These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord. The favors of the LORD I will sing forever; through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness. R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord. (Psalm 89)
Music transforms our lives. The church has always used music. As the Letter to the Ephesians encourages:
Address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts. (Eph 5:19)
And as Saint Augustine said long ago: “The one who sings, prays twice!” May there always be a song in our hearts!
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then, completing their fasting and prayer, they laid hands on them and sent them off. (Acts 13:2-3)
Prayer and the Laying On of Hands have been essential elements of the Rite of Ordination from the earliest days of the church. Today I remember my own ordination to the priesthood on May 6, 1978, forty-two years ago today. I have always been grateful to Bishop Michael Begley who ordained me and sent me to serve God’s people.
Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the Church and taught a large number of people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians. (Acts 11:25-26)
How important is Barnabas in the story of the church. He reached out to Saul who had persecuted the church but had since had his conversion. When the others wouldn’t have anything to do with Saul . . . Barnabas reaches and invites him into the work. And Saul becomes Paul. I always liked the Cotton Patch Gospels which was an attempt to translate the New Testament into Southern idiom using Southern place names. I’ll never forget this particular passage:
And it was here in Mobile that the disciples were first labeled "Christians.
And, of course, Mobile is my hometown!
Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep.” (Jn 10:14-15)
When folks lay down their lives for others, they become icons of the Good Shepherd. Thanks to the coronavirus, we have all been amazed to have discovered the Face of the Good Shepherd in so many people that are normally taken for granted: the cleaning lady; the trash collector in the neighborhood; the man who stocks the shelves at the grocery store. So many people who serve our needs without ever calling attention to themselves. Perhaps, after the virus, we will return to normal and take them for granted again . . . but maybe not this time. Maybe, just maybe, we now realize that it takes all of us together to be the Face of the Good Shepherd to one another. The Face of the One who came not to be served, but to serve and to lay down his life for us all.
Jesus said: “I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” (Jn 10:9-10)
Abundant life . . . to be fully alive. It was Saint Irenaeus who said a long time ago:
“The glory of God is man, woman, fully alive."
This Good Shepherd Sunday we pray for all those who seek to be fully alive in service to the community of the church.
