Homily for the 4th Sunday of Easter, C

How appropriate that we welcome a new shepherd as the Bishop of Rome on this 4th Sunday of Easter, that we call Good Shepherd Sunday. The whole world was stunned Thursday afternoon to hear the name of the American Cardinal, Robert Francis Prevost, chosen to be our new pope. He has taken the name Leo XIV. 

I have Mass on Sunday, May 11 

at St. Isidore @ 9:30/11:30 am

at St. John Fisher @ 6:00 pm

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Transcript

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John

Jesus said, "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." 

The Gospel of the Lord. 

How appropriate that we welcome a new shepherd as the Bishop of Rome on this, the fourth Sunday of Easter, that we call Good Shepherd Sunday. The whole world was stunned Thursday afternoon to hear the name of the American Cardinal Robert Francis Privost, chosen to be our new Pope. He has taken the name Leo the 14th. 

A few verses before today's Gospel, Jesus says that He calls His sheep by name, and He leads them out into wide-open spaces. Probably the first thing that anyone ever said to each of us was our name. We cannot remember it, but at the beginning of life, usually it is our mothers calling us by name. It is an invitation to become part of a family, summoning us to belong, to become human. 

It's hard to know exactly what was going through His mind when our new Pope chose the name Leo, but there are two Leo Popes that stand out in our Catholic story. 

The first is Leo the Great, a fifth-century theologian Pope, celebrated for his defense of the divinity and humanity of Christ, leading up to the Council of Chalcedon in the year 451. 

Pope Leo the 13th, who served from 1878 to 1903, led the Church into the modern world, emphasizing its moral authority beyond national boundaries. He defended the rights of working people and affirmed the value of science. He is known for his encyclical letter Rerum Novarum, Latin for "Of New Things," written May 15, 1891. This was a groundbreaking text that helped the Church to begin to think in earnest about modern social issues in his day, the Industrial Revolution, in the light of the Gospel. 

I think we can say, then, that Leo the 14th is already professing a commitment to reflect on and heal what's broken in society through the light of Christ. 

"Peace be with you," were Pope Leo's first words to the crowd. We know these words. These are the very same words Jesus speaks upon entering the locked room on Easter that was filled with distress and anxiety because the world of the disciples had been quickly falling apart. Hearing these words again on Good Shepherd Sunday reminds us of the Good Shepherd who gave his life for God's flock. "The peace of the risen Lord," Pope Leo said, "is a peace that is unarmed and disarming." 

Signaling strong continuity with the papacy of Pope Francis, Pope Leo told the crowd that God loves all of us unconditionally and that the Church must be open to everyone. "We are all in God's hands," he said, "so without fear, united hand in hand with God and with each other, let us go forward." We hear an echo of these words in today's Gospel when Jesus assures us, "No one will snatch them out of my hand." 

As we follow Christ, we allow Christ's life to take hold of us. I was in Virginia last weekend to celebrate my grand-niece's first communion. My nephew and his wife have three children. Jillian, the youngest, is two and a half. She has a remarkable vocabulary. She parroted everything I said with the certainty of someone who actually understands the words. But that's precisely how we learn. We begin by imitating. When you follow someone, you get used to their voice. You are being formed by them, and you become part of them. They start to live in you and you in them. 

No one can snatch you away because your belonging is not transactional. You're actually dwelling in them. There's something tremendously safe about that. 

In the Book of Revelation, worship actually creates a whole new reality, one that includes not some people, but all people, not a certain tribe, but every tribe, not one language, but every last one spoken. This kind of worship sates hunger and slakes thirst. This kind of worship waters fields and dries eyes. The reason that the sheep hear their shepherd's voice and recognize it intimately is because their shepherd is a lamb. The late Pope Francis was fond of saying, "Pastors should be shepherds with the smell of the sheep." 

The lamb and the shepherd are one and the same, as we heard today in the Book of Revelation, chapter 7, "For the lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd." The name Leo, as you probably know, means lion. In chapter 5 of the Book of Revelation, we are introduced to the lion of the tribe of Judah. One of the elders said to me, "Do not weep. See, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered." We think of lions as anything but safe, but then we see that the lion of Judah is a lamb who has been slain. The courage associated with this lion is in giving his life for others as a kind of pascal lamb. He doesn't introduce new chaos or violence, but allows these to be dissolved in his love. 

The new Pope told the crowd that he was an Augustinian, and then he quoted St. Augustine who said, "With you I am a Christian, and for you a bishop." Jesus said something similar at the end of today's Gospel, "The Father and I are one." The person who sees Jesus sees God at work in the world. To follow the good shepherd is to be held in the hands of the shepherd who leads us into the same life that the Father shares with the Son. 

When we behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, we hear the voice of our shepherd inviting us to the Supper of the Lamb.