Homily from the Parish Priest for the Fourth Sunday of Easter
Mass Readings: Acts 4:8-12; I John 3:1-2; John 10:11-18
Monday is the 84th birthday of our Jesuit brother Fr Stan Swamy. For those who haven’t heard of Fr Stan he is an elderly Jesuit priest who has been working throughout his life for human rights in India, challenging especially the injustice of the Indian caste system. Between July and August 2020 Fr Stan was interrogated multiple times for over 15 hours about an event that preceded the violence between Dalits and Marathas near Pune on in 2017. He is falsely accused of having personal links with banned extremist groups. Although the evidence for the link was not forthcoming Fr Stan was convicted and he is currently in prison. He has committed his life to working for the constitutional rights of the most impoverished and marginalised people in India. In prison he suffers from Parkinson’s disease and needs help with eating and dressing. He is now at grave risk of contracting COVID in an over-crowded prison in Mumbai. There is much support for his release worldwide but we must keep up the pressure. I mention Fr Stan again today because he is reported to have taken his imprisonment as part of the course of events when one is falsely accused. He will not abandon his cause, the cause of the people for whom he is a shepherd.
What it is to be a shepherd as Christ was a shepherd. And that’s what today’s celebration – Good Shepherd Sunday – is all about. In the portrayal of Our Lord as the Good Shepherd we see the model of pastoring. In the one who stays with his people, who does not abandon them even when it becomes so dangerous. He is the shepherd whose voice will be echoed in the sheep following him. Because the voice they hear is of the promise of life. The voice they hear is that of the Lamb of sacrifice who obediently does the will of his loving Father with whom he is one. The voice that they hear is of a God who is united in love through this sacrificial exchange of Father and Son, a love sealed in the gift of the Spirit. In the Good Shepherd we encounter a God who really suffered for us, who loves us so much he died for us, and who promises in exchange for death the gift of life for his flock.
Good Shepherd Sunday is also Vocations Sunday. A day to pray for an increase in vocations to shepherding, to the work of priests, sisters, brothers in the Church in particular. When I was growing up and in my early adulthood I remember people asking me “if I thought I had a vocation”. I’m very grateful for that as it helped me to discern and to choose a way of life I love so much. Without that question being asked in the context of a Christian community there would have been no discernment. Vocations cannot be properly discerned alone with God or with just a few people but only through the community as a whole. As such the parish community is a seedbed for fostering vocations. Through friendship, praying and socialising together, seeing ourselves as we really are in the midst of the community and not just as we think we are, the Christian community helps us as social beings discover who we really are and how we fit into God’s plan.
“Do you think you might have a vocation?” however is a which needs to be placed in a much wider context than that intended for me as a youngster. Why? In the words of St John Henry Newman every one of us is called to “some definite service” and so we are all called to consider to what we are called. Through my ministry of accompanying others one-to-one and through the friendships I have I’ve learnt just how agonising this can be. It can seem there are too many options: this job or another, marriage to this person now or not yet or never, becoming a priest or sister or brother might be it but my human needs for living together in a more diverse community or the need for intimacy in life make it impossible. I’ve also heard people say they have no options, finding themselves in desolation at not being fulfilled in life, finding that a relationship they are stuck in is dead, being out of work due to the economic downturn and with nothing of use to do, or finding the path you’ve discerned in life is definitely right but just isn’t open such as for the many who feel called to more defined ministry but feel they are blocked by the Church.
Once we affirm we all have a vocation we make ourselves vulnerable. At this point we need the support of a Christian community which welcomes everyone just as we are. St Ignatius and his Spiritual Exercises can help us greatly here as Ignatius teaches us how to discern properly. We are tempted to come back to the impossible dream of a utopian existence but instead we are called to see what often surprises us as the consolation of God in this life. This call is to discover our destiny not in a vacuum of unfulfilled desires but in the midst of a flawed world, a world which is graced by a God who is incarnate and is risen and brings us always new life but whose grandeur also willingly embraces the cross.
“Do you know you have a vocation?” As we celebrate Vocations Sunday may we be drawn more deeply into the truth that we definitely have and discern that well.
Fr Dominic Robinson SJ