Sermon for Sunday April 14 Seoul
Fr. Couture
The Good Shepherd
My Dear Brethren,
This second Sunday after Easter is called Good Shepherd Sunday because of the gospel of the Good Shepherd which we have just read. For the same reason, we pray especially for vocations today, that the Good Lord may give us many holy priests!
I would like to speak to you firstly of the analogy of the Good Shepherd used by God Himself in the Old testament, and in the New Testament and also in the History of the Church. Then we will make two applications to our present situation.
First Part: The analogy of the Good Shepherd
We can say that the whole history of the Old Testament, of the New Testament and of the Church is the history of its shepherds, its spiritual leaders, those who are between God and his people, those who are entrusted to reveal the mysteries of God, and to pass on the grace of God to His flock. The good shepherds and unfortunately the bad ones as well.
In the Old Testament, God himself appointed Abraham, Moses, David, and the other prophets as “shepherds according to His Heart”. The first three just mentioned had been in fact real shepherds before becoming leaders of men, just like Peter will be appointed ‘fisher of men’ after having been a real fisherman. But the shepherds, the priests appointed by God were not always faithful to their mission. The books of the prophets are filled with complaints of God about shepherds, but also announce that the Saviour who will come will be a Good Shepherd.
When Our Blessed Lord called Himself the Good Shepherd in St John chapter 10, He was actually referring to and fulfilling a famous passage of the book of Ezekiel, in chapter 34. Here are a few lines of this chapter 34 of Ezekiel. In it, God complains first of the bad shepherds, and then announces that He Himself will come and will be the Shepherd of His people.
Ch 34 2 Son of man, prophesy concerning the shepherds of Israel: prophesy, and say to the shepherds: Thus saith the Lord God: Woe to the shepherds of Israel, that fed themselves: should not the flocks be fed by the shepherds?
3 You ate the milk, and you clothed yourselves with the wool, and you killed that which was fat: but my flock you did not feed.
4 The weak you have not strengthened, and that which was sick you have not healed, that which was broken you have not bound up, and that which was driven away you have not brought again, neither have you sought that which was lost: but you ruled over them with rigour, and with a high hand.
5 And my sheep were scattered, because there was no shepherd: and they became the prey of all the beasts of the field, and were scattered.
11 For thus saith the Lord God: Behold I myself will seek my sheep, and will visit them.
12 As the shepherd visiteth his flock in the day when he shall be in the midst of his sheep that were scattered, so will I visit my sheep,
14 I will feed them in the most fruitful pastures…
16 I will seek that which was lost: and that which was driven away, I will bring again: and I will bind up that which was broken, and I will strengthen that which was weak, and that which was fat and strong I will preserve: and I will feed them in judgment.
23 AND I WILL SET UP ONE SHEPHERD OVER THEM, and he shall feed them, even my servant David: he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.
So, you see, when Jesus says in St John chapter 10:
Ch 10, 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep.
14 I am the good shepherd; and I know mine, and mine know me.
15 As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father: and I lay down my life for my sheep.
He is clearly applying to Himself the prophecy of Ezekiel that describes the qualities of the Messiah.
In the first centuries of the Church, this was so well understood that, in order to represent the love of God for us, they drew images of the Good Shepherd. It is only much later that we had images and statues of the Sacred Heart. Before St Margaret Mary, in order to represent the Sacred Heart, the image of the Good Shepherd was used. We can clearly see examples of that in the Catacombs in Rome.
Second Part: Now let us make two applications of this teaching to our present situation.
1) The shepherds
One such good shepherd has been Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer, in Campos, in Brazil, who died April 25, 1991, one month after Archbishop Lefebvre. In 1953, he knew that a big crisis was coming in the Church and he wanted to prepare his people for it. He wrote a Catechism of Modern Errors to make them understand the coming danger. He would give two ways of looking at an issue, the traditional way and the modern way, and would explain why the traditional one was correct and why the modern one was wrong. Here is one example that can also throw some light on the new pope. It is proposition #30, about bishops. The proposition is this : a bishop is a shepherd, therefore should he not have the simplicity and poverty of a shepherd by getting rid of all the external pomp usually attached to his office, or should behave like a prince with all the external splendour?
The modern version says: he should simplify all the external decorum, splendour, the rich vestments, and mitre, and crosier, etc. and take the appearance of a simple and humble shepherd. This is what we have seen with most of the bishops in the last 50 years. They changed their appearance in so many ways. But was it good? Were the fruits good? Did it make the people respect the bishops more? Not really.
