Fr. Rick Spicer

Are we destined for eternal life? Will we stand someday before the throne of God wearing white robes and waving palm leaves just as we did weeks ago? The heartfelt desire of everyone I imagine is “Yes!” and that is the Lord’s desire for us as well. As we heard moments ago, “I give them eternal life and they will not perish.”

Why does Jesus call his followers sheep? Why does the author of Revelation say, “the Lamb will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water? Why does our response to the psalm call us “his people, the sheep of his flock?”

Jesus is often described as being a good shepherd. That is one of the most beautiful images we have of Jesus. God chose shepherds, like Moses and David, to be Israel’s leaders. Prophets often spoke of Israel as a flock and God as their shepherd. It is interesting to note that among world religions, the image of shepherd and sheep is unique to Judaism and Christianity.

Consider the relationship between the shepherd and the sheep. It reflects the loving caring relationship between God and us. Like a shepherd caring for his flock, God walks with his people and cares about them, their joys and sorrows.

But why does God use the image of shepherds and sheep? Why not cowboys and cattle? Herding cattle isn’t the same. You need a bunch of cowboys to drive a herd of cattle and they have to be prodded from behind.

Shepherding sheep is different. A shepherd walks in front of his flock, whistling, singing, or speaking. The sheep follow from behind, recognizing the voice of their shepherd. As long as they can hear the shepherd’s voice, they keep following. They have to stay close enough to hear his call. As long as the shepherd is close by, wolves will not attack. When a sheep falls behind and no longer hears the shepherd’s voice, there is the danger of getting lost or attacked.

When Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice; I know them and they follow me,” he wants to stay close to us and he wants us to stay close to him so we will always hear his message, his good news of salvation. This way we can be led safely to the rich pastures and refreshing streams of a meaningful, joyful life, not just the eternal life we yearn for but also the good life we can experience here and now by heeding his advice.

Jesus is a shepherd leading us through the dark and dangerous valleys of this world by walking right beside us.  He isn’t a cowboy prodding us from behind and keeping his distance. He wants to lead the way to living life more fully. We do that by hearing his voice.

Unfortunately life in today’s world is noisy so it isn’t always easy to hear his voice. We are bombarded with so many other distracting voices and images, drawing us away from Christ with their own agenda, yet Jesus confidently says, “My sheep hear my voice; I know them and they follow me.” Are we listening to Jesus or not?

What enables us to stay close to him and avoid the traps set by those seeking to draw us away from Christ is prayer, one of God’s greatest gifts to us, which we often take for granted. Think of prayer as a conversation. So often, when we pray, we do the talking, but do we take time to listen? As our good shepherd, he is walking, talking and singing with us, so we can hear him and follow along.

Think of Jesus speaking to you when you read scripture, or listen to the readings here at Mass. No matter how noisy, dark or stormy our world becomes, Jesus knows how to make his voice heard in our hearts. We can hear our shepherd through prayer when we are alone in our quiet inner room or when we gather as a flock here at Mass.

The sheep that wander away and get stuck in a ravine or attacked by wolves cannot blame the shepherd for their misfortune. Likewise when our lives don’t fill us with the meaning we long for, instead of blaming God we should take an honest look at our prayer life. How often do you pray?

Hearing his voice depends on making time to listen. Our time to listen shouldn’t be limited to the Sunday liturgy. Think of the many opportunities we have to pray and hear the voice of the good shepherd: daily Mass, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, the rosary at home or here on Fridays, the living light prayer time on Tuesday afternoons. On your own, there is scripture, many spiritual books in our library, and liturgy of the hours, the daily prayer said by priests and nuns.

Jesus wants us to deepen our friendship with him. As with any friendship, keeping in touch is the key. Not only taking time to pray daily but also striving, no matter how difficult it gets, to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

God is not a cowboy, riding behind us with a whip and dogs snapping at our heels. Instead, God has gathered us into his flock, hoping that we will follow him through this life to the threshold of eternal life. God expects that his voice will suffice to keep us together and prevent us from straying and getting lost. So, take time often to respond to that voice with prayer so that together as a community of faith we can make this a better world.

Who would like to be judged on the basis of a single incident in our lives? Unfortunately that happens, not only when we relate to people or businesses but also to God. Some times we write some people or God off because of an unfriendly encounter or a bad experience with them. We don’t give them a second chance, much less a third or forth one.

When we are tuned into God, our lives can be transformed. Being responsive to God at times requires that we be counter-cultural to the world around us. When someone stands out from the crowd because of a certain uniqueness or eccentricity, we say that person is marching to the beat of a different drummer. When someone stands out because he or she is listening to the whispers of God, that person is said to be a committed believer. Each of the readings today offers us an example of such committed believers.

