Fourth Sunday of Easter: Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd

St. Peter and his early church preaching pulls no punches. St. Peter proclaimed, “There is no salvation through anyone else,
nor is there any other name under heaven
 given to the human race by which we are to be saved." Acts 4. Not Moses, not Buddha, not Mohammed not anyone else. The first century and our own time have lots of gods and paths to provide for human needs. The assertion that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life is as jarring in the present age as it was jarring in the first century. St. Peter preached to Jews who lived under the law of Moses; some believed and some attacked Peter, just as in our time.
 
The Son of God is more than merely a teacher
Jesus did not claim to be a wise teacher that provided a better understanding of life than other teachers. He did not claim to be a general or a political leader that can rid us of the evil of war and poverty. He claimed to be the Good Shepherd, the Son of God, whose ‘voice’ is heard by his sheep. He told his disciples that he had “other sheep that do not belong to this fold.
These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice,
and there will be one flock, one shepherd.” John 10. 
The distinctive doctrine of Christianity that sets it apart from all other religious paths is the Incarnation. God, the pure act of existing, took on human flesh and dwells among us. We are made as his image and likeness in the world. Jesus Christ the Nazorean is, however, the person of God in this world. Two natures, human and divine, but one person. Jesus the Messiah is the person through whom heaven and earth dwell together. God dwells in us who have been baptized, the sacraments being a privileged conduit of grace unlike any other.
 
We hear the voice of the Good Shepherd in our conscience
Blessed John Henry Newman identified the Shepherds voice that speaks to all people as the voice of conscience. In each human person there is a voice before whom we feel delight and shame. Conscience is characteristic of all human beings that have not been damaged in some way. Your dog might feel ashamed in your presence when you catch it making a mess on the carpet. My grandma’s dog Murphy looked perpetually ashamed and for good reason, he killed my little sister’s rabbits. But dogs are ashamed when they are caught. We can be ashamed alone, in the middle of the night when caught by a voice that only we can hear. A well-formed conscience is an experience of the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd claims that he, unlike someone who herds sheep for pay, lays down his life for his sheep. He doesn’t flee us, he continues to call. God is the True God if he is in every bright and dark corner of our life, calling us even in death.
 
When St. Peter proclaimed that Jesus Christ the Nazorean was the only name given to us though whom we can be saved he was proclaiming a revealed truth that ought to cause us discomfort. Part of our human struggle is our tendency to become far too comfortable with God’s voice. Soon we cannot discern the difference between God’s voice and our own. We can even claim to speak for God. Our tendency to stifle the voice of conscience and the voice of any authority outside our own narrow understanding deforms our conscience.
 
 Conscience listens to the Good Shepherd
Pope Francis in his recent exhortation Rejoice and be Glad (Gaudete et Exsultate) called our consciences to listen to the voice of Christ. Pope Francis tells us that God calls our consciences to:

• Build: We should commit ourselves to the task of building our community through prayer and service to one another.

• Evangelize: We should not be afraid to evangelize as did St. Peter sharing the beauty of our faith with others.

• Reconcile: He calls for an end to “verbal violence” in arguments between Catholics.

• Defend: We should work to defend life whether it is the unborn, single parents and their children, the migrant and the aged and others threatened with being discarded.

We claim that God still dwells among us. The Ascension of Christ that we will celebrate soon means that Christ is present on earth and in heaven. He will come to judge everybody on earth, regardless of religion or no religion. He told us that he would judge us on whether we fed the hungry, clothed the naked, housed the homeless, gave drink to the thirsty and comforted the afflicted. Matthew 28. The call of conscience is universal because God’s image and likeness is in all human beings. Our parish is not a business; it is a mission. We ought to build our community, to listen to God’s voice, evangelize, reconcile and defend and urge others to as well.