Sunday Meditation: The Shepherd Calls His Sheep

The Gospel passage for the Fourth Sunday of Easter is always on a section of Chapter 10 of John’s Gospel, the chapter of the Good Shepherd.  Year A has the beginning of the chapter where Jesus compares Himself to the gate and gatekeeper of the sheep pen.  Three years ago I embedded a wonderful exegesis from Dr. Brant Pitre.  It is worth going back to hear it.  The key is understanding the Old Testament allusion Jesus is making from Ezekial.  The bad sheep are the past leaders of Israel.

To the shepherds, thus says the Lord GOD: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who have been pasturing themselves! Should not shepherds pasture the flock?  You consumed milk, wore wool, and slaughtered fatlings, but the flock you did not pasture.  You did not strengthen the weak nor heal the sick nor bind up the injured. You did not bring back the stray or seek the lost but ruled them harshly and brutally.  So they were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and became food for all the wild beasts.  They were scattered and wandered over all the mountains and high hills; over the entire surface of the earth my sheep were scattered. No one looked after them or searched for them.  (Ez 34:2-6)

And Ezekial goes on to say that God Himself will one day shepherd the people.

 

For thus says the Lord GOD: Look! I myself will search for my sheep and examine them.  As a shepherd examines his flock while he himself is among his scattered sheep, so will I examine my sheep. I will deliver them from every place where they were scattered on the day of dark clouds.  I will lead them out from among the peoples and gather them from the lands; I will bring them back to their own country and pasture them upon the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and every inhabited place in the land.  In good pastures I will pasture them; on the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down on good grazing ground; in rich pastures they will be pastured on the mountains of Israel.  I myself will pasture my sheep; I myself will give them rest—oracle of the Lord GOD.  (Ez 34: 11-15)

 

 

Today’s Gospel:

 

 

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."

~Jn:10: 1-10

 

 

This is a great homily from our old friend Fr. Terrance Chartier. 

 

 

He is so thorough on all the facets of this Gospel passage.  I can only highlight a couple of his points.

Fr. Terrance:

In John 10:2, it says that the good shepherd enters the sheepfold through the door or through the gate, not through some other sneaky means. Now, what does this mean? Well, it means that Jesus does things in the right way. The sheepfold is an image for his church.  So, Jesus acts through his church. He enters the sheepfold through the door of the church. He's united with his children through the sacraments. unites himself to us through the sacraments.  The catechism at number 1213 calls baptism the gateway to life in the spirit and the door which gives access to the other sacraments.  So Jesus uses the means which he himself has established namely the sacraments and the hierarchy of the church in order to reach his children his sheep.  Shepherds in the church who have the heart of the good shepherd, therefore act in accord and in conformity to the church. They don't get at the sheep by going around the church or ignoring the church or disobeying the church. Those who do so to quote our Lord's words are thieves and robbers.

 

Secondly, the good shepherd calls his own sheep by name. John 10:3. When we were baptized, we were actually given a Christian name. We were given a baptismal name. And the catechism at number 2156 notes that through your name, Jesus, the good shepherd knows you personally. So through baptism, we belong to him. But after baptism, we truly belong to him or we continue to belong to him if we listen to his voice.  My sheep hear my voice. He says in (John 10:27) meaning that we belong to Christ, if we live our life in conformity to his teaching and his commandments, if we strive to be faithful to the commandments, then Jesus really does know us on an intimate personal level.  What will he say on judgment day to those who are condemned? He will say to them, quote, "I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers." (Matthew7:23).  So when Jesus speaks to you now, when he speaks in your conscience and through the godly people in your life, you need to hear his voice. You need to listen to him.

There are more insights worth listening to including an exegesis of the 23rd psalm.

 

For the pastoral homily I will present to you someone who I have not embedded on these Sunday homilies before, a Dominican from The Province of St. Albert the Great—that’s the province from the Midwest of the United States—Fr. Charlie Brouchard O.P. 

 

There is no transcript to copy from, but I particularly liked his story about when he was in the novitiate and had to round up sheep in a camp experience with the other novitiates.  “Those sheep neither recognized our voices nor followed us.  In fact they were quite determined to not get on that truck and protested in every possible way they could, including leaving little presents all over the ground and on us!”

