GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY HOMILIES PREACHED BY FATHER ALTIER.

Sunday May 6, 2001 Fourth Week of Easter Reading I (Acts 13:14, 43-52);Reading II (Rev. 7:9, 14b-17) Gospel (St. John 10:27-30)

If all the people at work decided to rise up against you, or all the people in your neighborhood rose up against you and started accusing you of horrible things and treating you badly, how many of us would be rejoicing?

Then we look at the second reading and hear about a whole bunch of people who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Sunday May 6, 2001 Fourth Week of Easter

Reading I (Acts 13:14, 43-52); Reading II (Rev. 7:9, 14b-17)

Gospel (St. John 10:27-30)

When we look at the readings that the Church gives to us today, it may leave us shaking our heads a little bit because they are a whole series of seeming contradictions. In the first reading, the Jewish people had stirred up a violent protest, a persecution against Paul and Barnabas. Paul and Barnabas shake the dust from their feet and walk away rejoicing. One could ask, on the natural level, "How many of us would do that?" If all the people at work decided to rise up against you, or all the people in your neighborhood rose up against you and started accusing you of horrible things and treating you badly, how many of us would be rejoicing? Then we look at the second reading and hear about a whole bunch of people who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Now, any of you who have ever done laundry know fully well that blood does not make things white and it does not come out very easily, either.

Yet, here in the blood of the Lamb, the robes of these people have been made white. Even more, an ever seeming contradiction is we hear that the Lamb will be the shepherd. It is the lamb (normally, of course) who needs the shepherd. But here, the Lamb is going to be the shepherd. Then Our Lord, in the Gospel reading, tells us He knows His sheep and His sheep know Him, and there will be no snatching them out of His hands; and then the apparent contradiction: He says, "The Father and I are one."

Think about the many things, that as Christians we believe, beginning with the Trinity: There are three persons but only one God. This leaves many people shaking their heads; it seems, again, like a contradiction but none of it is a contradiction. All of it is truth. The question really has to do not with reason - but with faith. We could go on and on with apparent contradictions. We could look at a crucifix and say, "Do we believe that a man who died is going to give us life?" We could look at a Nativity scene and say, "God, who is the Creator of all and is almighty, becomes a helpless little baby? God, who created His mother, becomes created in her womb?" Yet, we can look at all these things and say, "Yes, absolutely, this is the truth." These are things that require faith, because by reason they do not seem to make a whole lot of sense. We can reason them all out, we can explain them, but one without faith is still going to walk away saying, "It does not seem to follow; therefore, I will not believe."

This is part of the beauty of what God has done. Because faith does not always seem to make sense. We say "yes" to things that we cannot always understand. That is because God asks us to go beyond what is reasonable. He asks us to love and love is not always reasonable. All we need to do is look at our own selves. We can ask ourselves about the way we love people in our lives. We do things, sometimes, that seem to be unreasonable or imprudent when we are in love. Not things that are bad, not things that are sinful, but things that with anybody else in the world, we would not do; but, because we love this individual so much, we are willing to do lots of things. That is what Our Lord has done for us. Out of love, he has done what people naturally would not be willing to do. He asks us, as an act of love, to believe, to accept, to look at these truths and say, "Who am I going to follow? Who is the one who speaks the truth?" The Lamb who is the lion of the tribe of Judah. The Lamb who was slain, but is alive. The One who is both the beginning and the end, who was dead and is now alive. All these things do not seem to make sense, but are absolute truth. The Lord asks each one of us: "Do you believe this?" He asks for an act of faith. He asks for a wholehearted act of faith. All we need to do is look at the crucifix to see that the Lord held nothing back for any of us. What He asks from each one of us is to hold nothing back from Him.

