733 James I. Harrison Jr. Parkway East - Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35405

Browsing Father Michael Deering's Sunday Homilies

The heart of God's message.....trust in God!

Homily originally presented April 22, 2018

The heart of God’s message ... trust in God!

 

We revere the Bible as ... the Holy Word of God ... 73 Books of God speaking to us

 

What’s the first thing God said to us in His Book?

Many of you may know ... the first thing God said to us in the Bible ...

is there in Genesis 1 ... where God says, “Let there be light”.

 

What’s the last thing God said to us in His Book?

Some of you may know the last thing God said to us in the Bible ...

          it’s there in Revelation 22 ... where Jesus says, “Behold I’m coming soon.”

 

Well, have you ever wondered what God says to us in the middle of His Book?

 

The middle of God’s book is Psalm 118 ...

 because there are 594 chapters that precede it and 594 chapters that follow it.

 

Now if you add the number of chapters that precede and follow together ...

 you get the number 1188 ... which amazingly can be read as Psalm 118, verse 8!

 

And, what does God have to say in Psalm 118, verse 8?

He says: “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.

 

That’s the verse at the center of the Bible ... at the very heart of God’s word!

 

That’s the verse our Cantor just sang in our Responsorial Psalm ... Psalm 118!

 

That Psalm was written 3,000 years ago and yet ...

It remains the message that God wants the whole world to hear to this day!

It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.

 

From the beginning of creation to the coming of Jesus at the end of time ...

God wants us to place our trust ... in Him!

 

But unfortunately, the World and the Evil One are constantly pushing us

to trust ... not in God ... but in ourselves ... and to seek our own destiny.

 

So this verse ... that stands at the very heart of God’s word ... remains good advice

 

In celebrating Divine Mercy Sunday, two weeks ago, we venerated

an image of Jesus that bore the expression: “Jesus, I trust in you.”

 

Those were the words Jesus instructed St. Faustina to place under His image ...

emphasizing once again that Jesus wants us to place our trust ... in Him.

 

St. Peter announced this in our First Reading from Acts ... when he said,

“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.

 

Peter clearly declares ... there’s nothing else and no one else ... in the world ...

where we will find safe and everlasting refuge ... except in God.

 

And yet, there are so many people  who ...

surround themselves with many material things.

bury themselves in their work.

are consumed with sports, or hobbies or TV or the Internet

are addicted to games or drugs or alcohol or pornography.  

commit the sins of adultery, fornication, masturbation, or sloth ...

all the while hoping to find refuge in this cold and challenging world.

 

But Jesus says ... no, take refuge in Him!

 

And to encourage us to do this, He gives us a warm and inviting image today

The image of Him as ... “The Good Shepherd”.

 

Here we have the famous Warner Sallman painting of Jesus the Good Shepherd.

 

It’s a gentle and soothing image of the Lord ... with many sheep gathered around him ... including a black sheep ... and a tiny lamb being carried in His arms.

 

The people of Jesus’ time certainly knew the role of a shepherd.

So it had to be most meaningful when Jesus said to them in our Gospel today,

I am the Good Shepherd.”

 

This was a very important statement for several reasons ...

 

First of all, it’s an “I AM” statement ... one of many that Jesus uses ...

 to reveal Himself ever more fully to the people ...

          so they would come to believe that He was God ... and trust Him!

 

In John’s Gospel Jesus says:

  • I am The Bread of Life
  • I am The Light of the World
  • I am The Gate for the sheep
  • I am The Way the Truth and the Life
  • I am the True Vine

And today he says

  • I am the Good Shepherd.

 

Notice the adjective “good”

 

Jesus is not just any shepherd ... He is a ‘Good’ Shepherd ... a description He emphasizes by pointing out that he will not run from trouble ...

but will lay down his life for his Sheep!

 

And who are his sheep?     All of us!

