4th Sunday of Easter (A)
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St. Joseph Church, Ponchatoula
While in the studium—the
Dominican version of seminary—the student brothers were often told that
agricultural metaphors for the Church weren't all that “helpful.” For
example, using images such as harvesting grain, planting seeds, plowing
fields, pruning trees, etc. to talk about complex theological ideas like
redemption, justice, etc. is virtually meaningless in our postmodern
age. Our fussy, urbane professors were particularly hard on the
sheep/shepherd metaphors in the gospels. They really got wound up about
Jesus describing his followers as sheep. Sheep are dirty, stupid, and
prone to being killed unless well-guarded. And it didn't help matters
at all that those who guard the Lord's sheep—the shepherds, you know,
the bishops—were exclusively male and celibate! By the time our
enlightened profs were finished foaming at the mouth against the image
of the Church as a bunch of filthy, ignorant animals led by an all-male
cadre of celibate shepherds, we poor seminarians were quaking in our
habits, silently vowing to never-ever speak about or even think about
the Church in terms of the sheep/shepherd metaphor! Of course, one or
two of us were farm boys so we knew one thing about sheep that our profs
didn't: Sheep don't follow shepherds. No one leads a flock of sheep.
Sheep are driven, herded by a skillful shepherd with a big stick and a
pack of feisty dogs. Now that's an image of the Church that Catholics
can understand! So, what are we to make of Jesus saying, “. . .[the
shepherd] walks ahead of [his sheep], and [they] follow him, because
they recognize his voice”?
Well, by nature, metaphors are
always imperfect, so we don't want to spend too much time dissecting the
parallels between Christians and sheep, or between bishops and
shepherds. Jesus' point seems to be that those who have chosen to
follow him will know his voice when he speaks and obey his word b/c he
speaks with a familiar authority. Jesus emphasizes his point by noting
that those who love him “will not follow a stranger; they will run away
from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.” In
other words, Christians do not hear, cannot hear in the voice of a false
teacher, a false shepherd that familiar ring of authority that
proclaims the authentic faith, the Real Deal of Gospel Truth. We could
play with the sheep metaphor a bit and say that the voice of a false
teacher, a false shepherd always sounds like a wolf growling with hunger
even when it looks, smells, and acts like a lamb. Oh sure, the
occasional individual sheep—the lapsed or lukewarm Christian—may be
fooled, seduced by the hypnotic thrill of the wolf's promises, but the
flock as a whole is never fooled, never taken in by a stranger's voice.
Together, as one flock, we remember the Chief Shepherd's voice; we
remember him saying, “I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be
saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. . .I came so that
they might have life and have it more abundantly.” There is no other
gate to the Father's eternal pasture, no other Shepherd for His faithful
flock. Christ Jesus alone brings us to a more abundant life!
As faithful sheep, we should
ask: how do we come to recognize the authoritative voice of our
Shepherd? In his Acts of the Apostles, St. Luke gives us a clue. Peter
stands with the Eleven and proclaims to the crowd, “Let the whole house
of Israel know for certain that God has made both Lord and Christ, this
Jesus whom you crucified.” Luke tells us that when those in the crowd
heard this truth spoken, “they were cut to the heart. . .” Cut to the
heart! Peter utters a simple sentence, twenty-one common words strung
together, a declarative sentence that rings out over those gathered,
seizes their attention with absolute clarity, and instantly convicts
their hearts in the truth: the man Jesus, the one whom they crucified,
is the Lord and the Christ long-promised by their God. Peter's
pronouncement slices through their guilt; their recriminations; their
religious and legal defenses; their logic, their doubts, and their
fears. They were cut to the heart, that place in their souls where no
lie can easily rest and b/c they recognize their sin, they ask, “What
are we to do?” And Peter tells them what to do. “Repent and be
baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of your sins. . .Save yourselves from this corrupt
generation.” Among those who heard Peter preach that day were three
thousand souls who accepted his message and were baptized. Those three
thousand, once convicted in the truth and baptized in the name of Christ
Jesus, would always recognize the voice of the Lord and his shepherds.
A cut to the heart made by the sword that Christ himself yields is
always deep and always permanent. It cannot be forgotten nor can it be
mistaken for the mark of a stranger.
As men and women baptized into
the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, we are deeply and
permanently cut by the truth of the gospel. Christ's voice always rings
true; the familiar authority of our shepherd is unmistakable, and we
cannot be lead astray if we graze with his flock, the Church. The
apostle Peter and his successors proclaim the central, abiding fact of
our two-thousand year old flock: “God has made both Lord and Christ,
this Jesus whom you crucified.” That's the sound, the voice of gospel
truth, the words and the spirit that cuts the hearts of all those who
long to see their lives redeemed, who desire a life beyond this one, who
know that they will be perfected only when they come to see their
Father face-to-face at the foot of His throne. Do you recognize that
voice? More importantly, can you speak with that voice and spread the
good news it proclaims? Sheep may be dirty, stupid, and prone to being
eaten by wolves, but we are no ordinary sheep! We belong to the Eternal
Shepherd and the world is our pasture to cultivate for him. Having
heard his call, it's time for us to answer.
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