When we look at all these apparent contradictions, what the natural kind of response would be, if we are going to make an act of faith at all, is to make it at an arm’s distance; to say, "Well, maybe, I can kind of believe that. But I am going to hedge my bet. If I put my whole being into this, there appears to be a contradiction. What if it is wrong?" So, we hesitate. We are not sure if the Lord is the shepherd and He is going to lead us to the life-giving water. That, too, is something we cannot see and it appears to be a contradiction: The only way to life - is death. The only way to eternal life is to live natural life in such a way that we will die in the state of grace. All of these things, again on the natural level, do not seem to make sense. Yet, we give the assent of faith. For each one of us today, the Lord asks that we would deepen our faith. The ancient saying is: Faith seeking understanding. We say "yes" first, then we seek to understand. We give that assent of mind and will, even if the mind does not grasp fully what it is we are saying "yes" to. We do that with many, many things in our lives. All we need to do is think on the natural level. There are so many things we say "yes" to. When you start a new job and they tell you this is the way it is to be done, we do not grasp it entirely, but we say "yes" to that. We go to school and they tell us various truths, and we say "yes" to them without grasping it yet. We ask our little children to believe because we have said it.

Isn’t that what we do as parents? Our kids go through these stages when they are two years old and the question of "why" comes up over and over again. Eventually, the reason is simply "because." Because I said so. Isn’t that what we tell our kids when they try to rebel a little bit against the authority of the parents? They say, "Why do I have to do that?" And we say, "Because I told you to." We think of God, who is infinitely wise, infinitely loving, infinitely powerful, and He presents these things for us. When we ask "why", when we struggle with the attempt to believe and understand, the Lord simply says, "Because I said so." He asks that we make the assent of faith because He is God and He is the one who has revealed it. Only after we make the assent of faith, does the fullness of understanding begin to filter in. God will never give the understanding to somebody before they make the assent of faith, because it requires no faith if we have full understanding. So, anybody who wants to understand the faith completely before they assent, will never become Christian. Anyone who wants to nail this down perfectly before they are willing to give themselves entirely will never give themselves entirely, it has to go the other way. Another seeming contradiction: We have to give ourselves completely, before we understand what it is that we have given ourselves to. That is the way of faith.

Today, as we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday, we make the assent of faith that the Lamb will be our Shepherd. We make the assent of faith that He knows us and that He is one with the Father. The Lamb, who on the natural level, has all the suggestions of weakness, of ignorance, and of innocence is one with the Father, who is all-knowing, all-wise, and all-powerful. He asks that we make the assent of faith that the Lamb will lead the sheep, that the Lamb will be the pastor, that the One who dies will lead us to eternal life, that the One who was willing to thirst on the Cross will lead us to life-giving waters. He does not ask that we understand at this time. He does not ask if we understand how our robes will become white if we wash them in His blood. He does not ask that we grasp with our mind the meaning of all these things. He simply asks for an act of faith. Not a timid act of faith, either. He asks for a wholehearted act of faith: our whole mind, our whole heart, our whole being to say "yes" to Jesus Christ, the Lamb who was slain; and that we believe that as the sheep of His flock we will follow the Lamb wherever He leads us.

So, we ask ourselves, first of all, "Do we know the Lamb?" Because isn’t that what He told us? He knows His sheep, and they know Him. If we know Him, we say "yes" because we trust in the Lamb. We do not hesitate, we do not doubt, we do not withdraw; but in the face of all the questions and all the seeming contradictions, we make an act of faith. We say "yes" and we move forward with confidence because the Lamb is our Shepherd.

Note: Father Altier does not prepare his homilies in advance, but relies solely upon the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.

It's Time to Make a Choice

Sunday April 21, 2002 Fourth Sunday in Easter

Reading I (Acts 2:14a, 36-41);Reading II (1 Peter 2:20b-25)

Gospel(St. John 10:1-10)

Our Lord tells us in the Gospel reading today that He Himself is the gate for the sheep. In other words, He is the only possible way that we can enter into our heavenly pasture, if you want to think of it that way. The only way that we are going to enter into the place where we will be protected is through Jesus Christ. Now, we all know that. We have heard that probably thousands of times in our lives, but the question is do we live it? Do we really believe that is the truth and do we live it?

