Robert Barron - Shepherds, Warriors, Healers
Peace be with you. Friends, as we resume Ordinary Time, we come to this Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, I want to talk to you about vocations. Vocations specifically to the priesthood. It's not something I talk about that often in these Sunday sermons, but the reading today just jumped out at me. Something else very recently, as I record these words, I'm finishing a Confirmation season in my diocese. And I was at one of our parishes way out west in my diocese with beautiful stained-glass windows, and they had depictions of the various sacraments. And right across from me there was one depicting marriage, a very beautifully arranged window. And I looked at that at, appreciated it.
And then right next to it there was the window dedicated to the priesthood. And it showed Jesus there with his Apostles. And I'll tell you, it was an old-fashioned window, probably early twentieth century, late nineteenth century. Just the way it was arranged, there was something about it. It sang to me the same way similar images sang to me when I was a kid. Here's what I mean. So I appreciate the window dedicated to marriage, and yes, I understand marriage is a great sacrament. But when I was a kid, when the priesthood was proposed or the priesthood was imaged or presented, it just sang to me. It resonated in me very deeply. Not against marriage, but at least for me, in a deeper way.
And so here I am now many years later, I've been a priest for thirty-seven years, been a bishop now for almost eight years, but I'm looking up at that window, and honest to God, I'm feeling the same thing. I felt that same sense of, "Yes, yes, that's what God wants me to do. That's the person God wants me to be". We talk about vocation to the priesthood, "vocare," to call. It's not some vague idea. It's very mysterious. My brother and I are only fifteen months apart, same parents, same education, same school, same everything, and my brother never felt a call to the priesthood. But I did. It would be facile to say, "Well, of course you did because you're from this Irish Catholic family and went to Catholic schools".
Well, I know, my brother did too, but he didn't feel the call. Looking up at that window reminded me of what it was like to feel that. "Yes, yes, that's what Christ wants me to do. That's the life he wants me to lead". Now here's why I'm thinking about this. Our Gospel for today from Matthew: "At the sight of the crowds, Jesus' heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd". Now, we just heard that, because last week I preached on Corpus Christi and I used that passage from Mark, but the same language is used.
You see, the Lord says to Ezekiel, "I myself will come and shepherd my people". Well, here he is now in person. His heart moved with pity. It's the compassionate Christ who wants to shepherd his people. Now, why? Because they're troubled and abandoned. What's the priest called upon to do? To participate in this shepherding role of Christ. To feel that same pity, that same compassion for Christ's abandoned and troubled people. Are there lots of troubled and abandoned people around today? Uh-huh. Open your eyes. Especially in our culture now, it seems to me, a lot of people are like sheep without a shepherd. And the same Christ is looking out in the same way at his church and feeling that same compassion.
But see, what does he want to do? Listen: "Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.'" What's he talking about? The priesthood. "Oh, that's clericalism". No, it's not clericalism. It's the opposite of it. Clericalism is divorcing priesthood from the care for the people. That's what clericalism is. No, no, this is a desire to share in the shepherding role of Christ, to feel in your heart the same compassion, the same pity he feels for his lost and abandoned people.
Again, the beauty of the biblical style here, everybody. Yes, Christ could, I suppose, shepherd the whole Church by himself, but he gives us the privilege and prerogative of sharing in his work. The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few. Stir up, ask the Lord to stir up this feeling. It's the one that I had as a kid and that I felt even the other day. That same sense of, yes, this is what I want to do, this is who I want to be: someone that shares in Christ's shepherding ministry. Listen now, I know there are people right now listening to me who feel that same pull, feel that same attraction. I know there are. You're listening to me right now.
If you sense that, don't ignore it. If it's something that comes back to you again and again and again, even as you try to turn from it, but it comes back to you, that's a sign. That's a sign that Christ is calling, "vocare". He's calling out to you to join him in his shepherding work. So listen: "Then he summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness". We just heard his people are troubled and abandoned. Okay, he needs shepherds who are going to do some strong and hard work. See, don't think for a second, everybody, that the priesthood is some kind of namby-pamby vocation. On the contrary, it's a warrior's vocation.
Listen again, "He gave them authority over unclean spirits". Are there unclean spirits around? You bet. You bet there are. Unclean spirits, yes, in that full metaphysical sense, but also unclean spirits of pride and envy and anger and sloth and gluttony and lust and imperialism and the drive for power, cruelty, hatred, violence. You bet there are. There are a lot of unclean spirits, and Christ calls shepherds, pastors, warriors, and he gives them authority over these spirits. "Oh, what do I know? What can I do? Oh, who am I"?
