4^th Sunday of Easter 2002

The Gospels we hear on Sundays of the Easter Season follow a very definite pattern every year, at least for the second through fourth Sundays. The second Sunday's Gospel is devoted to Thomas and his doubts, and the third Sunday's Gospel is pretty much devoted to Jesus' appearance to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Then, on this fourth Sunday of Easter every year we hear the parable of the Good Shepherd from John's 10^th Chapter in which Jesus teaches his disciples that he is the gateway to the Church, that we enter only through Him, that we must follow only his voice to pasture if we are to be safe in this world, a world in which we face all kinds of danger to our lives, lives which we receive from him, who has laid down his for us, his sheep. And at the end of the parable, which we hear every three years on this Sunday, Jesus says "I give them eternal life and they shall never perish, no one shall snatch them out of my hand."

"I give them eternal life." There you have the deepest purpose of the Paschal Mystery. Jesus died that we might live, for by his death he redeemed us from death, from our sins, which are death in its deepest sense. And by rising from the dead he brought into this world a new life for man, a life that he rose with, in His body, and which he alone communicates to those who believe in him and follow him, the Good Shepherd of our souls. The Good Shepherd would mean nothing more than that Jesus was a good example of a good man, who no longer lives. But given the resurrection of the Good Shepherd who died for His sheep, we always have the Good Shepherd with us; he remains with us, in us, around us, sharing his life with us, and protecting his gift of life in us, as he leads us to green pastures in the Heavenly Kingdom to come.

But this Good Shepherd not only really gives us His Life to share, but He personally and really remains with us as our true Shepherd, whose voice can always be heard by those who are His sheep. I say can always be heard by His sheep, but this does not mean that His sheep always in fact hear his voice and follow him. Indeed, He himself says that he has sheep who have not yet heard his voice at all, and we might add, many sheep who never hear his voice. But his sheep, if they have the opportunity, since they have faith in God and love for God, they can and many will hear his voice, and follow him in such a way that they are safe from the wolves in this world that would destroy their souls.

Jesus voice can be and is heard by many in this world because it is a real voice, it is the voice of His Bride, the Church he founded, who along with the Spirit "will teach you everything and remind you of all that [I] told you." ( John 14:26) and he goes on in John 16 to declare that the Spirit, and by implication the Church will speak for Jesus:

But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. [John 16:13-14]

The Spirit speaks what he hears from Jesus, but the voice with which he speaks is not a hidden, interior voice, which the Spirit also uses, but an external, audible, human voice, the voice of the Bride who speaks because the Spirit speaks through her. That is why the Bible concludes in The Book of Revelation where the Spirit and the Bride are united in their prayer to the Bridegroom, Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus.

The Church has a voice, and it is the voice of the Lord speaking through His Spirit and through His Bride. This voice is concretized in the voice of the Church's shepherds, when they speak only what the Church and Spirit speak together. Jesus not only created the sheepfold, the Church, in which His sheep are safe from the wolves, but he also created shepherds through whom he would visibly teach, guide and protect his flock from the wolves. He knew that not all his shepherds would be faithful to Him and faithful to His care of his flock, but He Himself guaranteed that His voice would always be heard in spite bad shepherds because His voice is above all the voice of the Church as a whole, and as concretized in the whole of the College of Apostles, and singularly only in the Chief Shepherd who is His Vicar on earth.

Catholics understand this truth, and their faith ultimately depends upon no one human person, priest, or parent, or teacher, or whoever, but the Church and her faith. It is the Church in communion of the Spirit who is the ultimate voice of Christ, and because of the union of the Spirit, she cannot speak falsely for Christ. We say after the Our Father, "Look not on our sins, but the faith of your Church," for it is the faith of the Church, through the ages that gives birth to our faith and supports it. She is the Bride who speaks for Christ, and her shepherds are her servants and His instruments, and for those reasons alone can they bring us His Truth, His Grace, His Mercy, His Life. None of this alone guarantees their salvation, for if they betray his trust, his truth, his charity, they themselves will be shut outside the Kingdom, and their judgement will be all the worse given the trust He placed in them, to whom he entrusted the care of His own beloved.

The Good Shepherd's voice can never be silenced, not even by unfaithful servants who betray Him, and their sacred calling. His voice is always heard above the din of this world's evil, and above the scandals that ravage His Church through the ages, because His Church is greater than all this evil. She is His Bride, He who loved her before the world was created, who died for her on the Cross, that she might be reborn from His death and resurrection. He will never abandon Her, and that is why we will always hear His voice through her, if only we believe in Her as we believe in Him.

CMN