4th Sunday of Easter B - Homily 4

 Homily 4 - 2018

The Good Shepherd knows his sheep … as the Father knows him. That knowledge originates in, and is facilitated by, love.

As Jesus looks at his Church today, he sees a Church where we are hurting, bewildered, uncertain of ourselves. We are called to unity, to responsibility for each other; but that mutual caring is under tremendous pressure. We find it hard to work ourselves out. We find it harder to work each other out; we can even feel hostile towards each other.

We do not understand each other. Jesus does – He knows his sheep. That is why he loves us. It is also why he does not condemn us. He condemns none of us. He understands us all. He knows why we sin. He knows the brokenness, the hurting, the woundedness within us all.

We do not understand each other because we do not listen to each other, we do not listen with “the ears of our heart”, we do not listen from the vantage point of love. We need to listen, to listen differently, to listen sensitively to each other… so that we better understand, better interact, better support each other … in order to be a caring Church, a good Church to belong to, inspiring, a Church where we all support each other.

We have the invitation, the opportunity, the vehicle precisely for that in the up-coming Plenary Council, dated for 2020. The two years in between, beginning from now, can be just that opportunity to listen and to share, to suggest how we might become that Church for which Jesus willingly gave his life.