Fourth Sunday in Easter

May 3, 2009

Homily for the Anglican Usage Mass

of the

St. Thomas More Society

celebrated at

St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church, 1013 Wood Street

Scranton, PA

John 10:11-18

            In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen

            Yesterday the Scranton Times-Tribune positioned two articles about the Catholic Church right on the front page.  The first concerned Bishop Martino’s continuing conversation with Senator Bob Casey, a Catholic senator from Pennsylvania, whom the Bishop repeatedly has called on to strengthen his commitment to Catholic teaching on faith and morals.  The second article, just beneath it, recounted the faith journeys of several local people, most of whom had left the Catholic Church for some other ecclesial community.  None of the faith journeys recounted included someone who had left Protestantism for Catholicism.  The implied editorial message was obvious:  Bishop Martino’s zeal for Catholic orthodoxy is driving people out of the Church, and he would retain more of these believers if he just would temper his commitment to the faith he has been entrusted to profess.

            This, of course, is the wisdom of the world, which is hardly wise.  Our Gospel this morning does not call us to temper our commitment to Jesus, but rather articulates the depth of the commitment we are to have.  Jesus says that He is the Good Shepherd and defines “good” as meaning a willingness to sacrifice His own life for the life of the sheep.  As the provider and protector of the Church, Jesus takes His role seriously.  In order to provide for us, His sheep, and in order to protect us, His sheep, Jesus gives His life in exchange for ours.

            What would it mean for Jesus to temper His commitment to us, to temper His love for us?  If Jesus were to temper His commitment, He would end up looking much like the hireling who cares nothing for the sheep and who flees when the wolf comes to snatch the sheep away.  The hireling saves himself because his commitment is based on what he can get from the sheep, rather than being like Jesus whose commitment is based on what He can give to the sheep.

            The people in the article who left the Catholic Church said that they left the Church because they could not commit themselves to what the Church teaches.  In other words, their commitment to the love of Jesus only goes so far, or they view the Church as something from which they are to get something rather than something to which they are to dedicate themselves.  I’m sure you have heard people say they don’t go to church because they don’t get anything out of it.  Getting something out of it should never be our sole purpose and this orientation completely ignores that we are to make ourselves an oblation to God every time we go to Mass.  Unfortunately, those whose first purpose is to get something rather than give of themselves sound much like the hireling, less than wholly committed to the sheep they have been called to protect and provide for.

            If we are to follow the Good Shepherd with any sort of integrity, we must be willing to do precisely what Jesus has done:  we must be willing to lay down our lives for the sheep we have been called to protect and provide for.  Jesus is not looking for tempered commitment, a love that only will go so far, or people interested in joining the Church because of what they can get from it.  Jesus wants people like the Apostles, all but one of whom eventually were martyred.  And that one was entrusted with the care of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  All, in some manner, laid down their lives for the sheep entrusted to their care.

            And do you know what?  When the Church had leaders like these men, people who ignored the summons of the world to temper their commitment to Jesus, the growth of the Church was explosive.  When the sheep knew they were loved, when they knew their leader would give his very life for theirs, they came into the Church in droves.  In fact, the phenomenon still obtains.  Our late Holy Father John Paul II was not martyred, but he did take a bullet for the Truth, and his love for his people was not tempered by the threat of death.  Rather, his love intensified, his courage grew, and his example, which millions followed, brought down the most murderous empire in the history of the world.  In the process, the Church grew from 700 million members to 1.2 billion during his pontificate.

            To whom would you entrust the care of your children?  To someone who is not sure he would lay down his life to serve them if the wolf came calling, someone who finds the commitment that the Church demands a drag and a burden?  Or would you rather entrust your children to one whose love for them is not tempered and gladly would die for them, modeling his own commitment and his own love after the love of Jesus?  I know to whom I would give my kids – it’s written in my will – and it’s not some lukewarm, half-hearted person still unsure whether our faith is something we are called to die for.

            Obviously, then, the more committed we are to Jesus, the more committed we will be to those entrusted to our care.  If we have a weak faith, a weak link to our Lord and God, then we can expect that in our time of trial, we will behave weakly, we will abandon the sheep in order to save our own skin.

            This sort of commitment to the vulnerable is alien to our country’s talking heads, and this is why Bishop Martino is such an enigma to the editors of the Times-Tribune.  Because his commitment to Jesus is so strong, Bishop Martino will not stop standing up for those who have no voice, yet who have been entrusted to his care.  If it means they take pot shots at him, it demonstrates that he is doing his job.   He is committed to Jesus; so he is committed to us.  He is a bishop in the mold of Pope John Paul II, in the mold of the Apostles, in the mold of Jesus, and for this we can be thankful.

            I for one would be rather frightened if Bishop Martino bowed to public pressure and popular opinion the way so many politicians do.  It would mean that he is less like Jesus and more like the hireling who does not have the long view and so looks for the immediate benefit.  Bishop Martino has the long view.  That is, he is concerned about his soul, about our souls, about Senator Casey’s soul.  So, I would expect a few more articles about our shepherd, the man the Times-Tribune cannot figure out.

            Of course, the writer of that story about people who change religions did not call me up for a quote.  If she had, I would have told her that moving from Anglicanism to Catholicism means more work for less pay, a more demanding moral life, more criticism from the likes of her and her editors.  But it also means something that more than makes up for the minor “pitfalls”.  To be a Catholic priest means I can do something I could never fully have done even when I was rector of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd.  Now that I am a Catholic, I can be a good shepherd because in Bishop Martino, I have a leader who wants me to be one.  You can be one, too.  All you have to do is commit yourself to Jesus and His Church, and when the wolf summons you to temper your love so he can devour the sheep, do not do it.  Give your life instead.