Homily fourth Sunday of Easter (year B, April 29th 2012)

Have you ever heard of a student without a teacher?
Or a teacher without students?


Can there be a son or daughter without parents?
How about a parent without a child?


Can there be a husband without a wife... or a wife without a husband?


Think about life.  Think about how real life works and I think you may discover that the popular idea that we are all, "self-sufficent individuals" is really not that true.  In fact we all are effected and influenced by others in our lives.  Each and every one of us is who we are because of the effect and influence of others.


Think about the effect that your teachers have had on you.  Think about the effect that your parents, or those who raised you, had on you.  Think about those who you love and how they help make you who you are.


Show me who you have learned from and I'll tell you something about who you are.
Show me who raised you and I'll tell you something about who you are.
Show me who you love and those that love you and I'll tell you something about who you are!

This is something worth keeping in mind as we hear Jesus tell us that He is our Good Shepherd. (John 10:11-18) Jesus said, "I am the Good Shepherd,  I know mine and mine know me."  Do you know Jesus?


I think that we often think of our life as Christians as a list of things that we have to do and what we should not do.  We also tend to think of our Christian faith as what we are told to believe and what we are not supposed to believe.  Don't get me wrong, these things are important... but they are not the point of being Christian.


Do you know Jesus?


Do you know Him as your Good Shepherd?  Do you know Him and encounter His presence in the pains, sufferings, sicknesses, stresses, sorrows, anxieties, worries, and difficulties?  Do you experience Jesus as your Good Shepherd who suffers with you, comforts you, and supports you when life is hard?  He's not a someone who will take all the pains away and make life a perfectly pleasant experience, but do you know Him as your Good Shepherd when life is hard?


Do you know Him as your Good Shepherd when life is going well?  He said, "I am the Good Shepherd and I will lay down my life for the sheep."  Do you experience Jesus as your Good Shepherd who challenges you to lay down your life for others?  


I really believe that the most common and the most evil sin in our world today is selfishness.  Do you know Jesus as your Good Shepherd who challenges you to lay down your life for others and to run away from ever form of selfishness?

Do you know Jesus?

Our second reading (1 John 3:1-2) tells us that we are now the Children of God... Do you know God as your father?

In the first reading (Acts 4: 8-12) we hear St. Peter tell us that,
"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." At the time that this was written the idea that you knew someone's name was not just that you knew something about them.
Rather if you knew someone's name that meant that you knew them personally. 

 Do you know Jesus?

This precisely is what "salvation" really is.  We can make the idea of salvation very complicated but it is nothing more than having a close relationship with Jesus.

It is Here (I was pointing at the altar when I said this)... It is here at mass that we encounter our Lord!

It is here (I was lifting up the lectionary/book of scripture to show it to people)... it is here were we get to know Jesus!

Take you Bible off of the shelf at home, blow the dust off, open it, and read it.  Meditate on what you read.  It is there where we encounter your Good Shepherd.

Most especially it is in your personal prayer where you will learn to know Christ as your Good Shepherd.  Do you pray?  Do you enter into deep and meaningful prayer regularly.  It is there where you develop a relationship with Jesus as your Good Shepherd.

Think about those who you have learned from...

Think about your parents and those who raised you...

Think about those who you love and those that love you...

Do you know Jesus?