When the high priest demanded that Peter and the apostles listen to him and obey his orders, Peter boldly defended his stance, saying, “Better for us to obey God then men!” He is so right. God’s message of love has remained unchanged. Imbedded in that message is God’s blueprint on how to live our lives as committed believers.

Through the ages, many Christians have taken those words to heart and have at times paid a heavy price for their fidelity. I am mindful of Archbishop Oscar Romero who was martyred while celebrating Mass. Nelson Mandela who was imprisoned for years because of his struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Dorothy Day who spoke out courageously against war and for workers’ rights. Even as old woman, she was arrested for her efforts. Like Peter, they dared to speak up in the name of Jesus and the Good News. They all broke the law because they knew and responded fearlessly to a greater law, God’s law of love.

Not all people who obey God rather than human authority are so famous. Think of the ordinary families who hid Jews during the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, who risked their own freedom and lives because they obeyed God’s law of love imprinted on their hearts. In our country, we can recall the men and women who hid slaves in the underground railroad. Listening to the basic message of the Gospel, they knew that God’s law is for us to love others as ourselves. They broke the law because they knew of a greater law in their hearts because they listened to the beat of a different drum.

In the passage from Revelation, John shared his vision of angels, living creatures and elders, too numerous to count, praising God, “To the one seated on the throne, and to the Lamb, be praise and honor, glory and might, forever and ever!” To which the living creatures acclaimed, “Amen!”  This ancient Hebrew word means, “I believe! I agree!” In effect, they were saying that Jesus is the one to be honored. So have those Christians who defied unjust man-made laws. Do we say the same? Like Peter and the apostles, do we live our faith with zealous conviction as they did?

What compelled Peter to be so bold? He knew that Jesus had forgiven him for denying him on the eve of the passion. Jesus hadn’t written him off; to the contrary, Jesus was giving him another chance. In the Gospel passage, the risen Lord offered provocative advice to them. By listening and following his directives, they were rewarded with a great catch of fish. Their continued listening required that they march to the beat of a different drummer, not that of the Jewish authorities nor the Romans, but Christ himself.

Two thousand years later, the divine drummer continues to tap out the message of salvation that can best be summed up in the question that Jesus posed to Peter three times, “Do you love me?” As with Peter, it’s easy for us to say, “Yes, Lord, I love you. You know that I love you.” But that love has to be shown. Jesus told Peter, “Feed my lambs…tend my sheep…feed my sheep.” I hear Jesus asking us to prove our love with acts that demonstrate compassion, forgiveness, mercy, responding to the beat of our heavenly drummer, just as countless Christians have done through the centuries.

In our individual lives, in our parish, in our archdiocese, we continue the work of Christ in countless ways, directly as volunteers or indirectly through financially and prayerfully supporting the Church in its ministry.

One significant way we can play an active role is by supporting the Annual Catholic Appeal.  Support of its many programs enables us to feed the hungry, find housing for the homeless, counsel for the troubled, provide faith formation for all who believe, training for those who will minister in our parishes. Your donation helps us to feed our lambs and tend our sheep. Your contribution to the Annual Catholic Appeal is one way you can say to Jesus, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. I am tending your flock.”

This past week, if you are registered in a parish, you should have received a letter from Archbishop Etienne along with a prayer card and pledge envelope, asking for your support. As he said in his letter, the light of Christ is everywhere! What we cannot do alone, we can do together. This year, the goal set for our parish is $41,700. As you know, any amount over that is returned to the parish. Last year our rebate exceeded $7200. I thank those who listened to the tune of a different drummer and generously supported the Annual Catholic Appeal in the past and hope that together we can be Christ to others.

“Blessed are they who have not seen and have believed,” Jesus said to a once doubtful Thomas. Well, I guess that includes you and me. We have not seen the risen Lord and yet we believe he is risen. Like us, many early Christians never saw Jesus during his earthly ministry either. Their belief rested on the faith and spoken words of others who had. Like them, we received our faith in the same way.

On Easter Sunday we heard about the resurrection with the discovery of the empty tomb. Mary Magdalene and Simon Peter were the heroes in that story. Mary and her friends had gone to the tomb before daybreak and discovered that the body of Jesus was missing. They shared the news with the eleven and others gathered in the upper room. Peter ran to the tomb and went away amazed at what had happened. He found the tomb to be just as he had been told.

Even though Jesus had foretold what would happen, the disciples didn’t consider the possibility of resurrection. Had their unbelief persisted, a community of faith would never have emerged. Deceived and let down, the disciples would have gone their separate ways. Peter and Andrew would have gone back to fishing for a livelihood. With Jesus dead and gone, what would have kept them together? Yet, we are gathered here today because something astonishing happened. They witnessed the risen Lord and came to believe in all that he had told them would happen.

