Good Shepherd Sunday: Some men run into burning buildings, others run away

Acts 13:14-52
Psalm 100: 1-3, 5
Revelation 7:9, 14-17
John 10:27-30
 

 
Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. Shepherds lead the sheep and that is what pastors are called to do. I am a second career vocation called to serve in the Church as a priest. How do I know that I was called? Bishop Manuel Moreno called me on the phone and asked if I would accept ordination. Today, scandal, I think, scares some men away from considering their vocation as a priest. Some men run into burning buildings, some men run away. St. Peter and St. Paul had their experience of both. To understand why some men accept the call to serve chastely and lovingly as a Catholic priest, please consider the basic Christian proclamation.  
 
God is love: Christianity 101
We can’t save ourselves, we need God’ grace. Jesus is leading us to heaven, that is, the beatific vision. The Risen Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God, is the indwelling of heaven and earth together in one person. All the desires we have are ultimately desires for union with God, heaven and earth together. It is why we believe that our loved ones are with God and will, on the last day, rise from the dead in their bodies.  St. Paul describes the beatific vision,  

At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Cor. 13:12

 We believe that God doesn’t just love us, but is love itself. 1 Jn. 4:7-21.  John goes on to describe the goal of all of life.

See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. B eloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is . Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure.  1 Jn. 3:1-3.

The Beatific Vision is not possible without the Life of Sanctifying Grace
We cannot bring heaven to us, we can only respond to God’s invitation through his Son. As our own experience ought to teach us and as St. John points out, the Beatific Vision is not possible without God’s good grace. Right now, we all know God as an idea, we do not directly experience him. Even the great saints like St. John of the Cross and St. Theresa of Avila who had visions and locution taught that supernatural phenomenon are not God. The promise of eternal life is the experience of God as he is. We cannot experience him in a direct way through natural means, but only through faith, hope and love. God uses natural means, like the sacraments, to lead us to himself; heaven and earth together as a sign. Sacramental grace introduces us into the life of the Trinitarian God. CCC #2021 The grace of the sacraments justifies or deifies us, that is, the sacraments prepare us for life with God. CCC #1999. That is why Jesus said, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” John 6:53. Christianity is more than a call to a moral life, it is the door into the life of the Trinitarian God. That is why we represent saints with a nimbus around their heads; a sign of God’s presence in them. Heaven and Earth dwelling together.
 
St. Paul and the Life of Grace
Why did St. Paul make his fellow Jews so angry? He didn’t leave Judaism behind when he preached Christ. He was preaching a fulfilled Judaism, the reception of grace upon grace. The old law was a grace extended by God to his people, but Jesus had introduced a direct route to God, baptism. Where the old Temple was the place where God’ people were brought into relationship with God, the new Temple is Jesus’ Risen Body, the place where heaven and earth are joined. That is why the Jewish people responded angrily against Paul and Barnabas because they were saying that the Jerusalem Temple was no longer the place to meet God. The Romans had not yet destroyed that Temple. That would happen after Paul’s death in Rome.  The new Temple was Christ’s Risen Body, the Church. No longer was circumcision required for men, but baptism for men and women was the entry to union with God. No longer oblations and sacrifices in the Jerusalem Temple for the forgiveness of sin, but the Eucharistic Sacrifice and Meal in the community of the faithful. Heaven and Earth dwelling together.
 
The Life of Grace and the Priesthood
The apostles were succeeded by the bishops who served as priests for the people, eventually ordaining other men to help in the priestly work of sanctifying the people of God. Some Christian churches view their pastors as the representative of the people who might offer a compelling take on a scripture reading at Sunday service. The Catholic Priest serves, however, in persona Christi capitis, in the person of Christ the head.  It is not that the priest stands in Christ’s place at mass; instead Christ stands in the priest’s place at mass. The presence of sanctifying grace is made effective through the service of the priest.
 
If the idea that Christ works through St. Paul who persecuted him or St. Peter who betrayed him seems less scandalous than Christ working through a sinful priest, it is only because of the passage of time and familiarity. Christ’s crucifixion was scandalous. St. Paul and St. Peter’s preaching was scandalous to their Jewish audience. Scandal has always been part of the Church’s story.
 
Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. At the heart of our culture’s struggles, every culture’s struggle, is the refusal to serve. Why worry about union with God when you can lead a life centered around your own happiness and maybe have heaven anyway. Everyman needs to decide what their life is really about and choose accordingly. I have posted on our website some videos of various priests in our diocese who are second career vocations. Men who have been accountants, lawyers, businessmen or employees of the gas company. They have been married and not married. The Church needs the service of mature men who are capable of giving their lives for the good of others as did the Good Shepherd. Why do some people run into burning houses? For some it is a sense of duty, for others something or someone they value is in there. Call it love. Why do people run away? Lots of reasons. 

If you are interested in more information about second career vocations, click here.

Here is my take on my vocation to the priesthood. By the way, who is becoming a priest now? Check out this article.