my sheep - 4th sunday easter B

In our gospel today the smallest word makes a big difference.  The word is “mine” - I know mine and mine know me.  Jesus is referring not just to any sheep but to his sheep, my sheep.  This possessive personal pronoun spells the difference between the good shepherd and the hired man.  The good shepherd will lay down his life for the sheep because it is his sheep.  But the hired man will run away at the first sign of danger because he only works for pay.  It is not his sheep anyway.

There is a big difference between owner and manager, between mother and yaya, between real proprietor and a mere leaser, between shepherd and hired man.  Or if not, one can at least see a difference in management or in treatment when there is what we call an “owning,” or when I take things as “my” own.  The difference is in the words mine and my - this is my child, this is my house, this is my store, this is my land, and as Jesus said, this is “my sheep”. 

By saying "my sheep" Jesus is making a claim.  He claims us as his own.  He chooses us as his own.  Now, we are not just any sheep – we are products and results of God’s choice, of God’s decision - we are "His sheep," we are his flock and because of such choice He is our Shepherd - the Lord is my Shepherd.  This is what it means to be a chosen people, a people peculiarly his own.

Today, Good Shepherd Sunday, is also the World Day of Prayer for Vocations.  Today the church repeats the command of the Lord to us “to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest."

The idea of a vocation comes from the reality that God created us on purpose.  We are not just the result of some random formation of atoms and matter.  We are not products of natural selection.  We were willed, we were chosen, we were created for a reason and with a purpose in mind.  Thus our second reading says:  See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God.

Our catechism reminds us that God created us in order to know, to love and to serve him in this life so as to live with him forever in heaven.  This is our general vocation, this is our purpose - to know, to love and to serve God in this life so as to live with him forever in heaven.  Some call this the vocation to holiness.  Others simply call it the vocation to love.  This is our general vocation.

Now how do we live out our general vocation, how do we serve God, how do we show and express our love for Him in this life so that we can live with him forever in heaven.  How?  Now this is our particular vocation.  The manner we live our general vocation is our particular vocation.  Many of you by discerning God’s will in your life have chosen to know, love and serve God by forming a family, by loving a husband or a wife, by raising up children through marriage.  Others have chosen to live a dedicated single life, setting aside marriage so that he or she can dedicate his or her life for others with single-hearted devotion.  Still others, after discerning God’s call for them, chose to serve and love God through the consecrated religious life by becoming a nun or a brother or a monk.  Here they dedicate themselves to God entirely in the service of others.  And still others chose to love and serve him by becoming a priest.  A particular vocation is not a job, it is not an employment.  It is a way of living out our general vocation.  It is my way of loving God, my way of serving God, it is what I discerned to be God’s way of leading me to heaven.

I am like you a human person, I believe I was created by God with a reason, I have a purpose, I have a mission, I have a vocation.  I decided to become a priest because in my own discernment this is what I believe God wanted me to become.  This is where I can know, love and serve him so that in the end I can live with him forever in heaven.  This is my reason for being in this world.  This, for me, is the reason why God created me. 

You have your own vocation and all these vocations are equally wonderful because in our own way of loving and in our own way of serving we build up the same family of God, the church.  My commitment to the church as a priest, your commitment to your family as husband or wife, the commitment of a religious to his work in the church – all of these build up the body of Christ.

Today however we need to pray to God for the increase of vocations to the priesthood and the religious life.  We need to encourage young people to commit themselves to God if they feel they are called.  We need to support them. 

Few are responding to this particular call.  Although there is a slight increase in the number of priests, the numbers are not yet enough to serve the spiritual needs of so many families and so many people. 

And yet the number of nun, religious sisters has been sliding since the 1950’s, and it has never showed any sign of increase ever since.  Convents especially in the first world countries are closing down due to this perennial lack. 

Today we need to pray, we need to encourage and we need to support vocations to the priesthood and the religious life.  We need to pray because it is God who calls; it is God who chooses; it is God who gives us our purpose and mission. 

We need to encourage because in a secularized world the religious life is no longer attractive; we need to encourage too because commitments can be too scary for young people, it can overwhelm, it can even paralyze us to indecision. 

And finally, we need to support those who have an attraction to the religious vocation, those who are studying to become priests, those who are making an initial response.  We need to support because vocations can only prosper with the support and encouragement first of the family and then the parish community.

Today is World Day of Prayer for Vocations.  In all the churches not just in our country but all over the world today we are asked to pray for vocations, specifically for the increase of vocations to the priesthood and religious life. This is an appropriate time to pray for this intention because our gospel is consequently telling us that we are what we are today because of the choice of God.  We are His sheep and He is our Good Shepherd.