I Am the Good Shepherd

Sermon by Rev. John Paul Shea

4th Sunday of Easter, April 17, 2016

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, Tucson, AZ

Today, we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday where we are reminded we need Our Lord Jesus Christ to protect us and guide us on our Christian journey so that we can attain eternal life.

In the beginning of today’s short Gospel (John 10: 27-30), Our Lord Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. No one can take them out of my hand. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”

As we hear these words of Our Lord Jesus Christ, we are reminded that the goal of our Christian life is to become one with Our Heavenly Father. Our Lord Jesus, who is the second Person of the Trinity, is one with His Father, and He has come into our world so that we can live forever as one with His Father in Him. 

In other words, God wants us to share in His Life for all eternity. Yet, if we want to share forever in God’s munificent plan then we must listen to the voice of Jesus Christ in the scriptures and the teachings of our Church, and we must live our lives accordingly.

In today’s first reading (Acts 13:14, 43-52),  Paul and Barnabas are preaching, but the Jews rejected the words of Christ. 

In the midst of this rejection, what does Paul say? “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first, but since you reject it and condemn yourselves as unworthy of eternal life we now turn to the Gentiles.” 

As Paul reminds the Jews of their condemnation for rejecting the preaching of Christ, let us be reminded that we too can condemn ourselves as unworthy of eternal life by rejecting the truths that God has given to us. 

It is easy for us to think we can enter into heaven even while living a life that contradicts the teachings of Christ and His Church. But this is not so! 

No, heaven is not easy to attain. In the Gospel of Matthew, for example, Our Lord

says, “Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate that leads to destruction is wide and the broad, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that lead to life. And those who find are few.” (Matthew 7:13-14)
 
My brothers and sisters, following our Church and its teachings is to enter by the narrow gate. Our Lord Jesus Christ is Our Shepherd who wants to lead souls through this gate. He wants to protect us from the influences of the world in which we live today that separate us from God and His plan for us! God wants us to be one with Him in His Son Jesus Christ. Yet, if we want to live as one with God for all eternity, we must first be purified of whatever is not of God’s kingdom.

In our world today we hear much about tolerating sin. For example, now that so called same sex “marriage” is legal in our country, the spirit of the world tells us that our Church needs to be more tolerant toward or even embrace immoral relationships.

Yet, let us be reminded that acceptance does not bring souls to Heaven. Only the Truth will lead souls to heaven, and those who knowingly reject the truths of our faith by not striving to change their lives in accord the word of God “condemn [themselves] as unworthy of eternal life” (Acts 13:46).

My brothers and sisters, Our Lord Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He wants to save us from our sins. God sent His Son into our world so that all who believe in Him may have eternal life. Yet, our belief must be real. Our belief means conversion and a change of life! 

Our Lord calls us to deny the ways of the world. These ways  lead us away from the necessary sanctify that will allow us to live with Our Heavenly Father for all eternity. 

Let us ask Our Good Shepherd to protect us and keep us safe from everything that leads us away from eternal salvation. Let us strive to become one with Our Lord Jesus for all eternity by living lives worthy of this great gift of eternal life that God wants for each of us. Amen!

Early Christian Image of the Good Shepherd

The Redemptive Solution

A Humble Queen's "Yes!" Paved the Way for the Resurrection

by Edwin Rodrigues of Chandigarh, India 

who can be found on Twitter @EdwinEd1667 

Dedicated to our Baby Emma, miscarried before Oct. 8, 2005. She is close to the Humble King through the Humble Queen, The Father and The Holy Spirit. This piece is also offered in honor of Mother Angelica who died on Easter, March 27, 2016, and was buried on April 1.

I Am Who Am conceived us in His eternal plan of love. He transcends time, space and the weakness of our human flesh. 

He created the angels, who are far above us in nature and in the order of Creation. Alas! The most brilliant of them was blinded by his own light, rebelled, fell from heaven and took with him one third of the stars in the night.

They were defeated, but clung to their deceitfulness and vainglory!! He who could not tolerate the Creator’s glory and majesty couldn’t digest the fact that the Second Person of The BlessedTrinity would take upon Himself  a human nature. "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." (John 1:14) 

So when Adam breathed the Breath of God’s Life, Satan choked. He began using his evil genius to trip Adam, who had Eve by his side. She was the greatest masterpiece of creation.

Satan had his companions. But among them there never was any love or true unity and that increased his misery. 

Divine Life -- when shared among the Persons of The Trinity and with Adam and Eve -- is creative and productive. Love and sharing are inherent in them.

Satan -- on the other hand lives (if that form of existence can be called living) -- but he is divisive and destructive. Hate, pride and selfishness consume him.

But God’s grace in Adam and Eve was too much for Satan to overlook. He mounted another assault. Deceit!!! Diabolical hatred made him take advantage of Adam and Eve’s pristine, finite awareness.

The father of lies planted the seed of pride. Alas! Our first parents succumbed.

But Jesus saw how infinitely saddened and offended His Eternal Father was. Jesus knew the consequences of Adam and Eve’s willful disobedience. He told His Father that He Himself would undo the infinite magnitude of man's offense.The Holy Spirit, Who proceeds from the Father and The Son, also consoled The Father. He accompanied Jesus on His mission to save the human race. While Jesus hung on the cross, the Spirit turned the blood of human suffering into the wine of divine love. 

When Jesus took on human flesh, He  humbled Himself and -- with His Father’s nod -- agreed to become one like us. But how could He become one like us in all things except sin? 

Precisely because He’s God, He came with a redemptive solution; for nothing is impossible with God.  From outside the constraints of time and space, He knew a way…for He is The Way!

