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Our Archdiocese has three seminarians, Nicholas Barry (1st Yr), Cinnil Thomas (2^nd Yr) and Bran Grgic (3^rd Yr).  I mention this as today’s Gospel portrays Jesus as the ‘Good Shepherd’, the one willing to lay down his life for his sheep.  After the model of the Good Shepherd, diocesan priests are called to serve the people of God in a parish setting.  They are called to know their peoples’ struggles and aspirations and their joys and sorrows as God’s Spirit moves therein (cf. ‘Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, n. 1, Vatican 11, 1965).  Pope Francis urges clergy to have “the smell of the sheep” (Chrism Mass 2013).  In the same vein, he has cautioned seminarians not “to apply theories without considering the environment in which they will be working or the people entrusted to their care” (Vatican News, 7/6/2021).  Such insistence is founded on a fundamental understanding of the mission of the Church.  Recently I quoted esteemed spiritual write Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI.  Rolheiser maintains that many Christians are more theists than Christian. “A theist believes in a God in heaven whereas a Christian believes in a God in heaven who is also physically present on this earth inside of human beings” (‘The Holy Longing’, 2019, p.81).  In other words, “God takes on flesh so that very home becomes a church, every child becomes the Christ-like child, and all the food and drink become a sacrament.  God’s many faces are now everywhere, in flesh, tempered and turned down, so that our human eyes can see him.  God, in his many-faced face, has become accessible, and visible, as the nearest water tap.  That is the why of the incarnation” (ibid).  If we come to terms with the incarnation (Christmas) and the offer of new life (Easter), everything changes.  We are immersed in that reality by our baptism and called to affirm the dignity of all as we seek to live the reign of God.  In doing so, we pray that some might consider service of the faith community as priests, as ‘Good Shepherds’ in that traditional understanding.  In church-speak priests are called to teach, sanctify and govern (cf. the scriptural notions of prophet, priest and king).  In everyday terms to witness, to pray with or to liturgically celebrate and to enable the flourishing of the community’s gifts. We pray for all ‘Christ’s Faithful’ - whether lay, religious or clergy -  to be imbued with a greater awareness of God-with-us, all of us and for all time.  We pray for Nicholas, Cinnil and Bran, and for Mark who approaches priestly ordination.  Indeed, we are all called to be good shepherds of each other within and well beyond the faith community of priestly people.  Bloom where and as you are planted.

Fr John