The Lord tells us that the sheep hear the voice of the Shepherd as He calls each one by name, and they follow Him. He tells us that the sheep will not follow anyone else. They will not follow a stranger because they do not recognize his voice. We can ask ourselves, "Whom are we following?" If we look at our daily lives, not Sunday morning for an hour, but day-to-day, 24 hours a day, whom do you follow? Whose voice do you recognize? To whom do you listen? After whom are you following? When we look in the second reading today, Saint Peter tells us that the Lord, Who is the Shepherd and the Guardian of our souls, has left us an example of suffering so that we would follow in His footsteps. He tells us that when we suffer for doing what is good and we accept that with patience, then the Holy Spirit has come upon us. That is one way we can begin to answer the question "Who are we following?" We can just simply ask, "What do I do when I suffer?" or even, "Do I suffer? Am I willing to suffer or do I see if I can find a way out of it?"

We have to understand that our Shepherd, whom Peter tells us in the first reading today, "God has made both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified." Jesus took the Cross upon His shoulders and He made a direct line to Calvary. He did not waver. He did not try to get away from the Cross. Like a sheep before the shearer, He was silent. So we can ask ourselves, "When presented with the possibility of suffering for our faith, what is our response?" Do we continue to walk along the right path? Or do we find ourselves suddenly hemming and hawing and stuttering and making excuses, trying to avoid the cross at all costs? Are we willing to take the Cross of Christ upon our shoulders and follow after Him? Are we willing to make a direct line to Calvary? Or do we see if there might be a place where we can turn off the path and get this cross off our shoulders and see if there is some way that we can follow a different way that is going to be more pleasant?

Our Shepherd, whom we are to follow, has left us an example so that we would follow in His footsteps. The sheep follow the shepherd; Jesus made that very clear in the Gospel reading today: When He has driven them all out of the sheepfold, then he walks in front of them and they follow Him. There is only one path that Jesus Christ laid out for us, and it goes directly to the Cross. It is from there that He tells us: When I am raised up from the earth, then I will draw all men to Myself. There is where our Shepherd is - on the Cross! Now, of course, we know that Jesus is risen from the dead and ascended into Heaven, so we can say that the Cross is like the sheepgate. If we want to be able to enter into Heaven there is only one way, and that is through the Cross of Jesus Christ. It is the only door that enters into Heaven, the only one.

And that is the door Our Shepherd has gone through. When the Gatekeeper heard His voice, He opened the gate. Now He calls each one of us by name. He calls His own to follow Him.

But, again, we have to ask the question "Whose voice do we listen to?" Are we listening to the voice of Christ, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year? Or do we listen to the voice of Christ for one hour a week? Perhaps we go to daily Mass so we listen to His voice for a little chunk of time every day. Or maybe we even have a time of prayer set aside every day so we listen to His voice for a period of time, but then as soon as we walk away from prayer, we hear His voice no longer, until tomorrow when we want to come back and get fed again. The sheep follow the shepherd wherever he leads them. Whenever it is time to move forward, the sheep all follow the shepherd. They will not listen to the voice of a stranger.

Is the voice of Jesus Christ the voice of a stranger for us? Would we recognize His voice when He calls? Are we willing to follow Him? Or is the voice that we recognize the voice of Satan, who does not growl and sneer and breathe fire in our face, because we would walk away from that. Instead, in a very sweet, predatory voice, he offers us candy. He says, "Come here, little boy. Come here, little girl." And all too many of us follow because he makes it look fun. Do we listen to the voice of Satan spoken through the media? How many people, Catholics included, get up in the morning and turn on either the TV or the radio, and basically that is the way it is for the rest of the day! It is not the voice of Jesus Christ that you are going to be hearing through the media. That is an absolute, 100%, no strings attached guarantee. It is NOT the voice of Jesus Christ that you will hear speaking through the media. And so, we need to ask ourselves, "Whose voice do we listen to?" Are we listening to the voices of all the things and the people who are pulling us away from Christ? Do we listen to the voices of our so-called friends who invite us into places that are occasions of sin - but it’s fun? Do we listen to the voices of people who invite us to follow them into things that do not necessarily look bad, but at the same time are not necessarily good? We look at them as being neutral, but if we were honest, we would say, "What they’ve done is make me lukewarm, and they’ve pulled me away from Christ rather than lead me to Him." Once again, it is not the voice of Christ.