Come on, that's not the priesthood. That's some namby-pamby simulacrum of the priesthood. The real priesthood is this tough warrior's work, but the Lord has given authority to these shepherds over these unclean spirits. One of the problems I think, everybody, that especially young people have is they're beset by the unclean spirits but there's nobody around them who's claimed the authority over them. "Oh, no. You do whatever you want. You'll be whoever you want to be". Yeah, and it's leading everybody over the cliff. What we need are laborers, warriors, shepherds, who have the authority from Christ over unclean spirits and can effect this transformation of the world. That's what the priest is about.
See, "to drive them out". We're not having dialogue with unclean spirits. Listen, by the way, Pope Francis is really good on this. Talk about Mr. Dialogue. He is, indeed, but he always says, "You don't dialogue with the devil. You don't dialogue with evil spirits". Dead right, you don't. You drive them out, and it's priests who've been given that authority to do it. "To cure every disease and every illness". I've known some priests who do indeed have the charism of physical healing. I've known some. But see, more broadly speaking, disease and illness of the heart, of the mind, of the spirit, and authority now to heal. Priests are healers. Priests are healers. That's serious business too.
Don't you love it, the names of the twelve, the people that he called to this task? Who are they? Well, we know them. Simon called Peter, and Andrew, James, son of Zebedee, his brother John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector. On and on. Great figures, yes indeed. Great saints, yes, through the power of grace. But deeply flawed, compromised people at the same time. But Christ called them. Christ called them. Don't say for a second, "Oh look, he'd never call me. I'm too much of a sinner. I'm too much of a loser. I'm too much of a bumbler".
Well, look at these people. I mean these are hardly paragons of humanity, but yet the Lord called them, and he equipped them and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He might be calling you. He might be calling you. "Jesus sent out these twelve after instructing them thus, 'Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.'"
Can I suggest there's something, I think, of great contemporary resonance here, because I think the first task of priests in the West is to find all those who have wandered from the Church. It's not necessarily to go to the ends of the world and declare the Gospel to those who've never heard it. There is plenty of work right now in our country and our culture to find the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I mean, people who were born and raised Christian or Catholic but who wandered far from the Gospel, wandered far from Christ. Good. That's the call of our time. Maybe you right now are feeling that call. Don't ignore it; respond to it.
Go and make the proclamation "the kingdom of heaven is at hand". Right. There's a worldly kingdom. There's a worldly kingdom. It's all around us, based upon what Augustine called the "libido dominandi," the lust to dominate. It's characterized by self-love, Augustine says. Oh, that kingdom. It's got institutions and it's got powerful people associated with it. It's got means of communication. It's tendrils, it's tentacles, reach into every aspect of society. I know all about that kingdom. But see, the priest is called upon to declare a different kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, the one that's come in power in Christ.
And now we need people to proclaim it and to make it a reality. There's the call of the priest. "Oh, what do I know? Who am I"? Forget that. No, no, you've been equipped to deal with evil spirits, you've been equipped to teach, and you've been equipped to proclaim the kingdom of heaven. Get to it. The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few. And then, unless we forgot, his last words: "Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons".
Well, there it is. In case we've forgotten what he just said a few lines ago, he says it again. There are armies of people who are sick, who are leprous, who are demon possessed, who are spiritually dead. Right? You know a lot of them, and maybe you've been there. You know about that. We need priests who have this capacity to do these very things. Look at the last line. "Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give". Now there's the priest's life, it seems to me. "Without cost you have received". You've been given gifts, grace. I think of my own vocation as that. It was a great grace, and it was weirdly awakened the other night when I looked at that window and thought, "Yes, that's the life for me. That's what I'm supposed to do".
I was given that without cost. It was a grace. So now, without cost you are to give. See, all of these tasks, authority over the unclean spirits and teaching and preaching and proclaiming the kingdom and curing the sick and raising the dead, all of that is a gift. All that's grace. So give it without cost. Think about it. We need you, people right now listening to me who might feel this summons from Christ. Don't ignore it. Don't ignore it. Follow it. I have found it to be the source of the greatest joy in my life, that from the time I was a little kid, I allowed that call to echo within my own soul. And God bless you.