Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Easter (The Good Shepherd Sunday)

Among The Cacophonies Of  Voices, Whom Do You Listen To?

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Easter (The Good Shepherd Sunday)

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, April 25, 2021

One of the most lasting, inspiring and adorable images of Jesus in the whole Christian tradition is the image of the Good Shepherd. The painting of Jesus as a Shepherd who gathers, cares, protects and lays down his life for his sheep was actually done before the painting of the cross. In today’s Gospel taken from John 10:11-18, Jesus says of himself: I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. What’s the Lord doing? He is differentiating himself from all other shepherds, particularly the hired ones. For a hired shepherd, shepherding is purely a job. He moves from one flock to another depending on the condition of pay and service. He does not risk his life for the sheep. When he sees a wolf or a human intruder approaching, he abandons the flock and flees because he is not personally interested in their wellbeing. Jesus says he is not that kind of shepherd. He says, I am the good shepherd… He says he will risk everything including his life in the defense and protection of the flock. He says he knows his sheep and his sheep know him. By knowing the sheep, he means he knows each of their personal stories; he knows their strengths and weaknesses as well. He knows their mood, what they need and when they need it. The hired shepherd works for money, but Jesus works for love, pure love, unconditional love, love that is boundless. 

But how does the Good Shepherd connect with the sheep? By voice! Jesus says, …they will hear my voice. John Henry Newman said that sometimes a text can leave us cold but a voice can melt us. You can read an argument or a sermon from a book and it surely makes sense to you, but when someone takes the same argument or sermon and speaks it to you, the difference is always very clear. It is the hearing of the voice that makes the heart melt. The reaction I get from people when I send them text messages and emails is not the same when I give them a phone call. Hearing my voice usually evokes the highest degree of joy and gratitude. My voice communicates to them in a more powerful way that I truly care. Voice can be powerful. The amazing thing about Christianity is that it is not a set of ideas. It is not philosophy or ideology. Although Christianity uses philosophy a lot, however, it is not in itself a philosophy like Platonism, Existentialism, Phenomenology etc. Deep down, Christianity is a relationship with someone who has a voice. It didn’t start with philosophy or the speculation of a social or moral issue. It didn’t start with an abstract speculation about the stuff that all things in nature are made. It began with a small group of people who sat at the feet of Jesus of Nazareth. They heard his voice. St. Paul says: Faith comes from hearing….(Romans 10:17). The first disciples were privileged to hear the voice of the historical Jesus. As for us, how do we hear the voice of the Good Shepherd today? We hear his voice when the Scripture is proclaimed at Mass; we hear it when the Bishops and the Popes speak to us. We hear the voice of Jesus in the conscience. The conscience according to John Henry Newman is “the aboriginal vicar of Christ in the soul.” For the Second Vatican Council Fathers, “the conscience is a person’s most secret core and sanctuary. There each of us is alone with God whose voice echoes in our depths.” We also hear the voice of Jesus in our spiritual friends, in the voices of those who comfort us, challenge us, call us to higher ideals, and encourage us when we fall. The voices of our moms, dads, grand-parents, priests, faith formators, teachers etc can also be the voice of Jesus speaking to us. 

Today, there are so many voices coming from songs, movies, shows, news media, social media, politicians, cultural leaders, celebrities and famous people. They are all voices representing different points of view urging us in different directions. For many young people today, the social media offer them lots and lots of voices. For many adults, your TV channels offer them lots of voices. Amidst the cacophonies of these voices, who do you follow? Whom do you listen to? If you are trained in the Christian life, you should be able to discern and recognize the voice of Jesus amidst all these competing voices.

Now, why are we listening to the voice of Jesus the Lord? Why are we discerning his voice and following him? It is true that by listening to his voice and following him, we become better people; we become more ethically upright; we begin to work for justice and peace. We begin to work for the enthronement of what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called “The Beloved Community.” But if that’s all to it, then it’s no different from following any guru or spiritual teacher. We listen to Jesus and follow him with all our souls because he is leading us to eternal life, to a renewed and transformed life on high with God, the life of heaven where we shall never perish. In that life, we shall see God face to face and sickness and death will no longer have power over us. We should never forget the supernatural ambition of Christianity or the final destiny of the human person. The Good Shepherd is leading us to heaven. In biblical sense, heaven and earth are always connected; there is no dualism. In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.” However, heaven should never be reduced to earth as though religion is simply about this worldly ethics or social justice or psychological wellbeing. Christianity is about a journey that will eventually lead to the heavenly Jerusalem, to eternal life. Everything in Christian life, from our ethical behavior, to liturgy, to the works of justice etc are all meant to lead to that end— eternal life in heaven. We listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd because he is leading us to eternal life in heaven. No one can snatch you and take you away from Jesus except yourself. Only you can refuse to listen to his voice. Only you can refuse to cooperate with him.