Jesus tells us that He will draw us to Himself. Anything that does not draw us to the Shepherd of our souls is not the voice of Jesus Christ. Who do you hang around with on a day-to-day basis? Other good Catholics who are going to engage with you in spiritual conversation? People who are going to be good examples and a good influence? Or people who only use the Name of the Lord when it is done in vain - people who are not going to be a good example and are not a good influence? That is not the voice of Christ that is speaking if those are the people in our lives.

We have some very serious choices to make and we do not have a lot of time to make them. There in only one Shepherd of our souls, only one. We cannot listen to conflicting voices. The Lord tells us that His sheep will not listen to the voices of strangers. If we find ourselves listening to the voices of lots of other people who are leading us out into the desert rather than into green pastures, then when we hear the voice of Christ we will say, "That is a stranger’s voice and I will not listen to it." But if we hear the voice of Jesus and we follow Him, then when we hear the conflicting voices out there we will say, "No, that is not the voice of my Shepherd. Those are the voices of strangers, and those voices I will not listen to." We cannot have it both ways. Catholics in America have been trying for all too long to play this game where we can be Catholic and we can be worldly at the same time; we can follow Jesus and Satan at the same time. No, we cannot, and it is time that we make a choice. Who do you want to be the shepherd of your soul?

Make the choice and make it radically. Don’t play the game any longer. The game is offered by Satan, be clear about that. It is not Jesus saying, "You can listen to Me part-time, but do the other things part-time." It is the devil who says, "If I’m going to drag you away from Christ, I’ll do it a little bit at a time. Start out by following Him most of the time, but then do a little bit over here. Then I’ll get you to do a little more and a little more and a little more; pretty soon it’ll be 50-50. Then it’ll be 75-25." And pretty soon we will not hear the voice of the Lord at all.

Jesus does not tell us that we can have two shepherds. He tells us that there is only one, but he leaves it to us to make the choice of who it is going to be. We know who the Shepherd of our soul is, and we know the way that He walked. He has left us an example of suffering for us to follow in His footsteps. His footsteps lead to the Cross, the only gate that leads to Heaven. We have a choice to make. Are we willing to follow in the footsteps of the Good Shepherd, the footsteps that walk along the rough and narrow path? Or are we willing to follow in the footsteps of Satan, the wide and easy path that is offered to us all day long? The choice is entirely ours. The sheep of Jesus Christ hear His voice and they follow Him.

*This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.

Public Sin and the Reception of Holy Communion

May 2, 2004

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Reading I (Acts 13:14, 43-52),Reading II (Revelation 7:9, 14b-17)

Gospel (St. John 10:27-30)

In the Gospel reading today, Our Lord tells us that His sheep hear His voice and they follow Him. Now when we stop to think about hearing the Lord’s voice, it is difficult for most of us because there are so many other voices vying for our ear; what is even worse, there are so many other voices that are trying to be our shepherd. If you just think about the typical day of the average American, many people wake up to the radio, they have the radio on in the bathroom, they have the TV on near the breakfast table, they have the radio on in their car, the radio is on at work, the radio is on again in the car on the way home, the TV is on when they get home, and many people go to sleep with the TV on. Not one minute of silence in the entire day.

And the voices that are speaking to so many people are voices that are telling them to do things that are wrong, leading them astray, leading them either more deeply into themselves or more deeply into the profligate way of life that America has now become famous for. What is happening to so many people is they are being led astray, so we need to look seriously at this question of hearing the Lord’s voice.

He tells us that His sheep know Him and they follow Him. So we can ask ourselves, “Are we following Christ?” It is not a question of whether we come to church, the question is – Do we follow the Lord? Do we follow Him in our day-to-day lives? Do we seek His voice to know and to discern what it is that we are supposed to do? How much silence is there in our lives today? If you think back just a hundred years ago and for all human history prior to that, it was almost entirely silent. The only thing that was not silent in a person’s day was when they would actually have a conversation with another human being; otherwise, they had time for silence. The average American today wants to do everything possible to make sure there is no silence in their day. We are dealing with generations of sensory overload. People today, if they even have a few moments of silence, begin to get fidgety because they are so unaccustomed to being silent and to listening to God in the silence of their hearts that as soon as there is a little bit of silence they immediately try to find something to erase it. Each one of us needs to have silence in order to hear the Lord’s voice because He speaks in the silence of our hearts.

