Good Shepherd Sunday
WRITTEN BY
Fr. Joe Stack
READ TIME
5min.
You are reading this in the Easter Season, and hopefully not too far distant from the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday, 3 May in 2020, a day of prayer for vocations on the National Calendar for New Zealand. The Pope publishes a reflection on this day, usually on some aspect of Christ the Good Shepherd, because the Gospel is always a passage from John 10, wherein the evangelist reflects on the Shepherd image as applied to Jesus.
Not that it matters too much when you are reading this, as long as it encourages you to pray urgently, earnestly, unremittingly for vocations to the ministerial priesthood; especially, but not only, for our Diocese of Hamilton. You may also have an opportunity, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to talk to a (young) man and ask him a question. The question you would ask is, “Are you listening?” Not to you, but to the voice of God.
Who is this man? Someone from your own family perhaps, an acquaintance, a work colleague, a locking partner in the scrum (when we get back to playing sport), someone you’ve met in the local hardware store queue; in short anyone! It is a common experience of those helping young men to discern a call from God that very few aspirants to the priesthood enter the Seminary out of a family experience that is a stable, harmonious, Catholic household where everything is tidy and perpetually cheerful!
In brief, it may take years of prayer and discernment before your candidate may get to the Seminary and through the study to ordination. What a gift though to be able to introduce someone to the process that will lead him to the heart of Christ!
May 3rd is the day that Holy Cross Seminary acknowledges as its foundation day. This year it is also Good Shepherd Sunday; ordinarily, it would be the Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles. When Holy Cross College was founded in 1900, it was a feast of the Discovery of the Holy Cross, acknowledging the uncovering of the cross upon which Jesus was crucified, by Saint Helena (mother of Emperor Constantine); at the site of the hill of Calvary in Jerusalem (now where the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre stands).
And there is another change this year! Yes, the Gospel on the Fourth Sunday of Easter still takes up the Sheep and Shepherd imagery, but in his reflection, Pope Francis never mentions shepherding or the apparatus a shepherd uses to keep his flock safe and secure. Instead, he has a water-based focus for his message. He uses the account from Matthew's Gospel of Peter stepping out of the boat to go to Jesus who is walking on the water (Matt 14:22-32).
Pope Francis' message is constructed around four words that were the foundations for another letter he wrote to priests around the world in August last year on the 160th anniversary of the death of the Cure of Ars, Saint John Vianney. The four words are (in no particular order) pain, gratitude, encouragement, praise.
Gratitude: Pope Francis describes this as the first word of vocation. Jesus accompanies and guides us, and prevents us from running aground on the shoals of indecision, and even enables us to walk on surging waters!
Encouragement: When Jesus walks towards the disciples on the sea, they think he is a ghost and become filled with fear. Jesus immediately reassures them with words that should constantly accompany our lives and our vocational journey, "Take heart! It is I; Have no fear!" (Mat 14:27).
Pain: Pope Francis would like to amend it this year to fatigue, which can overwhelm us. In last year’s letter, he was specific about where this pain came from: it is not only caused by the challenges of one's pastoral situation, but also by the pain inflicted on individual parishioners and the Church as a whole by the abuse perpetrated by a few. The frustration and disheartenment caused to brother priests, and the laity, by those sinful acts is great. He speaks of “these present times of ecclesial purification,” and of, “our humble repentance and the unfathomable grandeur of God’s forgiveness as the beginning of a renewal of our holiness.” Take heart, do not be afraid, Jesus is at our side, and if we acknowledge him as the one Lord of our lives, he will stretch out his hand, take hold of us and save us.
Praise: Even amid the storm-tossed waters, our lives become open to praise. It is an invitation to cultivate the interior disposition of the Blessed Virgin Mary; grateful, faithful, courageous. She made of her life an eternal song of praise to the Lord.
On Good Shepherd Sunday let us do as Pope Francis asks each of us, and continue to pray for and promote vocations. Let us use his message for World Vocations Day as a basis for our prayer and reflection, asking the Lord to guide us in our endeavours, specifically to be alert for someone to ask if he would be open to discerning a call to be a priest in our Diocese.
The Regina Coeli is said in the Easter Season (rather than the Hail Holy Queen or The Angelus). A suggestion is to pray it as part of your daily prayers, asking our Blessed Mother for guidance and understanding before and after you read Pope Francis’ message. Pray it before you approach those young men whom the Lord is calling to be priests from out of the midst of their often messy, complex lives.
This reflection was written at a time when the Diocese has farewelled four priests in the space of a few weeks. All of these men over many years of sailing in the Barque of Peter amidst turbulent seas and seemingly diminished (“in the eyes of the unwise”) returns whenever they paid out the net for a catch, laboured generously and tirelessly for the sake of Christ and the people he had entrusted to their care. May Monsignor Des McCarthy, Monsignor Michael Browne, Father Graeme Alexander and Father Nick Hoogeveen rest in peace; may their good deeds reap a rich harvest.
References:
Vultus Christi (website with a translation of and reflections on the Rule of St Benedict)
Letter to Priests on 160th Anniversary of the Death of Holy Cure of Ars, St John Vianney, (4th August 2019 – Pope Francis).
Message for 2020 World Day of Vocations - 3rd May 2020 (8th March 2020 – Pope Francis).
