"United in the love of the Good Shepherd" - 4th Sunday of Easter homily

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers, grandmothers, and godmothers.

A good mother loves all of her children the same.

As different as they might be in their personalities, in their interests, in their gifts, she loves them all the same.

She plays no favorites.

That sounds familiar.

That's the same way we describe God.

He loves all His children the same.

Loves all of us.

So when we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday, the Lord is our shepherd.

So a good mother is a good shepherd.

What a fitting Sunday, timing-wise, with the new shepherd of the Church, Pope Leo the 14th.

Thursday was an unbelievable day for all of us.

Shocking.

I think the shock is starting to off a little bit.

We have an American Pope.

Thursday means that was, my day off, I was playing golf.

I was having a good day with my golfing buddies, and already, and then the 12th hole, one of the guys was on his phone.

And he read the headline to me saying, an American Cardinal named as Pope.

I said, no, no, no, no, there's no way that's true.

American Cardinal will name the next Pope because Cardinal O'Farrill was running the Conclave.

He said, no, an American Cardinal has been named as Pope and I couldn't believe it.

Couldn't believe it.

Saying like Bishop Barron, there's no way, there's no way for decades.

And here we have an American Pope.

And yesterday I woke up, one of our men's groups sent a group text.

showing Pope Leo at the 2005 World Series cheering on the Chicago White Sox.

That was the coolest thing I've ever seen.

So cool.

He in the stands like an ordinary dude.

And that's our Pope.

I was talking about him not knowing it was him last week, whoever would be Pope.

And to think about the day he had on Thursday.

We had a Mass on Wednesday, a special Mass for the election of the Pope with

particular prayers and readings and the gospel is John 15 where Jesus said to the Apostles, was not you who chose me, but I who chose you.

And it talked about that call of the Lord for any of us to be priests takes years, some of us many years for it to sink in, to process it and to answer the call.

For a bishop, you're talking about a few months maybe.

By the time that you're selected, to the time you ordained a bishop, it's a matter of months.

For a Pope, it's just a few hours.

To be the pastor of the whole world, and to imagine going through that process from elector to elected, and then to be on the balcony, the white hat, in front of the whole

world.

I love the beautiful picture of him on the balcony.

He looks solid and...

And like, that's an American.

It's awesome.

It's an awesome thing.

And from what I've heard, people who know him and what I've read, he's going to be really good.

There's an image they had that gave us in seminary of John Paul II.

He walked into, I think it was a Church full of priests one time, and he walked down the center aisle, and he was holding his hands out to those on his left and his right as he

walked up and just reached out to them.

And they said, that's...

the image of his pontificate, reaching out to those on his left and his right.

I think that's what this Pope will bring.

It's reaching out to left and right, rich and poor, around the world.

He is American, he grew up in Chicago, but he is global.

In his experience and his mindset, it's going to be awesome.

Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd.

who gave his life for all his sheep.

And he united us all in doing so.

We honor his sacrifice that the shepherd became a lamb, gave his life for all of us and each of us.

And it's really meaningful to us.

It's in our name.

To be Catholic means universal.

One way.

That's why we do everything the same.

In our prayers, in our gestures, like here at Mass.

This goes all the way back to the beginning, the early writings of the Church.

Saying that we come in, we say prayers, we exchange peace.

To make the point, we are all united as his sheep.

as the children of God.

From the very beginning the Church said, whether you're rich or poor, male or female, tall or short, young or old, we're all one.

We do the same things, we say the same things, we are united.

He died for all of us.

No one is excluded.

I've had a few people over the years saying, well, he died for everyone but me.

And my response is, why are you so special?

He died for all of us.

All of His sheep.

He laid down His life for all of us and for each of us.

We are all united as children of God in Christ as our Good Shepherd in the hand of the Father.