He has also given to us shepherds to be able to speak to us to lead us along the way, but we have to choose who our shepherds are going to be. As I said, there are many voices that are speaking to us. And if we were really serious, we would have to say there are many voices that are vying for our souls. Just think where the average radio and television person leads a person’s soul. Is it towards Christ, or is it away from Him? I think we all know the answer to that. The real tragedy is that now even within the Church there are many voices that are leading us away from Christ. We have priests and bishops who do not stand for what is correct. They do not have the guts to stand up for Jesus Christ, but instead being politically correct is far more important.

We have bishops and priests now who refuse to deny the Eucharist to people who are in public sin. They refuse to make the distinction between private and public. For instance, if I knew that one of you was living a sinful life and you came up to the communion rail, I would have to give you Holy Communion because, number one, I do not know if you have been to Confession; or even if I know that you had not, to deny you Holy Communion would cause a scandal because it would draw the attention to other people that what you are doing privately is now being made public. So unless I talk to you first and tell you, “If you come up to Communion, I will not give you Holy Communion,” the Church says that even though it is a sacrilege on your part to receive Holy Communion if you are in the state of mortal sin, I would still have to give you Communion. However, if one is a politician who has a public record of being pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia, pro-human-cloning, if there is some other public exposition of your sin, like these unfortunate souls who show up all over the place with rainbow sashes telling people that they are practicing a homosexual lifestyle and demanding that they receive Holy Communion, at that point, it is a sacrilege on the part of the priest to give them Holy Communion because their sin is no longer private – it is now public. But there are many who do not want to cause waves, and so they refuse to stand up for Jesus; instead, being politically correct is what is more important.

The real tragedy is that, in the minds of most Americans, these are people who would be called “pastoral”. The word pastor means “a shepherd”. One who is truly pastoral is one who is going to shepherd the sheep rightly. What has happened, however, is that we have redefined pastoral to mean “somebody who is willing to let us get away with anything that we want”. That is not being a good shepherd. When it came to things that were wrong, Jesus Christ did not remain silent. He taught the truth; He did not wimp out. He did not water it down; He told people exactly what was going to happen to them if they did not change their lives. We look at the first reading today with Paul and Barnabas; they did the same thing. They went in and preached the truth. And when the people rejected the truth, they did not back down and water it down and become politically correct; they continued to preach the truth right up to the point when they were thrown out of town. Would that we had priests and bishops today who would do the same.

If we just stop and think about the mentality that is behind this kind of thinking – that to be pastoral is to tell people that it is okay to do whatever they want – it is the same mentality as the teenage kid who wants to do stupid things and unfortunately the parents, rather than disciplining the kid, encourage it. They buy the booze for the kid. They encourage the kid to do immoral things. They do not set any kind of standard or any kind of curfew. They let the kid do whatever he wants, hang around with whomever he wants, and all of his friends say, “Your parents are really cool. Mine, on the other hand, are mean because they won’t let me do that. They don’t want me going to parties where I’m going to be getting drunk and doing immoral things. But your parents are cool; they’re with it!” Now anybody with two cents of a brain would say, “Obviously, these are not good parents. They are not doing what they are supposed to do. If they’re trying to be their kid’s friend, they’re not being their kid’s parent.” But among the mindset of the other kids, they are being the best parents because they are letting the kids do whatever they want to do.

Ask yourself, “How many athletic teams have ever won any kind of tournament or any kind of championship because they had a coach who did not discipline them, who did not require any kind of work?” I remember many years ago watching the Olympics and there was a little girl who had won the gold medal in gymnastics. They were showing one of these close-up deals with her coach. The coach pushed this kid, and pushed her and pushed her and pushed her. One day, she fell off the bar and came down on her hand and jammed her fingers. This little girl was crying, and the coach said, “Get up. Get back on the bar.” She started whimpering about her fingers, and he said, “Get up and get back on the bar.” She got up, got on the bar, and started again in pain. He continued to push hard and require very difficult things of this little girl. When she won the gold medal, she did not run first to her parents – she ran straight to her coach and gave him a huge hug.

