Fourth Sunday of Easter, May 11, 2025

2025 May 11 SUN: FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
Acts 13: 14. 43-52/ Ps 100: 1-2. 3. 5/ Rv 7: 9. 14b-17/ Jn 10: 27-30

In my junior year of high school at Decatur St. Teresa, I was in a religion course called Social Justice. And in that course I learned about the social teaching of the Catholic Church, which began in 1891 with a writing called Rerum Novarum, that is, "of new things." And in this document, the new things being treated were the changes in society having come about as the result of the Industrial Revolution. And this writing championed the rights of workers so that they might not find themselves as mere cogs in a money-making machine, but that they might be respected in the fullness of their humanity, in the depth of their gifts. This caught my attention because my father was a factory worker at the Decatur Plant of Caterpillar Incorporated. And this is what I needed to hear because I was thinking about the priesthood, but apparently I needed to hear something which would secure for me a sense of the credibility of the Church. And I found it when I heard about this social teaching. The Pope who issued Rerum Novarum in 1891 was Leo XIII. 

Now we have all experienced some amazing events in these past few days, and I can well imagine that you are expecting to hear from me something like, "Oh, Pope Leo, personal friend of mine." No. We are two years apart in age. The thing that we have to keep in mind is that we were on different tracks: he as a member of a religious order, the Augustinians, while I was studying to be a diocesan priest. And it is of some interest that there is some overlap. Two instances. I went to St. Louis in 1977 for my third and fourth years of college seminary. And in that same year, 1977, Pope Leo went to St. Louis for his novitiate period. And no, we did not run into each other. And then we were also studying canon law in Rome at the same time. But we were at two different universities. So there is no possibility of my claiming some kind of closeness. 

But I go back to the thing that sparked my sense of the credibility of the Church back when I was in high school. Robert Francis Prevost took the name Leo XIV because of what Leo XIII wrote about justice. And he said as much to the Cardinals yesterday. And for that reason, I feel a kinship with Pope Leo because our minds and our hearts are on the same thing. We want to see every human being in the world realizing their dignity first of all as being created by God the Father and by being lifted up by the love of Jesus for all of us. 

Now, our bulletin deadline is Tuesday. And I realized, well, I won't have anything about a new pope. And I suspected we'd have a new pope by Friday. Well, it came on Thursday. But I had the bulletin deadline. So I wrote something about the writings of Pope Francis. And it turns out again yesterday as he was addressing the Cardinals that the first apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis, which I mentioned on the front of the bulletin today, was also cited by Pope Leo yesterday. And he intends to continue all that Pope Francis has taught. I am grateful for that. 

Now, this happens to be Good Shepherd Sunday, quite aptly. And we have an account of the difficulties that Paul and Barnabas ran into in proclaiming the Good News. We also have a very joyful image from the Book of Revelation about all the people in white garments who have been washed in the Blood of the Lamb. And again, the Lamb who had been slain is at the center there. And then Jesus, speaking about shepherding, notes the fact that sheep are very good at distinguishing voices. And we pray that we, every one of us, will be attuned as we get to know this new pope and as we consider all the teaching of the People of God, the Church. That we will hear the voice of the Shepherd.