How did that transformation from unbelief to belief take place? When Jesus appeared in their midst that first night, the disciples at last believed in the resurrection. Jesus identified himself by showing them his wounds. Now, fully convinced that he was no ghost, they rejoiced. The exception was Thomas, who wasn’t there that night.

Thomas is often given the bum rap for being doubtful but his initial response makes sense. Wouldn’t you have reacted in the same way if your closest friend made such an absurd claim? He insisted that he could not believe what he was told without some proof. A week later, Thomas got the proof he demanded when Jesus appeared and invited him to see for himself the wounds that he had endured. “Do not persist in your unbelief, but believe!”

Jesus then asks Thomas, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

Perhaps you have heard of Flannery O’Connor, a Catholic author who lived in Georgia and died nearly 60 years ago. She wrote of faith as being a life long process of moving from a child’s unquestioning faith to a mature, tested faith. There is much suffering in the doubts of those who want to believe, she noted, yet that is the way to a deepened faith. In The Habit of Being, she writes,

“I think there is no suffering greater than what is caused by the doubts of those who want to believe. I know what torment this is, but I can only see it, in myself anyway, as the process by which faith is deepened. A faith that just accepts is a child’s faith and is all right for children, but eventually you have to grow religiously as in every other way, though some never do.

“What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross. It is much harder to believe than not believe. If you feel you can’t believe, you must as least do this; keep an open mind. Keep it open toward faith, keep wanting it, keep asking for it, and leave the rest to God.”

In his prayer, “blessed are they who have not seen and have believed,” Jesus is speaking of us and all other Christians who have come to faith in the resurrection and his divine mercy since that profound evening, not by seeing firsthand the wounds of his side but by the testimony of others. Jesus is speaking to you and me, to those who dare to stand together publicly and profess the faith that has been handed on to us. Jesus is speaking of us as being blessed because someone, most likely our parents, cared enough to share their faith in the risen Christ with us. Jesus is speaking of you and me, trusting that we will follow in the footsteps of past generations, passing on the good news to the children of today so that future generations will never be denied the opportunity to live with trust in the risen Christ.

Speaking of trust, today we honor Jesus by trusting in him. At the start of this millennium, Pope John Paul instituted this feast to remind us that God’s divine mercy is greater by far than our sins. God seeks to forgive us, yet do we trust God to do that? All we need to do is approach God with a contrite heart. Yet like Thomas, we find that challenging to truly believe the good news of divine mercy that Jesus offers us.

We cannot place our fingers in Jesus’ wounds, but we can say, as Thomas did, “My Lord and my God!”  Doing so entails deepening our faith and not taking our belief for granted. Just as Thomas did, we need to ponder our faith in Jesus and our Catholic beliefs. In these difficult times, when coping with inflation, the war in Ukraine, the pandemic, issues that impact us close to home, we can be tempted to lose our trust in Jesus, yet now more than ever, we need to trust that God is with us, urging us to live with a faith that sustains us in our most trying moments. Jesus is speaking to us now, just as he did to the apostles, “Peace be with you! Be not afraid! I am here to free you from your fears.”

If historians were to list ten events that shaped the world, what happened on that first Easter morning would be included. Without the resurrection, Jesus would be nothing more than a footnote in history. Most likely he would be listed along with other religious leaders who simply came and went. But Jesus was different. Unlike them, he rose from the dead.

One could argue that no singular event has had a greater impact on world history than what happened that morning when Mary Magdalene and her companions discovered the empty tomb. Told that Jesus was not there and that he had risen, they returned to the disciples and told them the startling news. Luke gives us no details of the event but he tells us that Peter went home from the empty tomb amazed at what had happened.

Those who cannot believe what happened come up with any number of explanations; the body was stolen from the tomb, or Jesus wasn’t really dead when he was taken down from the cross and he was drugged when he was placed in the tomb. But the story we are told has stood the test of time. The Lord has risen! Those who later saw the risen Christ never altered their testimony even when threatened with death.

Why does this even matter to us today? For one thing, what happened to Jesus gives us reason to believe that life is more than that span of time from the womb to the tomb. Until Jesus came on the scene, the Jews envisioned the Messiah only as a worldly leader who would liberate them from the Romans, but Jesus kept telling them that his kingdom was not of this world. But where else could it be if its not here? The notion that we could someday be living in a different dimension made little sense until the resurrection took place.

By his resurrection, Jesus left evidence that our time here is a stepping-stone to a new life beyond death. What he said in those few years as he wondered the shores of Galilee and the hills of Judea was the good news that he would free us from the oppression of sin and suffering in this lifetime as well. 

We are celebrating more than just an historical event that happened 2000 years ago. We are celebrating the impact that event continues to have on our lives today. The awareness that life for us can be renewed, rejuvenated and made whole.