The same sort of thing is going to happen in heaven for anyone who had a pastor who required that they live the truth, that they go to Confession, that they get themselves out of sin, who told them the hard truth but told them the truth nonetheless. If that is what helped them get to heaven, they will be eternally grateful. But for every bad pastor who refuses to preach the truth because they want to be liked by the people, for every one who allows general absolution or any other sinful practice, for every one who instead of requiring virtue and holiness of the people are actually encouraging them to do things that are not right, then in hell – where both will be – there will be a line waiting to condemn that priest or bishop for allowing such things to happen.

We have to make sure that we are following the right shepherd. We have a Good Shepherd, and none of us is going to be able to stand before the Lord and say, “But Father said it was okay. The bishop didn’t do anything about it, so it must have been okay.” The Lord will look at you and say, “I’ll deal with that priest or that bishop when they get here. You, on the other hand, knew better, and I’m going to hold you responsible for what you knew.” We know the truth. It is written in our hearts and on our minds; we are without excuse. It would be easy to look around and say, “But look at all the other Catholics who aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do!” God will deal with them, but each one of us will have to stand individually before the Lord, Who is our Shepherd, for judgment. He will look at each one of us and say, “You knew. You knew Me. You knew what truth I preached.” The question is – Did we choose to listen to His voice and follow Him? Or did we choose to listen to someone else’s voice and follow them because it was easier, more convenient, more politically correct, more fun, whatever it might be?

In the second reading today, we heard that the Lamb Who was seated in the middle of the throne is going to be the Shepherd and is going to lead them to life-giving waters. We need to follow that Lamb Who is also the Shepherd. We need to seek His voice, we need to hear Him, and we need to follow Him. It is not an option for us, but rather it is our salvation. We need to be serious about this whole matter. There are many voices out there that tell us, “You can do whatever you want because you’re going to heaven anyway. All you have to do is believe in Jesus and you’re set for life.” Jesus did not say that. Scripture never says that. The Church has never taught it in 2,000 years. It is not true, but it sure makes it a whole lot easier – until we wind up in hell. The Good Shepherd is the One who is going to preach the truth, because the Good Shepherd is the Truth. And He has given us the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth, which means to lead us into the fullness of Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is not beyond any one of us, but in fact it is incumbent upon each and every one of us.

We need to spend time in silence. We need to hear His voice speaking in our hearts. And we need to embrace Him Who is the Truth because He has made very clear in the Gospel reading that His sheep hear His voice, they recognize it, and they follow Him.

*This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.

Save Yourselves From this Corrupt Generation

April 17, 2005

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Reading I (Acts 2:14a, 36-41),Reading II (1 Peter 2:20b-25)

Gospel (St. John 10:1-10)

In the first reading today from the Acts of the Apostles, Saint Peter tells the people that they are to save themselves from this corrupt generation. That was two thousand years ago. Certainly the society in Jerusalem two thousand years ago was indeed very corrupt; however, the society in America in 2005 makes Jerusalem look like a pretty nice place to be two thousand years ago. The corruption we have is far, far worse than the corruption they had two thousand years ago, and we would simply have to ask ourselves, “What would Saint Peter say to us if he were standing here today, calling out and asking us to save ourselves from this corrupt generation?” He would probably have a few even stronger words to say about the situation in which we find ourselves today.

If we are going to be saved from this generation, we have to ask how this is going to take place. Well, first of all, if we look at what Saint Peter was telling the people, he said to them, God has made both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. And it tells us that they were cut to the heart when he said this. Now the crucifixion of Jesus is not something that is the responsibility of only a few a couple of thousand years ago. Every last one of us, as we read in the second reading today, is responsible for the crucifixion of Christ. The problem is that most of us do not let it anywhere near the heart; consequently, we cannot be cut to the heart because we keep it at an arm’s distance. We do not want to deal with the reality that it is our sins which led Him to the Cross. The people two thousand years ago listened when Peter spoke these words. They allowed it into their hearts and they recognized what it is that their sins had caused. So that is the first step. We have to recognize that it is not only for us that He died but it is because of us that He died. And we need to let this into our hearts so that our hearts can be torn open, so that we can come to the Lord.

