Location: Basilica of Saint Francis
Xavier (Dyersville, IA) – 7 a.m. Sunday Mass
Saint Paul Catholic Church (Worthington, IA) – 9 a.m. Sunday Mass
Date: Sunday May 11th,
2014 (4th Sunday of Easter, Year A; World Day of Prayer for
Vocations)
READINGS:
1st Reading: Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Resp. Psalm: Ps. 23:1-2a, 3b-4, 5, 6
2nd Reading: 1 Peter 2:20b-25
Gospel: John 10:1-10
FOCUS: To embrace our vocations means
to hand our life over to Jesus, the Good Shepherd.
FUNCTION: Follow Jesus faithfully; do not
be afraid where He will lead – it is abundant life.
Today marks several important
events: first, it is the 4th Sunday of Easter.
The
4th Sunday of Easter always stands out because the readings aren’t
centered on the Lord’s resurrection, like the rest of the Easter season;
instead, we hear the passage from St. John’s Gospel about Jesus as the Good
Shepherd; and that’s why the 4th Sunday of Easter is often called
“Good Shepherd Sunday.” Today is also the
World Day of Prayer for Vocations and Mother’s Day.
All
of these events are very important; however, my homily today will focus more on
Good Shepherd Sunday and the World Day of Prayer for Vocations than on Mother’s
Day. But I haven’t forgotten about Mother’s
Day; all the mothers here will get a special blessing after the intercessions,
because we love them and want to recognize all their hard work, dedication, and
love for their families.
So
what are we to make of a day like today, Good Shepherd Sunday? It’s a very comforting thought, picturing
Jesus as the Good Shepherd; we’ve all seen the images – Jesus is holding a
sheep on His shoulders, with a flock of sheep following behind Him. It’s soothing to think about – shepherds take
care of and watch over the flock entrusted to their care; but maybe the analogy
seems a little ridiculous – we are not sheep, and maybe it’s kind of insulting
to think of ourselves as sheep. After
all, we’re trained by society to be independent, original, our own person, and
not just a follower. So maybe “Good
Shepherd Sunday” doesn’t always make a lot of sense to us. But on the flip side, it’s not easy being a
shepherd – the sheep have a mind of their own, and aren’t always interested in
following the shepherd’s lead. Sometimes
they wander off where they shouldn’t; they don’t always fall in line; and they
don’t always come when they’re called.
Sometimes sheep are stubborn – maybe a little like us, sometimes. Maybe the analogy isn’t so far off after all.
Ultimately,
the point is more about the person of Jesus than it is about us; yes, we are
compared to sheep; and no, that’s not always a flattering comparison. But the point is that the Lord is looking out
for us, watching over us, shepherding the flock of God with a shepherd’s care. Why?
Because the Lord loves us; we are the Church, His Body; we belong to
Him; He ransomed us from sin by shedding His precious Blood and gave us new
life by His resurrection. Today is about
Jesus. But it’s also about us. It’s about us trusting Him.
When
I was in college, I got to be an RA or Resident Assistant in the dorms. Training was always a lot of fun. We RAs got to hang out with each other a lot
and we practiced how we would respond in different scenarios if we had to knock
on someone’s room while we were doing our nightly rounds in the residence
halls. Part of our training happened at
the Four Mounds ropes course in Dubuque.
Not only was it a way for us to build community with each other, but we
also learned to how to work with each other.
The goal was to develop trust with each other, and to know we had each
other’s backs – much like a soldier or a police officer might take care of one
of their own.
One
of the activities we did at the ropes course was a “trust fall.” Some of you may already be familiar with this
idea, but some of you may not. A trust
fall is an exercise where one person, with their hands across their chest,
stands in front of another person who stands behind them. Without looking at the person behind, the
person in front is supposed to fall backward, trusting that the person behind
will catch them and not let them fall to the ground. Now, if the person standing behind wants to
be a practical jokester, they could let the person falling simply fall;
however, that would not help to establish trust; just the opposite – the person
who was doing the trust fall would grow to distrust the person supposed to be
catching. That didn’t happen among us –
whether we did the trust fall or we were the ones doing the catching, we were
faithful, so that the trust fall would be a success and a way to develop
trust.
I
think our relationship with the Lord is supposed to be like the “trust fall”
exercise that my fellow RAs and I did during our RA training; we are supposed
to trust that the Lord is standing behind us, ready to catch us when we
fall. How “good” would a “Good Shepherd”
really be if we were falling and He were not there to catch us? Recognizing Jesus as the Good Shepherd means
that we allow ourselves to trust Him.
We
can bet that King David, the author of Psalm 23 (today’s responsorial psalm),
did a kind of “trust fall” with the Lord; otherwise he would never be able to
say, “The Lord is my shepherd; there is
nothing I shall want.” David placed
his trust in God. Psalm 23 has been a
source of encouragement for countless Jews and Christians down throughout the
ages. And it should do the same for
us. God will not leave us or abandon us;
He will not allow us to fall, even if it seems like we’re falling for a while
before He catches us.
Embracing
our vocation is very similar; it involves trusting in God and putting our lives
in His hands; it means that we trust Him to lead us and guide us toward the
right path. To embrace our personal
vocation means to hand our life over to Jesus, the Good Shepherd. It means stepping out on the water, like
Peter, trusting that the Lord will allow us to stand on the water. We must not be afraid. Right now, the Church needs good men and
women to answer the call to follow Jesus, the Good Shepherd, as priests and as
consecrated religious men and women.
It
starts at home. Pray together as a
family every night; encourage whatever vocation other family members feel drawn
to, but especially the vocations to priesthood and religious life. Try to follow what Jesus taught – love others
like He loved us; turn the other cheek; go the extra mile; forgive over and
over again; pray as He taught us to pray; be open to the coming of the Holy Spirit;
and be willing to follow where the Spirit leads.
Embracing
a religious vocation means trusting God and following the path that Jesus, the
Good Shepherd, lays out for us; and never forget what He said to us – “I came so that they might have life and have
it more abundantly.” Jesus is our
Good Shepherd, and He will always lead us to full and abundant life, and
finally, to eternal life with God in heaven.
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