That Way required a new Eve, namely Mary. For when the old Eve was cast out of Paradise by the Angel, the first annunciation was made.

"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

But many generations would live their lives before the Immaculate Conception would enter history so that all generations would call her blessed.

Hush. Imagine, the Creator relinquishing the splendor of Heaven; and entering the created House of God, the first living tabernacle -- Mary, most pure and humble. 

She never refused God anything. And yet God is a Perfect Gentleman. He did not take for granted her choice. He sought her permission to become the Seed in her womb. Such Seed would bear Fruit that would undo the effects of original sin and thus crush the head of Satan. The forbidden fruit would no longer poison and harry the lives of mankind.

She is Our Lady of The Victory! Victory achieved through obedience: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord!"

Adam and Eve fell prey to the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Mankind's exile began. But God so loved the world that Jesus took it upon Himself to redeem the first exile from the Garden of Eden with His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

It was Eve who consented to the devil’s wicked proposal and consumed the forbidden fruit. But the humble Mary -- the New Eve -- allowed the Fruit of Life to develop in the Eden of her sinless womb. "I am the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done to me according to Your Word," Mary's human will echoed exactly the "Yes!"  of the Divine Will.

Pride went before the Fall but Mary's humility paved the way to Christ's Rising in the Resurrection!! How sweet is the humility and obedience of Mary!! 

O Mary, conceived without sin, obtain for us the grace to imitate you and your Divine Son, Who is meek and humble of heart. Amen!

Did you enjoy this post? There are more by this author! See The Word Was Made Flesh...He Lived Among Us

A Letter to People of Life

Dear Friends Who Teach Natural Family Planning and Defend the Sanctity of Marriage,

It was good to read in your artistically designed letters, the manner in which God is working in your marriage and bringing the "Gospel of Life” to other couples in the Tucson and Phoenix Dioceses.

The contraceptive culture has such a strong grip on people both inside and outside the Catholic Church; functioning almost like an “anti-Eucharist” among catechized non-Catholics and non-catechized Catholics. I read so many articles by people of faith idolizing artificial contraception as “manna” from heaven. Jesus said, “Your fathers ate the manna in the desert and died.” (John 6:49) What a poignant message to modern society. 

Effects of The Contraceptive Mentality

By your choice to support a “Culture of Life,” there will be persecution. I would say the car accident you suffered through is one such persecution. Be not afraid, “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4) 

The secular culture pervades our way of thinking and acting in many unrecognizable ways. It is only when a person collects the mind of Christ revealed in His Sacred Words, the lives of His Saints, the Doctrines of His Catholic Church, and abides in Him sacramentally that a person’s conscience is established. What an abused word “conscience” has become.

Every shepherd unwilling to take a stand for Christ floats the phrase “we must respect personal conscience.” A choice between two objective goods is a work of conscience. A choice emphatically rendered by the Church

identifying what is good and what is evil is an objective expression of Christ’s conscience. A person who argues, “my conscience supersedes the conscience of Christ as revealed in His Church” is simply rationalizing the power of sin, which stems from ignorance, weakness, fear and indifference.

Susan and I have a friend in Albuquerque, who gave up all forms of media. She said, “Watching and listening to the passions of the world drains my soul, leaving little passion for Christ.” I think it is in Mark’s Gospel, that Jesus tells His disciples to “listen and watch” while they were on their way to Jerusalem. It is interesting that the entertainment genre “Walking Dead” has become so popular today. The Walking Dead are people with no direction. What a terrible condition.

Another fruitful way of collecting the mind of Christ is by observing God’s creation through the gifts of reason and faith. Pope Saint John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have both written so much on the necessity of humanity to rediscover the complimentary natures of reason and faith and integrate both within all aspects of human life. The secular world values “reason alone” and so many non-Catholics value “faith alone,” both giving birth to “personal conscience alone.”

It sounds -- based upon Susan’s recent visit -- that the Lord is asking you both to support another project, dealing with, “discovering the image of the Most Holy Trinity within the created human body.” I guess it could be called, “God’s Image Project.”

Susan purchased a lily plant for Easter. It is in our kitchen and every so often aromatically speaks to us, asking for water. I thought about Jesus’ words, “Do you not see the lilies of the field? I tell you not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these.” (Matt. 6:29) 

Beguiled by a Lily

One day for a brief moment I could see within the delicacy of the lily the literal reality of Jesus’ words. It was as if Jesus (the master designer) was saying, “You have no idea how much care went into the design and development of that plant. If you could only see the joy that the beauty from that one lily plant brings creation, you would learn the meaning of the purpose of life, God’s plan for each person, and how to trust in His Mercy.” 

Tragically, a materialist dissecting, measuring, and quantifying lily stem cells would only discover defects and evidence that the

A materialist's idea of a good time

universe is not the result of intelligent design. Your ministry of teaching couples about the gift of fertility is a formidable response to materialists like Alice Roberts, physician and anatomist, who argues in her book, The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being: Evolution and the Making of Us, that aesthetics demonstrates inefficiency and lack of intelligent design. 

For people like Alice Roberts -- who are now dominating so many medical professions – beauty is amoral with no ethical reality but efficiency is the only ethic the matters and the only reality that demonstrates intelligence. “If you are the son of God, command these stones to turn into bread.” (Matt. 4:3) (Satan’s words to Christ.) Such is the thinking behind euthanasia, abortion and contraception, and the increasing practice of hospitals to issue “Do Not Resuscitate” (DNR) orders even for children chocking on meat.

It is our prayer that God continues to protect you both as He shepherds your family, parishioners, co-workers, and students through your ministry.

Yours in Christ Jesus and Mary,

Lorenzo  Fox