Deacon Cornell’s Homily

The image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd has probably been one of the most popular ways of picturing Jesus throughout history. In fact, Pastor and Pastoral come from the Latin word for shepherd. It is still an image that is rich and meaningful for people who live in Stow because we actually have real sheep and their shepherd in town. For most people today, it is hard get what today's Gospel passage is trying to convey. Most people think that sheep are dumb animals who just follow a leader around blindly. Recent science shows that sheep are actually pretty smart. They follow the herd closely because that is the safest thing to do when threatened by a predator. Sheep can remember up to 10 human faces for more that 2 years, and they recognize the voice of their shepherd no matter how hard you try to fool them.

These characteristics of sheep make today's readings especially important in this season of sacraments of initiation. Over the next few weeks in our parish, we will see some of our children be baptized, others making their First Communion, and others celebrating the Sacrament of Confirmation. These sacramental celebrations should be powerful reminders to us of our mission as the body of Christ. Because we have been initiated through these sacraments to be the Body of Christ, we are called to continue Christ's mission of being the Good Shepherd, of calling all to the safety and the peace of Christ, and protecting them against the threats we encounter in the world. S

In that first reading, St. Peter makes it clear that there is no other means of salvation than the name of Jesus. Now this does not mean all someone has to do is speak Jesus' name to be saved. Peter is using the metaphor of Jesus' name to stand for the person of Christ. And salvation is never personal; it is always communal. And as Christians, we know that salvation requires the incarnation of God in the person of Christ. And we know that by the sacraments of initiation, we have been called to be that incarnation here and now.

Through baptism we are incorporated into the body of Christ, in Confirmation we are strengthened in our mission as part of the Church, and in communion we are continually formed more completely into that body. The common name we use for Eucharist indicates this: communion, together, becoming one. The signs we use in the Eucharist remind us of it: bread - one loaf from many grains of wheat, wine - one drink made from the juice of many grapes. Even our posture speaks to it. Here at St. Isidore we all stand while we all receive communion so that our posture is reinforcing what the sacrament is doing. This is why the 2004 General Instructionsfor the Roman Missal specify that the normative stance for receiving communion is standing. This is hard for some of us because we grew up going back to our pew and kneeling. But if you remember, when a lot of us first received communion, we knelt to receive so it made sense to kneel when we got back to our pew so that we would be one in posture with all who were receiving. Now that we stand, we all stand until we all have received, then we all kneel or sit to reflect silently.

And the purpose of being formed into the body of Christ is to bring salvation to all creation. It is so that God's kingdom comes, and God's will is done here on earth as it is in heaven. How God makes this happen is a mystery so we will never completely understand it, but those two short verses from the first letter of John give us one image of how God's plan to transform the world into His kingdom works.

Those verses say that we are now children of God, really and truly because Jesus' paschal mystery has made us his brothers and sisters. The author goes on to say that what we will be has not been revealed, and here we can understand this "we will be" to refer to what will happen to us individually when we die and stand face to face with God, or to what will happen, when at the second coming, all creation will be transformed into paradise and stand face to face with God. But even though we cannot comprehend what we will be like when we come face to face with God, the author goes on to say that we know that we will be like God because we will see God as God really is.

When we come face to face with someone who really and deeply loves us, it changes us. Those of you who have experienced any kind of deeply loving relationship know that. Love changes us. Coming face to face with Love itself will change us into love. That is God's plan for changing the world. By becoming incarnate, God who is Love changes anyone for the better who takes the time to encounter that love. This plan started with God choosing a special people to incarnate his love in the form of the Law. Then in the fullness of time he sent his only begotten Son, who is God, to become human and make Love incarnate in the person of Jesus. Now Jesus calls us who have been baptized to be the mystical Body of Christ, making the God who is Love incarnate right here and now, and through all of the world and all of time.

This is one way that I visualize God's plan. How many here have ever done one of those jigsaw puzzles with hundreds of pieces? When you only have a few pieces together you can’t tell what the picture is. But as you start to put in more pieces, even before you have it filled in, if you step back and squint a little, you can start to see the picture. If all of us who have been baptized start to act like Christians, start to love the way Jesus loves us, then someone passing by might stop and squint and see God. That person will then be transformed and want to join us, adding one more piece to the puzzle so that the next person coming by can see this image of God a little better, and so on and so on till we become like God because we see God as God really is.

Salvation has come to this world through Christ. 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. We have to realize that these words are not talking about who gets to heaven when they die. They certainly do not mean that everyone has to become a Christian. They are simply stating the truth about God's plan for the salvation of all creation. But that salvation is not yet complete. That completion depends on the body of Christ making Love increasingly more present in this world by living out our initiation into the Church. Eucharist is the continual renewal of our initiation to be the body of Christ to all we meet.

Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. So as we celebrate this Eucharist, may receiving this Communion form us more fulling into the Body of Christ the Good Shepherd, so that salvation will come sooner rather than later.

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