We are to live the joy of Jesus’ resurrection as we journey toward our own. Like Jesus, we can emerge from our tombs, not just the ones that will be someday be our final earthly resting places, but also the tombs we bury ourselves in during this lifetime. The risen Christ gives us the grace to resist temptations and experience forgiveness. We can leave behind the desert experience of our past sins to experience our own resurrection by choosing to deepen our relationship with God. Each time we show love to others, we share in the resurrection.

The resurrection of Jesus is the heart of our Christian faith. Having witnessed the risen Christ, the apostles went forth to proclaim the good news. Nothing could keep them entombed for they had seen first-hand that Jesus had triumphed over death. They were moved to share the news that nothing can defeat us any more, not pain, not sorrow, not rejection, not even death.

Most likely you have never heard of Nikolai Ivanovich Bukarin. He was a very powerful man in the early days of the Soviet Union. I read that in 1930 he addressed a huge assembly of Communists in Kyiv, Ukraine, on the subject of atheism, with the intent of trying to disprove the premises of Christianity.

When done, he asked if there were any questions. Silence filled the auditorium. Then a man went on the stage and looked over the audience. He then shouted the ancient greeting known well in the Orthodox Church, “Christ is risen!” En masse the crowd arose and responded like a clap of thunder, “He is risen indeed!”

Nikolai learned that faith in Christ’s resurrection was deeply rooted in the people of Ukraine. The faith expressed then in Kiev sustains the resistance of the people in Ukraine today.

Yes, the ultimate greatness of Easter is more than a past event. Easter, as shown by that assembly in Kyiv decades ago, is an unfolding mystery that has touched and will continue to touch countless lives. The real proclamation of the gospel isn’t “Look what happened to Jesus!” No, the real message is “Look at what can happen to us!” for the message of Easter is that the resurrection has the power to transform our lives.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! My friends, a blessed Easter to you! Not just this day, but throughout this season, which lasts until Pentecost on June 4 and beyond until we meet our risen Lord in the halls of heaven.

Whenever we go on trips, most of us pick up souvenirs to remember the places we visit. On my last trip to the Holy Land and Egypt, I picked up icons, a Coptic cross, and a carpet depicting the tree of life made from camel hair. Today, each of us received a souvenir of Holy Week, a simple and yet profound reminder of a journey we have just begun; namely a palm branch.

We began our journey at the Mount of Olives near Bethany, where Jesus mounted a colt and rode into the city amid cries, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.” We ventured with him into the Upper Room where he shared his last Passover with the apostles, a meal that has been celebrated many times since around the world at every Mass. From there we trekked back to the Mount of Olives where Jesus prayed fervently while the disciples slept.

After Jesus was arrested, we found ourselves in the high priest’s courtyard where we heard Peter deny Jesus three times, then we heard a cock crow. How often have we denied knowing Jesus in the past year? Then we witnessed his trial where he was mocked before Pilate in a place called Antonia’s fortress. There, Jesus admitted to being king of the Jews, but not the kind of king that his followers anticipated. I will never forget walking the Via Dolorosa in the snow to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. My feet were cold and wet but my discomfort paled compared to what Jesus endured for us. Before long, we were at the Place of the skull where the soldiers crucified him and divided his garments.

I hope your palm branch will remind you of what we have seen and heard from the words of praise that greeted Jesus as he came into Jerusalem to his dying words, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,” to the words spoken by the centurion, “This man was innocent beyond doubt.”

Don’t discard your branch when you get home. Save it as a precious souvenir of the passion of Jesus. Treat your palm with reverence, perhaps mounting it behind a crucifix or icon as a reminder that Jesus is our king and savior. These palm branches are more than a souvenir of a past event; they invite us to recount our salvation history during Holy week.

A week from today, your palm branch will be more than a yellowed souvenir of this day. It will be a symbol to display proudly in your home as a reminder that someday you too will rise from the dead and feast with our risen Lord at the heavenly banquet.

I wonder how many who waved palm branches to welcome Jesus were later party to his death, crying out, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” or jeered at him as he hung on the cross, disillusioned that he hadn’t met their expectation of the Messiah. It is easy to say that they were fickle, one moment supporting Jesus and the next rejecting him. Jesus did not meet their great expectations that.

History shows that during times of adversity, economic upheaval, and stress, many once faithful Christians have done the same, fleeing Christ, as though they were saying, “You let us down! Good by!” Have we done the same, lamenting the war in Ukraine or high inflation or this endless pandemic? When we begin to recognize the depth of God’s love, demonstrated by what Jesus did for us, we will become faithful rather than fickle followers. Now is a time for us to embrace Christ more than ever, knowing that Jesus is here to save us in these challenging times.

May these palms remind us daily that despite the many Good Fridays we encounter, Easter will always dawn.