Saint Peter, continuing on, speaks to the people about all of those whom the Lord will call. He calls each of us. We hear in the Gospel reading today that the shepherd calls his own by name. They hear his voice and they follow him. If we are going to follow the Good Shepherd, the question is: to where do we follow Him? He tells us that when He calls His own out He walks ahead of them, and His sheep follow Him. Jesus, if He is going to walk ahead of us, has walked right up the hill of Calvary, and through the Cross He has opened heaven for us. But He tells us further that He Himself is the gate, and the only way we are going to be able to get into the pasture – which is heaven – is to pass through the gate. Saint Paul, in his Letter to the Hebrews, speaks to us about how Jesus got to heaven. He says, He has torn through the veil, meaning His flesh. So the only way we are going to get to heaven, the pasture of our souls, is through the wounds of Jesus on the Cross; in particular, the wound that opened His heart to us. If we want to be able to enter into eternity, we have to enter through the Sacred Heart of Jesus, through the hole in His flesh that leads directly into His Heart.

Our Lord goes on then to tell us that every one who came before Him was a thief and a robber. But He says that He Himself has come so that we could have life and have it more abundantly. Now what would the average American look at if we were to say, “What God wants is for you to have abundant life”? Well, “abundant life” to an American means very few children, more money, more material things, more leisure, more pleasure, more things, more selfishness. It is exactly the opposite of what the Lord teaches us about abundant life. Abundance of life for a Christian person is a life of holiness and a life of virtue. It is about rejecting all the ways of the world and it is about living the life of Jesus Christ.

If we are going to live this abundant life, then we need to listen to the call of our Shepherd. And what does Saint Peter tell us? We read the second reading and he tells us that if we are going to suffer patiently for doing what is right this is our call: to suffer. Because Jesus, he says, has suffered and left us an example to follow in His footsteps. He is the Shepherd. He walks in front of us, and where He has gone we have to follow. And for what reason? Saint Peter goes on to say that freed from sin we can live for righteousness. That is the holiness we were just speaking of. So in opposition to what our society presents, a Christian person should be modest, chaste, charitable, joyful, peaceable, kind, and on and on and on the list can go of all the virtues. It is exactly the opposite of what our society is offering.

We see so clearly this dichotomy, and it is a choice that each and every one of us has to make. Which is more important to us right now: to live the American life or to live the Catholic life? Either one is going to lead to eternity. One is going to lead to eternity with Jesus Christ in heaven, and one is going to lead to eternity away from Jesus Christ in hell. Now if you are going to live a Catholic life, you are going to suffer for doing what is right. Saint Peter makes it very clear. In fact, he tells us that the pagans are going to ridicule you because you are not in the same swamp of profligacy as they are. That comes just a few verses after the reading that we had today. Our society has immersed itself in a swamp of filth! – and they do not even realize it. But because they have immersed themselves in that swamp and they seem to enjoy it, they are going to give you lots of grief because you have exited the swamp. Or have you? That is the question we really need to look at within our own selves. How many of us try to play this little game of saying, “I can be both Catholic and pagan at the same time”? We cannot. We either live our lives for Jesus Christ and get out of the swamp or we live the American life and dive headfirst into the swamp. Today it is one or the other; we cannot attempt to live both. We need to make a choice. We have been called, and we have been called by name by our Shepherd. We are called also to recognize His voice and to follow Him.

If you think about the way American society is going, it is sort of like one of these carnival rides. It’s fast, it’s exciting, it swirls all over the place, but just like a drain it swirls downward very quickly. The end of it is going to be with a crash, and those who are in the drain, when they hit bottom, will never get out. For the moment it seems exciting and fun, but for eternity it will be a disaster for those who choose the American ride. The way of Catholicism, on the other hand, according to our society does not look quite so fun. It is to follow the Shepherd right up to Calvary, to be crucified with Him, so that entering through the sheep gate, Who is Our Lord Himself, we will have pasture for eternity. We will have the eternal joy that can never be taken away. So we need to make a choice. Do we want the immediate gratification, the excitement, and the pleasure that this society seems to offer, which if we step back and look at it objectively is precisely what Saint Peter would call it: a swamp of profligacy? Do we want to descend downward very quickly in a swamp? But there are lots of people in it and it’s kind of fun! Or do we want to ascend upward, lifted from the earth on the Cross and reaching up to heaven for all eternity? That is the dichotomy; that is the choice that each and every one of us has to make. And it needs to be made now.

