Today1 is a day for memories, a day to recall the past, and to celebrate those recollections. And so my question for you today is about memories, personal memories. Memories going back to your own childhood. For some of us, that’s a longer period than it is for others. My question is this: Do you remember the time when, as a child, you were lost in a crowd? It may have been in a department store, like Foley’s or Dillard’s or even Joske’s2! It may have been here in this church when mass was letting out and your folks were busy talking with their friends and you wandered off. Or perhaps you were lost at a carnival, or the livestock show if you grew up here in Houston. Or maybe it was on a large playground in the park.
Do you remember the butterflies that flew in your stomach? The tears forming in your eyes that you did not really want to come out? But then you heard your mother’s voice calling you, and you saw your parents not too far away after all. You may have felt lost, but they knew where you were all the time.
Well, if you know that feeling of being lost and of hearing the voice of those who love you, calling your name, then you really know all about Christ the Good Shepherd who knows his sheep as they know him; who loves his sheep; who would die for the welfare of his sheep.
Yes, there were “bad shepherds” as well as “good” ones. There were those who were interested in getting out more than they put in, who would shear the sheep, take their wool, and let them fend for themselves. Shepherds who would run away at the slightest sign of trouble. But the shepherd who calls us is the Good Shepherd, perhaps even, the “Best” Shepherd. Maybe, today. we should celebrate Christ the “Best” Shepherd, rather than merely the “Good” Shepherd!
Yet, we are members of “Christ the Good Shepherd Catholic Community.” And every year, on the Fourth Sunday of Easter when the readings are about the “good shepherd,” we celebrate who we are – and “whose” we are. We’ve been doing this for twenty-five years, from the time when many of us attended mass at “St. Benfer’s” or “Our Lady of Strock3” and held meetings in a store-front building on FM 1960.
And now, this weekend, we have made our silver anniversary into a “triduum,” a three-day celebration of our past, of our memories. However, this should also be a celebration for our future. A person who celebrates a twenty-fifth birthday is one who is just beginning the best part of one’s life. Believe me, there is life beyond age twenty-five!
And what is this celebration of our future to be about? What are we being called to celebrate in the days and years ahead of us? What is to be our calling, our vocation? Pope John Paul II has directed our attention to this question. In addition to this being “Good Shepherd Sunday” in the liturgical calendar, he has also designated it as “World Day of Prayer for Vocations.” This name would suggest we are to pray for an increase in vocations, callings, to the ordained life as a priest or deacon – or to dedicated religious service as a brother or sister. But we, also, need to remember there are three vocations and not just one.
Each of us is called to the religious life, the single life, or the married life. Some of us have actually been called to two of them. Despite what many believe, there are married clergy in the Roman Catholic faith. We are called “permanent deacons.” Thus far, eleven of us from this parish have been called in this way. And, of course, over the last quarter century, we’ve been gifted with many celibate clergy as well, those who have pastured us, guided us, and their vicars, our associate pastors, who have shared their vocations with us.
However, everyone has a vocation, a calling to the single life, the married life or the religious life. Prayers are needed for each of them. Prayers that, in each of these lives, we will be able to hear the voice of the good shepherd and respond to his call. We also need prayers so that we, ourselves, can be the voice of the Good Shepherd. This is what is demanded of us by today’s readings.
In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Peter was asked how he had been able to cure a cripple. In response Peter said he, himself, had not cured the cripple. It was in the name of Jesus the Christ the man had been healed. Peter said it is Jesus the Christ, a stone rejected by many in their own community, it is Jesus who has become the cornerstone, the foundation block upon which a new community would be built in alignment with the will of God, the father.
Peter proclaimed the healing power of Christ continues to exist in those who follow him … in those who became known as Christians, in us. It is our calling, our vocation, yours and mine, ordained and non-ordained, to continue to bring the saving power of Christ to those we meet.
We, ourselves, are powerless, we ourselves do not heal anyone. It is Christ using us, working through us. He is the Savior of the World, the Best Shepherd of the World. We, ourselves, can only attempt to be his “good shepherds.” And how do we do this? The answer is given in the reading we heard from the First Letter of Saint John: “See what love the father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God.”
Yes, we are not the “sheep;” we are not the flock who passively follows the Good Shepherd. We are the Children of God. We are loved by God who commands that we love others as he has loved us. And how did God love us? Unconditionally. And what is unconditional love? We celebrate a human form of that love today on a national level. Yes, today is not only Good Shepherd Sunday, not only the celebration of our twenty-fifth anniversary as a community, not only a day of prayer for vocations. It is also Mothers’ Day, a day set aside to honor the women who have shepherded us in our life. We sometimes fail to remember that, in the time of Jesus, there were “shepherdesses” as well as shepherds.
Remember in the Old Testament how Jacob met his future wife, Rachel, when she was tending the flock of her father, Laban. A good shepherd could just as easily have been a good shepherdess. A woman, as well as a man, could lay down her life for those she guided – and guarded. And so it is with mothers, those women who gave birth to us, those women who nurtured us, those women who loved us unconditionally. Those who did not say – or really mean it, if the words were spoken in haste – “I will love you only if you clean up your room.” “I will love you only after you’ve eaten your lima beans.” “I will love you only when you do exactly what I say.”
Unconditional love is a love given freely – without any “ifs, ands or buts.” Unconditional love does not depend on events either “before” or “after” the love which is given to the beloved. And what mothers do throughout their lives when they think of their children, all of us are called to do. Each one of us knows the sound of our mother’s voice calling to us when we are lost, when we are hurting.
The Good Shepherd calls each one of us by name. Each one of us is to call others in his name. Each one of us is to be a shepherd, or shepherdess, for others. Today we celebrate mothers, vocations, and Christ the Good Shepherd. Today we rejoice in our memories. We also celebrate and rejoice in the days ahead, recalling the words written by Saint John: “What we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” Amen.
Fourth Sunday of Easter; May 11, 2003
Acts 4:8-12; 1 John 3:1-2; John 10:11-18
- Although Christ the Good Shepherd Catholic Community was founded on April 1, 1978, the official anniversary is always celebrated on the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday, on which a gospel account of the good shepherd is proclaimed. In 2003, Mothers’ Day fell on this Sunday. In addition, Pope John Paul II declared this as “World Day of Prayer for Vocations.” The homily was to make reference to all of these celebrations!
- Of the three Houston department stores, Joskie’s was the first to “close” by becoming Dillard’s in the late 90s. Then, in 2006, Foley’s became Macy’s
- For the first few months, Sunday mass was held in the cafeteria of “Benfer Elementary School.” When the attendance became too large for the elementary school, services were transferred to the larger “Strock Middle School.” The two schools later became known among the “old timers” as “St. Benfer’s” and “Our Lady of Strock.” Texas roads were identified as FM, Farm to Market, numbered roads. FM 1960 is the major road in the northwest section of Houston.