 

Recall the words the Risen Lord spoke to Peter after their miraculous catch of fish ... Jesus commissions Peter saying,

 

“Feed my Lambs ... Tend my Sheep ... Feed my sheep”

 

We human beings are the sheep of Jesus, the Good Shepherd,

  that He has entrusted to the care of St. Peter and his successors until He returns

 

How fortunate we are to have ... a good shepherd ...

one who is caring and trustworthy.

 

Jesus points this out in our Gospel today saying that when a hired hand sees the wolf coming ... he runs away ... because he doesn’t care about the sheep.

 

But, Jesus is not a hired hand. Jesus cares about us as our Brother and our Friend.

 

He loves us more than we could ever imagine.

 

So when trouble comes along, He’s the first one in line to lend a helping hand.

 

Jesus never runs awaywe do!

 

If we ever feel separated from God in our lives, it isn’t because Jesus has left us;

rather, it’s because we have left Him.

 

Jesus is the Good Shepherd; He is constantly looking to keep us together in His fold and He will come after us to bring us back if we ever wander away from Him.

 

There is nothing that we can do that is so bad that He will ever stop looking for us.

 

The best image of what it means to be a good shepherd comes when Jesus says,

I will lay down my life for my sheep.” And He certainly did ... on the Cross.

Jesus gave His life so that we could be saved from death

the eternal death of being separated from God in eternity.

 

 

 

Parents can easily understand what it means to be a good shepherd

by thinking of what they would do to protect their children from harm.

 

Is there any hardship that you would not endure for the sake of your child?

 

No, there’s none! Parents would rather die than to have their child hurt in any way.

 

Now, if we can have that devotion to our children, imagine how God looks at us.

 

We are God’s children.      And God did die ... to save us all!

 

St. John emphasizes this in our Second Reading today saying, “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are”

 

Do you recognize the great dignity we have to be called children of God?

 

And notice too, that Jesus did not say, “I will lay down my life for my sheep.”

Rather, He said, “I will lay down my life for the sheep.”

 

Jesus went on to explain, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.”

He said, ‘These also I must lead and there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

 

Jesus, a Jew, came to bring salvation to the Jews first, then the Gentiles.

But sadly the Jews rejected Him as Peter describes in our First reading from Acts declaring,   “Jesus is the stone rejected by you, the builders,

which has become the cornerstone.”

 

For centuries, the Jews were “the Chosen People” of God

and they were to be the builders of the Kingdom of God on earth.

But they didn’t acknowledge Jesus as God and rejected Him.

 

We announced this 5 times in our Response to Psalm 118 saying,

“The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.”

 

Jesus is the stone ... rejected by the Jews ... that has become the cornerstone of the Christian Church ... the worldwide household of God.

 

You might think, well if I was there back then, I wouldn’t have rejected Jesus!

 

Well, don’t be so sure.

 

Even with all we know about God today ... this side of the Resurrection ...

much of the world ... still rejects Him.

 

 

But He keeps looking for us ... His sheep ... you and me ...

to follow Him ...

so He can bring us to safe refuge.

 

He wants everyone to be in His flock ... enfolded in His care.

 

And we have an important role to play in this ...

helping to bring others into His flock.

 

Your Church is calling you to invest yourself in handing on the faith.

 

Over the past half year, several people helped in formally guiding 20 people through the RCIA program and into the Catholic Church at Easter!

 

All of you are capable of spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ

and gathering His flock together.

 

In your own way and in your own circles you can speak to others  

of how blessed we are to have a Good Shepherd watching over us.

 

Jesus, Our Lord and Our Friend ... is our Savior and our Shepherd,

He loves us infinitely and will never leave us.

 

So, remember the heart of God’s word there in Psalm 118 verse 8

 

It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.”

 

By following Him, we will find safe pastures in this life

          and find our way home to be with Him in Eternal Life

 

We the Sheep with the Holy Lamb of God!

Comments

There are no comments yet - be the first one to comment: