A Great Gift from God

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Today the Universal Church, the Diocese of Lansing, and St. Joseph parish receive a great gift: the gift of new members.  This is not a great gift because of two more people who are Catholic, as if we’re in a bean counting operation.  It’s not like the joke about the Northern Irishman who was a member of the Church of England, but who became Catholic in the last weeks of his life.  When asked by his family, who also were members of the Church of England, why he would do such a thing and repudiate a lifetime of devotion to his family church, he said he loved the Church of England so much that he would rather have a Catholic lose a member through death than a member of the Church of England.  It’s not like that.

Today is not a great gift because it proves an ideological point about differences in theology.  Theology is important, and there are important truth claims made by the Catholic Church which are contested by other Christian communities.  Even while we share our faith in Jesus Christ and with most Christian communities recognize the one Sacrament of Baptism, there are very significant differences about how each church and community believe Jesus has revealed His will about faith, morality, and ecclesial governance.  But today’s reception into the Catholic Church is not a bragging occasion for one group over and against the other.  

Today is a great gift because Josh and Lindsey are receiving a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and new experience of God’s grace, which is His very life, in the Sacrament of Confirmation.  Today is a great gift because Josh and Lindsey are receiving our very Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, into themselves in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, and will have, for the first time, the most intimate union with Jesus that they can have on this side of eternity.  These two candidates will profess the Nicene Creed with us and will both say that they believe and profess everything the Catholic Church teaches us as revealed by God through Scripture and the teachings of the Apostles and their successors.  That is a great gift because, by that profession, their union with us, already established in a way through baptism, will be strengthened and solidified, and the promise of Jesus that there will be one flock is closer to being true.

Their witness today reminds us that Jesus is the only means of salvation.  They claimed that salvation when they were baptized.  They died with Christ in the waters of baptism and rose with Him to new life, with the pledge that if they follow the voice of the Good Shepherd, they will receive that promised inheritance of eternal life with God.  Their witness reminds us today that Jesus is the Good Shepherd who looks for His sheep even in other folds, and leads them closer to Him, so that there is only one flock under the leadership of one Shepherd.  

Their witness today as children of God, becoming more like God through reception of these two new Sacraments, is a reminder to us that we are called to be like Jesus, and that He Himself changes us, divinizes us, makes us like God, so that, at the end of our lives, we are prepared to see God as He is.  

There are many wolves who try to attack the fold and divide it, as wolves have in the past.  How many times in the history of the Catholic Church have misunderstandings led to division when a greater love could have kept Christians united in love?  How many times has Satan tried to lead the sheep astray so that they did not follow the Good Shepherd’s voice, but followed the voice of pride, hatred, division, and partisanship?  In the midst of these sad divisions, Jesus today gathers more sheep into His fold, sheep that belonged to Him by baptism, but who today receive the fullness of the graces of initiation in His flock.

Today is also a great day because it should impel us and reinvigorate in us the desire to bring others into this fold and receive those same graces.  The voice of the Good Shepherd does not go silent as we pass out of the doors of this church building.  The voice of the Good Shepherd is meant to lead us in all moments of our life.  And because we are the sheep of Jesus’ fold, our bleats as sheep should draw other sheep to this fold.  Our voices should encourage those who are Catholic but who have not practiced their faith back to an active life in the fold.  Our voices should encourage those who are already baptized but who are not fully one with us in our Catholic faith to learn more about the Catholic Church and listen to hear if the voice of the Good Shepherd is calling them to union with us.  Our voices should encourage those who are not baptized to recognize Jesus, the Good Shepherd, as the only means of salvation, so that they can share in Jesus’ death and resurrection in the Sacrament of Baptism, be strengthened to proclaim Jesus through the gift of the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Confirmation, and find the most perfect union on earth with Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist.  

Josh and Lindsey: you are a great gift to us and a reminder of the call of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, that we all have heard at one point in our life.  Thank you for responding to that call.  As fellow Catholics with us in just a few moments, we ask you to encourage us to listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd as you did, and to help others to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd by the witness of our lives and our words.  Welcome to the flock!