“We can say we believe there are many sheep gates to choose among but Jesus is suggesting to us in effect there is only one that will lead us to happiness and salvation.”

“One of the issues this [recent Catholic conversions] raises for us is whether we have spoken or behaved in a way that might have attracted even one single person to the faith.  Has my witness in what I say or what I do made anyone say, “Oh maybe the Catholic Church...is the sheepgate that Jesus is talking about.”

The Church through our witness is the voice of Jesus calling out to the sheep.

 

 

Sunday Meditation: "Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture."

 

Let’s return to John Michael Talbot with his “The Lord is My Shepherd.”

 

The Lyrics:

The Lord is my shepherd;

I shall not want

Beside restful waters

I am there

In the pasture of plenty

My soul lies down

 

So come all you thirsty

Your soul shall be refreshed

And come all you inflicted

And be healed

For though we walk

In the darkness now

No evil shall be feared

If the light of His banner

Be at our side

 

The Lord is my shepherd;

I shall not want

Beside restful waters

I am there

In the pasture of plenty

My soul lies down

 

And come

All you hungry

At the table by His bread

And come now

And be anointed

Overflow

With His goodness

And His kindness

For the rest of your years

As you dwell within the hosue

Of our Lord

 

The Lord is my shepherd;

I shall not want

Beside restful waters

I am there

In the pasture of plenty

My soul lies down

 

Sunday Meditation: Listen to Jesus

On the Second Sunday in Lent of Year A, we have Matthew’s Transfiguration scene.  Three years ago I embedded Dr. Brant Pitre’s explanation of Matthew’s Transfiguration, and it’s well worth going back to watch that.  Dr. Pitre explains the parallels between this scene and that of Moses going up Mt. Sinai in Exodus chapters 24 and 34.  The point of Matthew’s Transfiguration is that Jesus is the new and greater Moses.

But what I find most fascinating that I don’t think I heard any of the homilists I surveyed mention is that this scene at the beginning of chapter 17 comes right after the events of chapter 16.  What are the events of Matthew 16 that resonate here in 17?  At the beginning of Matthew 16 Jesus is asked by the Pharisees and Sadducees to show them a sign.  Jesus refuses and even says, “An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah” (Mt 16:4).  Later in the chapter Jesus asks the disciples who they think He is, and Peter gives his famous, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16).  Still later in the chapter, after Jesus explains He must die and be resurrected, He adds, “For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory” (Mt 16:27).  So in Matthew 16, He tells the Jewish critics that no sign will be given, but He explains exactly to the apostles what will come.  But do they really understand it?  Not if you read carefully.  They need that sign, and in His goodness Jesus gives the three apostles such a sign in the Transfiguration.

 

 

 

Here is today’s Gospel reading.

 

 

Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother,

and led them up a high mountain by themselves.

And he was transfigured before them;

his face shone like the sun

and his clothes became white as light.

And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them,

conversing with him.

Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,

“Lord, it is good that we are here.

If you wish, I will make three tents here,

one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

While he was still speaking, behold,

a bright cloud cast a shadow over them,

then from the cloud came a voice that said,

“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased;

listen to him.”

When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate

and were very much afraid.

But Jesus came and touched them, saying,

“Rise, and do not be afraid.”

And when the disciples raised their eyes,

they saw no one else but Jesus alone.

 

As they were coming down from the mountain,

Jesus charged them,

“Do not tell the vision to anyone

until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

~Mt: 17: 1-9

 

 

Fr. Terrance Chartier of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate gives a fine homily where he alludes to the theology taught from Dr. Pitre’s video.

 

Fr. Terrance:

“The last lesson from Mount Taber today is probably the first and most important lesson. It's the fact that Jesus is the new Moses. He's actually our Moses. Just as Moses led God's people out of slavery to the promised land, so to Jesus, our Moses, leads us out of sin and out of the difficulties of life to bring us to a heavenly promised land…And when Moses went up Mount Sinai, it was said that when he came down, his face shone with the glory of having been in the presence of God. Exodus 32:34:29.  So his face, Moses's face reflected the glory of God when whom he had encountered.  What does it say in the gospel today?  Jesus goes up the mountain. Matthew tells us his face shone like the sun. Matthew 17:2, it shines like the sun with its own light.”