If you are in the swamp, get out and reject it all. Do not even dangle your toe into the swamp. You leave yourself in a very vulnerable position if you are doing that. Anyone can grab your leg and pull you right in. We all know the slippery slope too well and the devil’s trick: “A little bit isn’t going to be too bad. Just a little. We’re not asking you to dive in off the diving board. Just dangle your toe a little bit. It’s kind of fun, isn’t it? Now try your ankle too…now your knee. Just slowly wade into the swamp.” We need to get away from the swamp. That means to get up to high ground, and the high ground for a Catholic is Calvary. We will be ridiculed if we want to be up at Calvary. But if you are patiently enduring suffering for doing what is right, that is God’s Will for you, Saint Peter says, and that is your call. It is the call from your Shepherd Who has already led us up to high ground, up that hill.

We need to follow our Good Shepherd. We need to follow Him to abundant life. Not the abundance of life that America offers, which is going to lead to eternal death, but rather to abundance of life that begins by a death to sin, which leads to eternal life. That is what our Shepherd is offering. We need to make a choice regarding whose voice we are going to follow, because when we decide who our shepherd is going to be – and we are called by name either by Satan or by Christ – the choice is ours. We will follow obediently. We will follow the shepherd whom we choose to shepherd our souls. Both shepherds will lead us to eternity, one to eternal condemnation and one to eternal life. Our Good Shepherd has come into this world, He has shown us the path, and He has called each one of us by name. He has come for one reason, and one reason only: to die so that our sins could be forgiven, so that we could live for righteousness, so that we could have true life and have it more abundantly.

*This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.

From a homily on the Gospels by Saint Gregory the Great, pope
Christ the Good Shepherd
I am the good shepherd. I know my own – by which I mean, I love them – and my own know me. In plain words: those who love me are willing to follow me, for anyone who does not love the truth has not yet come to know it. My dear brethren, you have heard the test we pastors have to undergo. Turn now to consider how these words of our Lord imply a test for yourselves also. Ask yourselves whether you belong to his flock, whether you know him, whether the light of his truth shines in your minds. I assure you that it is not by faith that you will come to know him, but by love; not by mere conviction, but by action. John the evangelist is my authority for this statement. He tells us that anyone who claims to know God without keeping his commandments is a liar. Consequently, the Lord immediately adds: As the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep. Clearly he means that laying down his life for his sheep gives evidence of his knowledge of the Father and the Father’s knowledge of him. In other words, by the love with which he dies for his sheep he shows how greatly he loves his Father. Again he says: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them; they follow me, and I give them eternal life. Shortly before this he had declared: If anyone enters the sheepfold through me he shall be saved; he shall go freely in and out and shall find good pasture. He will enter into a life of faith; from faith he will go out to vision, from belief to contemplation, and will graze in the good pastures of everlasting life. So our Lord’s sheep will finally reach their grazing ground where all who follow him in simplicity of heart will feed on the green pastures of eternity. These pastures are the spiritual joys of heaven. There the elect look upon the face of God with unclouded vision and feast at the banquet of life for ever more. Beloved brothers, let us set out for these pastures where we shall keep joyful festival with so many of our fellow citizens. May the thought of their happiness urge us on! Let us stir up our hearts, rekindle our faith, and long eagerly for what heaven has in store for us. To love thus is to be already on our way. No matter what obstacles we encounter, we must not allow them to turn us aside from the joy of that heavenly feast. Anyone who is determined to reach his destination is not deterred by the roughness of the road that leads to it. Nor must we allow the charm of success to seduce us, or we shall be like a foolish traveller who is so distracted by the pleasant meadows through which he is passing that he forgets where he is going.

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