The traditional version makes a major distinction. Man has sensibility, and the exteriors reveal the nature of the institutions. The more an office is exalted, the more solemn must be the surrounding atmosphere. A bishop, by his office, is a successor of the Apostles, a prince of the Church, greater than a civil prince. So, he needs to surround himself with a splendour suitable to his domain, he should have beautiful vestments, mitre, etc. But as a private person, he must have the spirit of poverty and not be worldly. In his private quarters, he should be simple and poor. Archbishop Lefebvre did exactly that. If you just saw his bedroom in Ecône! I am sure it was poorer than anyone of your bedrooms! But when he acted as a bishop, then, he wanted all the dignity attached to his office, not for himself, but for the glory of the Church and of God. People were very sensitive to that.
2) The pastures
The first example was about the shepherds, the pastors of the flock. I would like now to give another example, this time concerning the ‘pasture of the flock’. God said in Ezekiel: “I will feed them in the most fruitful pastures…” Now this means above all that God is going to feed us with His own precious flesh and blood. “Eat my flesh and drink my blood and you will have life in you!” We bring you to good pastures when we bring you the Holy Mass.
Nevertheless, there is something very important that you must understand. It is not enough to have the traditional mass. There is more than just the mass. Let me explain that. With the mass, there is also the sermon, there is a message, there is a teaching. It is very important to understand that.
Around 1974, for the first time some traditional priests who saw the terrible problems in Rome started to say that Pope Paul VI could not be the real pope, and therefore that there were no more pope in the Church. These were called the sedevacantists. They still exist today. They say the traditional mass, but reject the popes that followed pope Pius XII. They have a truly schismatic mentality. If they are right, then the gates of hell have prevailed against the Church, then Jesus did not keep His promise, then He is not God. And Our Lady too, since she said that the pope will consecrate Russia to Her Immaculate Heart, and it has not been done yet. So if there are no more popes, it will never be done. So Our Lady would be wrong. That cannot be.
Then in 1984, seeing that Archbishop Lefebvre was so firm in his position against the new mass, the conciliar authorities in Rome started to allow again the traditional mass, but on condition that those who ask for it would accept Vatican II and the New Mass at the same time! They said explicitly that this was to bring back to the Church the followers of Archbishop Lefebvre! So, they allowed the traditional mass so that we would come back to the new mass! This was called the Indult mass. It was good for those who knew nothing about Tradition, in fact it brought many to Tradition, but for those who were already traditionalists, it was bad, it was a step backward. That is why the Archbishop said that we should not go to it.
And now we have the group calling themselves the ‘resistance’, those who have been expelled from the Society of St Pius X recently. They also offer the traditional mass, but now they are openly saying that people should not go to the Society of St Pius X masses, under the pretext that the Society of St Pius X would have become modernist and liberal, just like the novus ordo Catholics. I let you judge for yourselves the truthfulness of this accusation. Have you noticed any change in doctrine, in morals, in the liturgy, here in your chapel? They say: oh wait and see, it will happen in the future! They always speak in the future. One serious danger of these priests is that they are so vocal about the problems in the Church and with the present popes, they so easily use all kinds of names, constant criticism that, if they themselves refuse the accusation of being sedevacantists, they lead their faithful to it. When you hear all the time that the pope is a bad pope, it is easy to eventually think, “but then, how can he be a true pope”, and, from there to conclude that he cannot be pope, is only a step away. One of their families has already become sedevacantist and now this family even rejects them and does not even consider them real priests!
You see that we need more than the Holy Mass. We need the sound doctrine as well, and if we have to condemn the modern errors, even of the popes, we still have to do it respectfully. We saw on the morning of Easter, St John did let St Peter enter the sepulchre first out of respect for him, even if St Peter had committed a terrible sin on the night of Holy Thursday by denying Our Lord. St John did not want to judge St Peter. He still respected him even if he knew he had done wrong, and disagreed with that wrong. It was also the attitude of Archbishop Lefebvre. He did condemn and criticize the errors of the modern popes, but it was always clearly painful for him to do so, --he whose long life had been at the service of the popes -- and there was always a great respect for their office.
Let us pray Our Blessed Lady for our shepherds, and beware of dangerous pastures!
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Topic: Sermon of Fr. Couture for Good Shepherd Sunday (Read 863 times)