 

In the Transfiguration, Jesus opened up His humanity to reveal His glory.

 

The Catholic Truth Society, a British evangelist organization, is providing Lenten retreat talks from St. John Henry Newman’s sermons, and they provide an interesting one on this week’s Gospel reading.

 

Up above I brought the Transfiguration scene into context with the prior events of Matthew 16.  Fr. George Bowen brings out Newman’s preaching on how the passage following the Transfiguration shows the dichotomy of the transcendence and glory of the Transfiguration up the mountain with the grief, pain, and confusion of the earthly world down the mountain.  That scene is the one with the epileptic boy where the boy’s father asks Jesus, “Lord, have pity on my son, for he is a lunatic and suffers severely; often he falls into fire, and often into water.  I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him” (Mt 17:15-16).

The contrast between the two scenes is striking.

 

 

Sunday Meditation: “His face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.”

 

Here is a lovely hymn I have never heard of, “Transfiguration,” written by Brian Wren (lyrics) and Ricky Manalo (music).

 

 

Praise and glory, praise and glory,

praise and glory to our Lord!

Let us, if we dare to speak,

join the saints and angels praising.

 

Sunday Meditation: Uniting the Kingdom of God

In the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time in Year A we see Jesus starting His ministry.  But wait a second.  Didn’t we see Jesus in the First Sunday, two Sunday’s ago, being baptized.  Wasn’t that the start of His ministry?  And last Sunday, didn’t we see John the Baptist declare Jesus the Lamb of God after that baptism?  Wasn’t that the start of His ministry?  Well, yes to both of those Sundays and to this one too.  The Baptism is the start by God’s anointing; the second is start by John’s declaration; and today is the start by Jesus’s activities.

Three years ago for this Third Sunday in Ordinary Time of Year A, I embedded Dr. Prant Pitre’s explanatory breakdown of this Gospel.  One of the homilies I provide below will reference it, so it might be worthwhile to go back and watch it.  It is important to know that the significance of withdrawing to Zebulun and Naphtali was that those were the first two regions that went into exile when the northern kingdom was conquered.  So by Jesus going there, He will be reconstituting David’s kingdom, but only this time it will be a spiritual kingdom.

The Gospel passage divides into two parts.  We see Jesus in the first starting His ministry with the preaching of repentance.  And we see in the second, Jesus selecting apostles for His ministry.  In these apostles we the very turning away from ordinary life to a life in Jesus, which is exactly what Jesus is asking us to do.  We see the apostles giving up their business and their families, and we see them accepting their calling without knowing any details nor outcome.  Later in Matthew 19:27, Peter tells Jesus they have given up everything.  And Jesus responds, in  the Kingdom the twelve will be on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

 

 

Here is today’s Gospel reading.

 

 

When Jesus heard that John had been arrested,
he withdrew to Galilee.
He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea,
in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali,
that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet
might be fulfilled:
Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles,
the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light,
on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death
light has arisen.
From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

 

As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers,
Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew,
casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen.
He said to them,
“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
At once they left their nets and followed him.
He walked along from there and saw two other brothers,
James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets.  He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.
He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.

~Mt: 4:12-23

 

I have explained some up above, but I haven’t explained everything.  Fr. Cajetan Cuddy O.P. will explain the significance.

So with John the Baptist’s ministry over, Jesus receives the baton and starts His ministry, proclaiming the need for repentance as John had done.  “The Kingdom of God is the overarching theme of the entire economy of salvation.”  Jesus teaches, therefore, “the union of repentance and the kingdom.”  Since Jesus is the Kingdom, your turning—repentance—is a turning to Jesus.

Fr. Terrance Chartier provides an interesting pastoral homily.  If Jesus’s mission is to unite, those that create occasions of division are working against the Kingdom of God.

“Jesus of Nazareth comes to restore light and hope and unity to his people. He comes to reunite his people under one faith. He also comes to engraft...the Gentiles…Our Lord works to bring hope and unity and healing to places torn by division and destruction.”  The significance of this unity is that, as the second reading points out, the introduction of divisions into the Kingdom of God is working against the work of Jesus.  Beware of the schismatic elements you bring to the Body of Christ.  Surely fragmentation into denominations is working against Christ’s unity.  But so is obstinate fighting against the Pope and the Bishops, as we have seen in recent years.  Cum Petro et Sub Petro  (With Peter and Under Peter).  “The work of the devil is to divide and pit God's children against each other.  And the devil continues his work to this day.” 

