Fourth Sunday of Easter. May 7, 2006   Our Lady of Grace 7:30, 11:30, 6PM. First Communion at 11:30. Acts 4: 8-12.  1 John 3: 1-2.  John 10: 11-18.

Several years ago I went to Europe on vacation as part of a tour group.  There was a very vocal woman in the group who was a very active member of a Southern Bible church.  She knew that I was a priest she insisted on calling me preacher, which I am sure was a very high compliment in her mind.  One day when we were sitting at a huge table with about twenty people having lunch, this woman yelled across the table, “Preacher, I believe that unless you accept Jesus as your personal savior you can not be saved.  What do you think Preacher?”    I felt trapped.  After a long silence I said, “I believe that you must accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior in order to be saved.  That is what I have been taught and that is what I believe.  On the other hand, if I were everyone’s God, I would have to care for everyone and would have to work things out some other way.” That is, in fact, the teaching of the Catholic Church.  Jesus is the source of salvation for every human being.  In his immense love for the human race, God gives every person the opportunity to be saved, even those who have never heard of Christ, if they seek God and live a good life according to the light of conscience that is possible for them. 

Jesus said, “I have 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.”    Every human being belongs to Christ, even those outside of the visible Church. In ways known only to God they are invited to hear Christ’s voice and to participate in the grace that Jesus won for the human race.  God is the Creator and the Father of every human being, the poor and the rich, the young and the old, the good and the bad, the believer and those who do not believe.   Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd.  A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.  I am the good shepherd… and I will lay down my life for the sheep.”  

Parents know something that other people may not know.   I discovered a little bit of “divine wisdom” in cleaning up my old and rapidly declining dog who had diarrhea.  I didn’t like the mess and the smell – but because he is my dog, I had to deal with him with love; no, I wanted to deal with him with love, mess and all.  God is the father of every human being, mess and all.  There is a wonderful reading in the Old Testament Book of Kings that illustrates this point.   Two women living in the same house had babies at almost exactly the same time.  When the baby of one the women died, she got up in the middle of the night and stole the other woman’s baby.  The two women now claimed the same baby.  They went to King Solomon to solve their dispute.  Solomon’s way of deciding may seem strange.  He decreed that since both women claimed the baby, the baby should be cut in half and half of the baby given to each of the women.  When the real mother of the baby heard this she said, “Let the other women have the whole child and do nothing to harm him.”   The other woman said, “Let him belong to neither of us.  Cut him in half.”   The King said, “Give the baby to the woman who would give the baby away rather than to let the child be harmed.  She is obviously the child’s mother.” (1 Kings 3:16).  The wise king knew that a mother puts the well being of her child ahead of her own feelings.

The Prophet Isaiah said, “Can a woman forget her baby, can she feel not pity for the child of her womb.  Even if she should forget, I will never forget you. Look.  I have carved you on the palms of my hands.” (Isaiah 49:15)  Even if our mothers could forget us, God will never forget or abandon us.  On the Cross we were carved into the hands of God.  God doesn’t wait for us to repent first.  God doesn’t even wait for us to believe. In great mercy and love, God seeks us out always, even when we run from him.  The Church is a wise and loving old mother. The mission of the Church is to seek out and welcome every member of the human race to the happiness of God’s kingdom.   In today’s gospel Jesus says that there will be “one flock and one shepherd”.   If the Catholic Church is wise old mother Church of the western world – and I think that all the historical evidence indicates that it is, then it is our responsibility, first and foremost to speak words of peace and goodness to all of God’s children both inside and outside of the visible Catholic Church.  Parents don’t wait until they are invited by the child to love them.  God did not wait for us to repent before he sent his Son to save us.  As the Church of Christ we must be the first to speak words of love, words of peace, and words of reconciliation to every human being, no matter what they have said and done. 

The movie “The D’Vinci Code” begins showing in a few days.  It is largely a work of fiction and imagination pretending to be historical.  Most of the TV coverage that I have seen supports the position that the major thesis upon which the movie rests is fiction, not history.  The movie presents a very distorted and damaging picture of Christianity and the Catholic Church.  What should our reaction be?  A Vatican official says that we should boycott it.  I would agree that we should not see a movie that makes money by distorting, falsifying and sensationalizing the truth.   We need to protect ourselves, but with the gentle care and concern of a wise old mother. If we come out belligerent, condemning and controlling, we may convince people that the distorted image of the Catholic Church presented in the movie is in fact true.  My suggestion is that we need to be self-assured, compassionate and kind, even when we are attacked unjustly.  If we are seen as loving and forgiving as we are hung out on the Cross, just as Jesus was, then many will see a very different face of the Catholic Church. Loving those who persecute us is an image of the Good Shepherd who cared more about the lost sheep than about his personal safety.  In the end, the people who made and see this movie also need to be loved and saved.

In the Eucharist Jesus shares his own heart with us and makes us like himself.  May our reception of the Body and Blood of Jesus in communion fill us with love for every human being.  Like the Good Shepherd, may we be willing to lay down our lives even for those who misunderstand and hate us.  May our communion make us instruments of God’s peace.   For the gift of the heart of the Good Shepherd in us we give God thanks and praise.