Priest, Who I First Served as an Altar Server, Died: Fr. Norman Segovia (RIP)

 Thank you to Stanley Horyza for this notice.

I love this priest as a father.  I once cried in his arms when I was in high school.

Feed the Sheep (God's People) with Correct Teaching (Homily #191) [Good Shepherd Sunday]

                             Feed the Sheep (God’s People) with Correct Teaching

(Homily #191)

Good Shepherd Sunday (4th Sunday in Easter)

by Deacon Dennis Purificacion

April 25, 2021

8 a.m. & 10 a.m.

According to the resource page “Sheep 201: A Beginner’s Guide to Raising Sheep,” the number one danger for newborn baby lambs is starvation.  Baby lambs will starve and die within the first three days of birth.  A good shepherd then is needed to keep these little members of the flock alive.

Also, a good shepherd will provide a good diet, not a bad diet, for the flock.  Some healthy sheep food like milk, hay and grains instead of junk food or something worse are needed.

In our spiritual lives, we too are like lambs and sheep that not only need basic care of shepherds, but also to be fed with good food by good shepherds.  Without spiritual shepherds, like these little lambs, we too will perish of starvation in our spiritual lives.

 

Dear brothers and sisters, as we continue to celebrate these 40 days of Easter, the Church today reflects on Jesus the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for us.  We are his people, the sheep of his flock.  I offer 2 points of reflection from today’s readings on this 4^th Sunday of Easter:

1.)  First, Jesus is the unique Good Shepherd who feed us the best foods.

2.)  Second, Jesus’s Church uniquely shares in the Good Shepherds role to feed us.

I

Let’s turn to the first point.  I remember back in the year 2000, the Vatican issued a document on Jesus the only Redeemer of the human race.  It was called Dominus Iesus which means The Lord Jesus.  In it, the Church taught that Jesus uniquely saved the world.  I remember that for some reason, this caused a lot of anger among scholars and others, and it caused a lot of anger especially among Catholics. 

I thought this very odd that even fellow Catholics would react so negatively to merely stating that only Jesus saves.  After all, that is the message that comes out not only in today’s Gospel, but it comes out clearly in today’s First Reading where it is written in Acts of the Apostles, “There is no salvation through anyone else” (4:12).  Jesus, the stone rejected by the builders, is now the cornerstone foundation.

And I think that may have been too much of trying to respect other religions.  But while it is true that we respect other world religions and work for ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, this is what makes us Jesus stand out from other religion leaders in a unique way.  Thus, Jesus isn’t just a teacher like the others.  He isn’t just a wise person.  Jesus isn’t just a great guy and friend.  Or Jesus isn’t just an ordinary prophet like the other prophets.  Rather, Jesus is uniquely Redeemer and Savior of the human race from eternal death of being eternally separated from God.  This homily repeats the same homily that Peter the first Pope proclaimed: Jesus Christ the Nazorean was crucified and God raised him from the dead, the stone rejected by the builders that has become the cornerstone. 

Jesus mentioned five times that he freely lays down his life for the sheep.  He proves who he is through his miracles and his Resurrection that he is different from all others by laying down his life and then taking it back up again.  Jesus truly is the one and only Good Shepherd who lays down his life for humanity.

 

II

The second point flows from our reflection on Jesus the Good Shepherd.  Just as Jesus is the one and only Good Shepherd of the human race, so too Jesus’ Church, the Body of Christ, is uniquely necessary on the journey to salvation.  Today’s Second Reading from the First Letter of the John the Beloved teaches us: “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God.  Yet so we are.”  And “we shall be like him” (3:1-2).  And just as some were angered by insisting on Jesus being the unique savior of the world, some will also don’t like the message that only the Lord’s Catholic Church can fight and win against evil in the world.  No other institution can combat evil, if it is not divinely appointed by God; it will fail if it is merely human.  The Bride of Christ is not a mere human instituted founded on faulty human; her teachings are his own.  So if you want to give your energies to a worthy cause, there is no greater cause than the redemption of the human race.  I realize that many of us here are returning physically to church and in-person Mass after a while, so this is an invitation for you to help at our parish in whatever way you can.

Finally, this sharing in the uniqueness of Jesus as the Good Shepherd comes because we are baptized as adopted sons and daughters of the Father, brothers and sisters of Jesus.  So, for those of us given ecclesial responsibilities of shepherding God’s people, like parents, teachers, catechists, godparents, guardians, parish lay leaders, caretakers, your profession: What we say or do is how we feed the flock.  As you can see, I’m not talking about ordained ministry, but I am talking about those of us baptized and Confirmed by the power of the Holy Spirit.  And I’m not just talking about feeding with the Eucharist, the Bread of Life, which we will receive in a few minutes.  In a sense, when we give ourselves in service to others, especially those less fortunate, the poor and the disadvantaged, we lay down our lives for the sheep.  When we teach, we feed with our words and actions.  Whenever we give sound or correct teaching, we feed God’s little members of the flock with a good and healthy diet.  When we give good moral example often with great sacrifices to ourselves, we shared in the Good Shepherd’s office to feed the flock.  That is why those lay leaders entrusted with the sacred role of teaching are called to hand on the fullness of the Church’s teaching on faith and morality with all love and truth.  And not only in word, but in example such as not being part of organizations or causes against the Catholic faith, like Freemasonry or anti-life movements against the dignity of the human person.  [This is a gentle invitation to re-think our positions on those things.]  Our marriages too should be in good standing with the Church and our family life should be Christian family life as best as we can. 

Indeed, there is a high standard, but we can take comfort in the Word of God today that God doesn’t just call the qualified, but God qualifies the called.  He writes straight with crooked lines, and even sometimes God prefers the crooked lines.  Because then it is clearly God who is working in you.  Otherwise, dear brothers and sisters, we risk being the hired man, who is not the shepherd, who gives false teachings, who doesn’t practice what he teaches.  It is said that in times past, the focus was on priests and nuns; but in our own time, it is the Age of the Laity, similar to how it was among the early Christian community.  It is an age of the baptized who are like the Good Shepherd to lay down their life for the sheep, like Jesus the Good Shepherd.

O Good Shepherd, thank you for those whom you have sent in our midst to feed us.  Help us to love your people, your flock, so that all may be safe in your care home to Heaven. 

“I am the Good Shepherd,” says the Lord. “And I will lay down my life for the sheep.”

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