us, lead us through whatever dark valleys we may be in, and enter into us through Holy Communion. Together with the Blessed Virgin, the Mother of the Good Shepherd, who shows us how to orient our entire existence to God and let our life develop as sheep hearing his voice, and through the intercession of the Japanese martyrs, we pray that Jesus may help us in life to give his Father a continual sacrifice of praise and use our lips, after we receive Holy Communion, to confess his name by proclaiming the Good News to all we meet today.

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