On the Fourth Sunday of Easter, there was a gathering of the family for a day of celebration: Mother’s Day. Grandparents, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, and many cousins gathered. After everyone had gathered at the tables for dinner, one of the youngsters stood up and recited the twenty-third psalm from memory because it was Good Shepherd Sunday in Church.
His words flowed like music. His folks applauded enthusiastically and asked him to do it a second time. He proudly obliged. Then the patriarch of the family stood up. In a cracked and halting voice, he began, “the Lord is my shepherd. There is nothing I shall want. . .” His family sat there hypnotized till the conclusion. They were too overwhelmed to applaud. Later, one of the aunts summed up the reaction of all, “The boy knows the psalm, but the old man knows the shepherd.”
Those who gathered listened not only with the ears of their head but also with ears in their hearts. You just heard today’s gospel lesson. Jesus said: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me, I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”
This made me think. We are the sheep in the gospel following the shepherd. How can we hear Jesus, the Shepherd, speaking to us? Jesus will speak to us, and we will hear his voice. But we must do two things: first) we must listen in complete silence. You know how hard it is to hear someone next to you when you are in a restaurant filled with many people all speaking at the same time. It’s very loud and difficult to hear the people next to you or at your table.
Second) To really hear, you must turn off the noise. For example: when the Cardinals went into conclave to choose a new pope, they prayed to the Holy Spirit for guidance. They wanted to hear Jesus speak to them and tell them who Lord wanted to be Pope. They had to listen in silence to hear Jesus.
They must not be distracted. So, their cell phones were taken away. They were not to have radios, TVs, or computers – no electronics that could connect them to the outside world. They had to turn off the noise!
If you want to hear Jesus talk to you, you must do the same. Listen in silence by turning off the noise – no background music even if the music is holy inspirational hymns. Invite Jesus into your heart and wait in silence. You will hear the Good Shepherd calling you. You will understand what Jesus is saying for he speaks the language of love. He tells me: “I love you. See what I have done for you. I have laid down my life for you. I love you. Now you must learn to speak the language of love. Love one another as I have loved you.” I have learned the language Jesus speaks.
Listen not only with the ears of your head; listen with the ears of your heart. If the cardinals can do it, so can you! Listen and learn the language Jesus speaks – the language of love.
Now I want to give you some background that you may find interesting about Pope Leo XIV of which you may not be aware. Fr. Robert Prevost was born in Chicago and, at an early age, knew that he was called to be a priest. His studies led him to Villaneuva University which is run by the Augustinians. He joined that Order and became an Augustinian.
Why is this important? Who are the Augustinians? In 1244, Pope Innocent IV gathered various groups of hermits in northern Italy to serve the universal church as a community of mendicant friars. (I am a hermit. Hermits live alone spending their time in prayer and doing penance for others.) Pope Innocent formed a new order for the Church under the patronage of Saint Augustine. You may know another famous Augustinian – Martin Luther. Martin Luther nailed ninety-five theses to the Church door which started the Protestant Reformation. This is important because we look at various Popes who took the name of Leo. So, it was Pope Leo X who told Martin Luther to renounce all his false teachings. Martin refused. Pope Leo the Tenth excommunicated Luther in 1521.
Another Pope Leo (Pope Leo XIII) is closer to our time. He wrote the encyclical on social justice which championed the poor of the world. Father Provost, an Augustinian, did missionary work in Peru and was make Archbishop in Peru. He knows about the poor in the world. He is influenced by the work of Pope Leo the thirteenth who championed social justice for the poor and by all the other Pope Leo’s who preceded him in history of the Church seeking truth and justice.
Many religious orders like the Jesuits, the Francians, the Augustinians and even the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales have a global view of the world. Like Pope Francis, a Jesuit who worked in Argentina, Archbishop Prevost, the Augustinian, has a global or worldwide view of the church. He can see the big picture. That’s why Pope Francis called Archbishop Prevost to Rome to work in the office that selects priests to be bishops. This young cardinal, a very young cardinal of about twenty months, is very intelligent, highly organized and speaks many languages in addition to English. He is fluent in Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese. Because of his global or worldview, he knows the poor in South America, Central America, North America, and elsewhere in the world like India and other parts of Middle East. He is able to communicate with many peoples from so many different parts of the world. It makes sense that he would choose the name Leo, knowing about all the other Pope Leos who came before him. Now you know the rest of the story.