Fourth Sunday of Easter - April 17, 2016

Easter 4

April 17, 2016

Jesus Shepherds Us Through the Church

 

            The year was 451, and a debate was raging all across the ancient world. They were debating about whether or not Jesus was truly divine and human. Perhaps, some said, Jesus was not human at all – He was just God walking on the earth appearing to be a human being, as if he were a vision or something.

            This debate grew so intense that the Church decided to call a council. Over 600 bishops met in a town in modern-day Turkey called Chalcedon. For days – weeks – they discussed and debated this question, but could come to no conclusion. Finally, they wrote to Pope Leo I, who had been unable to attend due to illness, and asked him what he thought. He wrote back a long letter – called the Tome of Leo – declaring that Jesus was both truly God and truly man.

            When the bishops heard the letter read aloud, they all cried out, “Peter has spoken through Leo! Peter has spoken through Leo!”

            These bishops recognized that Jesus continues to shepherd His flock through the Church. Consider this – today’s Gospel features Jesus speaking about how He is the Good Shepherd, and the sheep hear His voice. There are many ways to hear the Lord’s voice – through the Scriptures, through our private prayer, through music or nature or other people – and all of these are valid. But how do we know that what we are hearing is truly the Lord’s voice, and not the voice of the world, or our own imagination, or the voice of the Evil One?

            We look to the Church. The Church has been given a gift called infallibility – that when something is constantly, consistently taught from the beginning, we can have confidence that it comes from the Lord. The Lord still shepherds us today through the Church.

            Why is this important? Because, as human beings, we are weak and prone to error! For example, Jesus said in Scripture that “if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.” Does that mean we should literally take a knife to our hand? But Jesus also said that we must “eat His flesh and drink His Blood” – does He mean that literally? These are two statements of Jesus – one of which is figurative and one of which is literal (since the Eucharist IS His true Body and Blood) – and it’s important to know which one is which! This is why we need the Church – Jesus’ voice in the world today - to guide and shepherd us to the truth.

            Jesus’ goal and the Church’s goal is the same. Jesus declared, “I have come that you might have life, and have it abundantly!” And the Church declares the same! The Church’s teachings are for our benefit – to help us become holy and happy, deeply joyful and full of life.

            These past couple weeks challenged us to see that. You may be aware that the Pope recently released a very beautiful, rich document about marriage. Major mainstream news outlets only focused on one thing – the teaching that divorce and remarriage is seriously sinful, and that those who are in such a situation cannot receive Holy Communion. Boy, the media was all over that one! They were saying things like, “When will the Church get with the times! They need to change their teachings and start accepting when people remarry outside the Church, or start accepting gay marriage, etc.” Basically the media wants the Church to adopt all of the current worldly values!

            I would respond with three things. First, it’s a shame that the media only focused on one small portion of a remarkable document – and it’s a double shame that most Catholics will never read the document itself, but only hear about it from MSNBC! My friends, we have a duty to know WHAT the Church teaches and WHY, so that we can live according to these truths. We live in the age of the internet – every single Church document and teaching is available 24/7 for free – we have no excuse not to know our Faith! Second, the Church can never change her teachings, because her role is to pass on the teachings of Christ, not invent her own according to the whims of the age. Third, the Church’s teachings – which is how Jesus shepherds us today – are given to us to point us to true and lasting happiness. The world’s standards and values – like have as much pleasure as you want or money is the greatest god – do these values and standards lead to happiness? No, only Christ – teaching through His Church – gives us life abundant.

            Jesus said in the Gospel that “My sheep hear my voice.” We know that we are His sheep if we heed His voice, listen to His Church, and try to conform our life to the Church’s teachings. Some people, however, choose to overlook certain inconvenient teachings – whether it’s about divorce and remarriage, or contraception, or attending Mass, or anything that makes us uncomfortable – but if we ignore these teachings, we are like sheep who purposely ignore the voice of the Shepherd. If we ignore the voice of the Shepherd, we might not see the danger or the wolves that He’s trying to protect us from.

            Jesus came that we might have life, and have it abundantly. He teaches us the way to life through His Church. We are His sheep if we listen to His Church and follow its teachings. And then we discover life abundant.