 

 

Sunday Meditation: “He went around all of Galilee,

teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.”

 

 

Let’s return to John Michael Talbot for the hymn, and this lesser know but still lovely hymn, “Walk and Follow Jesus.”

“I will walk and follow Jesus.”  How about you?

 

 

Sunday Meditation: The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls Day)

There is no Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time this year.  When All Souls Day falls on a Sunday, the current rule—it has not always been this way—is to drop the Sunday in Ordinary Time and switch to a feast day.  The readings of Year C that would have been scheduled will have to come up another year.  There are special readings for All Souls Day.

 

Readings for All Souls Day vary.  There are options pastors may choose from.  I was to lector today and I studied what I thought were the readings.  When I got to Mass early to practice, I realized I had studied in vein.  Luckily I managed it. 

For the Gospel reading, we shift over to John’s Gospel, chapter six.

Here is the Gospel passage.

 

Jesus said to the crowds:

“Everything that the Father gives me will come to me,

and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,

because I came down from heaven not to do my own will

but the will of the one who sent me.

And this is the will of the one who sent me,

that I should not lose anything of what he gave me,

but that I should raise it on the last day.

For this is the will of my Father,

that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him

may have eternal life,

and I shall raise him on the last day.”

~Jn 6:37-40

 

 

Fr. Terence Chartier gives the theological homily, and he really explains it all.

 

Praying for the dead is a spiritual work of mercy, so that it benefits the deceased and the one praying!

Here is a new homilist to my blog for the pastoral homily, Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport Connecticut.  He came recommended.  He has a podcast called “Let’s Be Frank.”  His Wikipedia entry say  he grew up in Brooklyn from the neighborhood one over from where I grew up.  He was a pastor at St. Athanasius parish, and that’s about half mile from where I lived growing up.  He’s only two years older than me, so it’s possible we crossed paths as youths.  His accent is pure Brooklyn Italian-American.  This is a wonderful homily he delivered celebrating Mass at a cemetery.

 

 

How appropriate he quotes Frank Sinatra!  So this is not just an exercise in remembrance but a prayer in hope of a future reunion.

 

All Saints Day Meditation: "I will not reject anyone who comes to me.”

 

Instead of a hymn today, I wish to give another homily, but this one is transcendent.  It comes from Fr. Brice Higginbotham.  He is from the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux in south Louisiana.  I have never seen or heard him before but this sermon he delivers while walking through a graveyard is as pious as any hymn.

 

“Because it is a holy and pious thing to pray for the dead.”  That was poetic! 

Sunday Meditation: The Unrighteous Judge

The Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time in Year C brings us to another teaching of Jesus.  Today He will teach through another parable the need for persistent prayer.  Three years ago I meditated on the last line https://ashesfromburntroses.blogspot.com/2022/10/sunday-meditation-will-he-find-faith-on.html of Jesus finding faith on earth.  Today I want to focus on the dishonest judge.  Why is Jesus brining up a dishonest judge and why does the judge fear the widow will strike him?  Yes, strike him physically.

 

Here is the Gospel passage.

 

Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary.

He said, "There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being.

And a widow in that town used to come to him and say,

'Render a just decision for me against my adversary.'

For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought,

'While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me

I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.'"

The Lord said, "Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says.

Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them?

I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily.

But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

~Lk 18:1-8

 

Let’s let Fr. Terrance Chartier of the Franciscan Immaculate explain the passage through his homily.

So if the dishonest judge relents through nagging persistence and threat of a punch, how will the Righteous Judge of heaven react through simple prayer? 

 

I’ll let one of my favorites, Fr. Joseph Mary of the Franciscan Capuchins give his pastoral homily. 

Goodness, two Franciscans in one day?  I may receive a call from my Dominican hierarchy…lol.  Just kidding.  Fr. Joseph and Fr. Terrance are among my favorite homilists.

 

Sunday Meditation: "Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says.”

 

Prayer is putting one’s life in the Lord.  Here is one of my favorite John Michael Talbot hymns, “Father I Put My Life in Your Hands.”

 

“In you, O Lord, I take refuge.”