Father Riley's homily for May 3, 2020

EASTER IV - A - 20                      JOHN 10. 1-10

The Fourth Sunday of Easter is traditionally referred to as “Good Shepherd” Sunday for the gospel reading is taken from the 10^th chapter of Saint John, where Jesus proclaims himself as the “Good Shepherd.”

The chapter opens with Jesus engaged in a lengthy dialogue with the Pharisees over his true identity. He has just given the man born blind his sight. Nowhere in Israel’s history has anyone born blind been given his or her sight.

That is something only God could do, something the prophet Isaiah had predicted that Messiah would do.  Thus, the Pharisees are puzzled. Who is this Jesus and where does he come from?

Jesus concludes the miracle with the words “for judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may be made blind.” The Pharisees ask him “Are we blind also?”

The Pharisees take offense at him for they now know that he is speaking of them. They are blind to who he really is and his purpose for having been sent by God. This previous exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees leads into today’s gospel passage where Jesus speaks of sheepfolds, gates, and shepherds.

Jesus lived in an agrarian society. Most people lived off the land - tending crops, orchards, vineyards, sheep and goats. In Judea in and around Jerusalem, the soil was rocky and not suitable for crops. However, sheep could be raised on such land if shepherds were willing to live nomadically and to take care that the sheep did not wander into danger.

Jesus often used agrarian language, especially metaphors about sheep and goats to explain theological ideas but it appears that his audience this day did not understand him. It is hard for some of us to get the picture if you will, for most of us do not relate to sheep and sheepfolds. I admit I did not for a long time. Then I traveled to the “mother-land” - Ireland!

Southwest Ireland, for example, is rocky and hilly. There is not much tillable land, however sheep are abundant and so are rocks. The countryside is littered with sheepfolds constructed by stacking the plentiful stones in such a way as to construct walls high enough to keep sheep from jumping over them.

Some are rectangular while others are somewhat square. What they all have in common is a gate that allows the shepherd to let the sheep in and out to go to pasture and when closed keeps the sheep safe and sound from all danger.

In these first ten verses of John’s tenth chapter Jesus is contrasting his leadership to that of God’s appointed leaders. They were to be the shepherds of God’s people but failed in their pasturing. Pastor comes from the Latin word for shepherd.

They were leading the people of God in the wrong direction and away from the things, God intended for His people to be and do. Their leadership has been marked by deceit and pride, and has lacked compassion. Christ on the other hand fulfills all virtue.

Obviously, his hearers on this occasion do not belong to his sheep for they are not listening to him and obeying his voice. They are certainly not committing themselves to follow him. Jesus first speaks of himself as the gate, or the door. Meaning, he is the way to God, the way to enter the kingdom.

Others have come claiming to be the way but were not. Others have come proclaiming another way, but their way was false. Through Jesus Christ, we have access to eternal life. In him alone is our salvation.

Among the sundry and manifold chatter of the world we sometimes find it hard to hear Christ’ voice above the others. There are so many voices out there that call to us, that beckon to us, that tempt us to follow in their way that we often find ourselves on the wrong path. For some of us it takes following the wrong path before we realize the true one.

We only have to reflect on the current crisis that is facing our world today to see that this is true. There is a lot of noise out there, a lot of chatter.  What are we too believe? What is the truth? Whom should we be listening too?

So many voices, some saying one thing and another saying something different. Many of us are waiting for things to return to normal. Others are taking their chances stepping out and trying to continue business as usual.

It was something like that in time of Jesus. God’s people found themselves in somewhat of a crisis. There was no virus keeping them down, but the Romans. Their religious leadership, their supposed shepherds, was divided over the right way to live under such circumstances.

The Pharisees said one thing, the Sadducees another. Then there were the revolutionaries who offered a different way out. None of which was the way Jesus proposed. He was not radical enough or militant enough for the rowdies. He did not possess the proper theological credentials as far as the Pharisees and Sadducees were concerned.

He just did not measure up in the eyes of those who believed that they were in the know. Yet, the fact that people chose to follow Jesus, to listen to his voice, gives substance to the claim that he is of God, Israel’s chosen king. The sign of the true shepherd is the response that comes from the heart, when people hear his voice and, in love and trust, follow him.

We do not like to think about ourselves as being sheep. For that connotation in the modern world tends to lend itself to one who is led, one who is unable to fend for himself, one who has no sense of direction. But when we listen to Christ’ words describing himself as the “good shepherd” the one who will lead us, protect us, watch over us and give us, through His life, death and resurrection, the true life God intended for us to live, then our response is to give him our heart, and in love and trust, follow Him.

The call to us today, as Jesus’ true sheep, is to listen for his voice, and to find in him and him alone the life that is overflowing. As our door into the dominion of God, Jesus is our shepherd, and the guardian of our soul. He alone opens to us the door of God’s mercy, and flings wide the portal of the hospitality of God. In Him alone is our Hope and our Salvation. AMEN+