St. Dominic Catholic Church

Homilies

The Good Shepherd All the Time 2020-5-3 Easter 4th Sun Fr. Roberto

Homily for 4th Sunday of Easter – Year A 
Fr. Roberto Corral, OP
St.  Dominic’s Church, Los Angeles, CA
May 3, 2020

Title: The Good Shepherd All the Time
Theme: Can we believe Jesus is our Good Shepherd even in difficult times?
Readings: Acts 2:14, 36-41; 1Peter 2:20b-25; John 10:1-10

As you can see here in the chapel of our Notre Dame Sisters, we have a nice crucifix on the wall right behind the altar. That is what you can see in just about every Catholic church in the whole world – a crucifix. It is almost a universal sign of our Catholic faith. But it wasn’t always that way. In fact, as far as historians and archeologists can tell, the first images of a crucifix did not appear until the mid-fifth century. And, coincidentally, perhaps the first known image of a crucifix is on the door of the Basilica of Santa Sabina, the church where our worldwide Dominican headquarters is located in Rome (you can see a picture of it at the end of the packet for this Mass that is available on our website).

So, if there were no crucifixes around for the first four hundred or more years of Christianity, what images of Jesus were there during those times? Well, in the catacombs beneath the city of Rome and its environs, where Catholic Christians buried their dead, celebrated Mass and, at times hid during the Roman persecutions for the first three hundred years of Christianity, there were many images of Jesus, but the most common image of him was based on today’s Gospel: Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Again, in the Mass packets on our website you can see one of the oldest of these Good Shepherd images from the Catacomb of Priscilla in the third century.

My question is, why in the midst of repeated persecutions and other struggles throughout those first 300 years would the early Christians picture Jesus so often as the Good Shepherd? Why not portray Jesus as a victorious warrior conquering the Roman Empire that was causing them so much pain, or Jesus as the Lord of glory coming at the end of time when he would vanquish all evil including the Devil himself? Why not picture Jesus suffering on the cross, identifying with their sufferings?

Well, I don’t know the answer to those questions, but perhaps the early Christians painted Jesus as the Good Shepherd so often because what they needed more than anything during those first three turbulent centuries of Christianity was the reassurance that Jesus truly was their Good Shepherd who would seek them out when they were lost or hurting, care for them, guide them and protect them in times of trouble. Perhaps they came to understand deeply through their own sufferings that Jesus suffered and died for them precisely because he was the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for his sheep. And, in spite of the persecutions and other struggles they were experiencing in their lives, they needed to believe in Jesus the Good Shepherd who would lead them to abundant life, as he says in the last line of today’s Gospel: “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”

Well, I don’t know about you, but all that sounds pretty good to me, especially during this pandemic, as more and more people become infected and die, as we experience stress from being prisoners in our own homes, as we face the uncertainties of economic hardship, and possible sickness and even death for ourselves and our loved ones. Perhaps we, like those early Christians in the catacombs need a reminder that Jesus truly is our Good Shepherd right here and right now.

So, the first thing I would like to ask you to do today is at some point go back over today’s Responsorial Psalm. Again, it’s there at the end of your packet. It is one of the most well-known and most memorized scriptures in the entire Bible, the psalm of the Good Shepherd, Psalm 23. I invite you to pray that psalm throughout this week and for longer if you like. Can you take these words from Psalm 23 to heart: “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want?” Can you pray them with hope, trust and confidence even in the midst of this crisis as those early Christians surely must have prayed them so often in the midst of their crises? “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want?” In other words, as long as Jesus is my shepherd, no matter what happens to me, to my loved ones, no matter what happens in this world, I know he is with me, that he will give me all that I need, and somehow I will make it through.

Ultimately, I believe what Jesus, the Good Shepherd, was asking of his disciples, what he was asking of those early Christians in the catacombs, and what he is asking of us in today’s Gospel is two things: to listen for his voice speaking to our hearts, and to follow him with deep faith through this difficult time; to listen and to follow. What that means is that, in the midst of all those voices coming at us in our world, we have to listen for Jesus’ voice. There are voices out there in our world that are filled with anxiety, fear and anger; voices that are negative, divisive, critical, and seeking to blame or attack others; voices that are telling us to think only of ourselves and our loved ones and to forget everyone else; voices that are telling us to escape our current difficult reality through alcohol, drugs, overeating, pornography and other unhealthy behavior. On the contrary, the voice of the Good Shepherd is challenging us to be patient, forgiving, loving, noble, generous, courageous, at peace, and to work together for the common good in this difficult time. That is the voice of our Good Shepherd that we need to listen to, amen? Amen!

My brothers and sisters, it is only by listening for this voice, the true voice of our Good Shepherd; it is only by hearing him call each one of us by name with great tenderness, love and mercy that we will be able to follow him and experience the abundant life he promises, whatever circumstances we find ourselves in. Then, like those early Christians in the catacombs, we will come to understand and believe that the Lord truly is our shepherd, and that there is nothing we shall want.