Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Easter

The Fourth Sunday of Easter is known as “Good Shepherd Sunday,” as the gospel passage is drawn from the Tenth Chapter of Saint John’s Gospel, wherein Our Lord claims this title for Himself. This year’s passage is the briefest in the three-year cycle of Readings, and is the least descriptive as far as the image of the Good Shepherd goes, yet it provides the greatest Revelation of who Christ is, as He makes the bold proclamation, “The Father and I are one.” This reveals not only the Father’s relationship with the Son, but how Christ intends to lead us into one-ness with the Father through the analogy of shepherd and sheep.

 

So today, rather than studying the image of the Good Shepherd, we will look at the dynamic of “belonging,” as it bonds shepherd and sheep, and which defines both our relationship with Christ as well as our identity in Him. 

 

In our three Readings today, this sense of belonging to God in Christ suggests a number of people that is considerable, which St. John describes as “a great multitude which no one could count,” which suggests further that, while God created us individually, He saves us multitudinously. In this thought we’re not giving a nod to Universalist philosophy because there will always be some who, by custom or by choice, do not belong to God or to His Holy Church.  

 

Our Christian Faith, with its innate sense and quest to belong to God and to His Church, informs us that there is more to being human than individuality; we are created for Communio, for the flock, so to speak. This Communio, this shared faith, creates a longing deep within the human heart and the psyche, to be part of something larger than myself. There are few true hermits in the world; most people will seek marriage, family life, friendship, religious vocation, or a free association with the Church through parish life, seeking a common, shared search for God which the Church can enable and strengthen.

 

The sense of togetherness that results from this is a fruit of our belonging to the Church, but not its essence. The essence of our belonging together is worshipping and honoring God as we serve one another. This sense of belonging seems to be in the DNA of sheep, and for most animals it’s instinctive. But for humans, it’s more intuitive. And what is that intuition? It is the discovery that God did not create me for myself, He created me for Himself. Properly understood, this will always lead us humans to an Act of Faith.

 

Through our Christian faith we believe that certain things are true, and we believe them because, as a sheep trusts the shepherd, we trust the source that has revealed these truths: Our Lord Jesus Himself, the Apostolic Magisterium of the Church, and even our own parents.