There was a nun dressed in a habit. (That’s significant because I got
into trouble with certain other nuns last night when I said a “real
nun.”.... Everybody ran out of Mass and told our Sister Joanne Clare
Gallagher, “Oh, Sister, guess what Father said in Mass?”) So anyway,
this nun in a habit, a medical sister, was doing her home visits and
she ran out of gas. Anybody ever have that happen to them? She could
see, about a block away, a gas station. So she gets out of her car,
flies over to the station. She had no gas can. They had just given
the last one away to some guy, about ten minutes before. The
attendant said he would be back in about a half an hour. She couldn’t
wait. She said, “Well I’ll be back in a second....” So she runs over
to her car, looks through all this medical paraphernalia, and finds a
bedpan. Great! It holds gas! So she goes back to the gas station,
fills up with as much gas as she could get in there, and as she gets
back to her car and has a little funnel, and she’s holding the bedpan
in there, these Jewish and Protestant guys walk past, “If that car
starts, I’m going to become a Catholic!” (Lots of laughter!) .... Do
I have to explain it to some of you guys?

We depend a lot on our senses and we trust our senses. And trust is
an incredible gift. We need trust in order to survive in our society.
We need trust to trust one another, to trust our government and to
trust that all of these people in our lives tell us the truth.
Trust is fundamental to who we are as people, and as a community, to
our survival. Up until the Reformation there was as much knowledge
available that it was possible, up until that point, for one person
to know a lot of what was knoweable in the world. After the time of
the Reformation and the printing press, it started to double. The
amount of knowledge doubled, and exponentially has grown to this
point in time. Every seven months the amount of knowledge there is in
the world doubles, with computers and their availability. So, we are
called to trust a lot more than we ever have before. So, when I got
on the plane last week to go to Ireland, on that 777, the big Boeing
plane, you trust, I trusted. (I didn’t go out and kick the tires and
make sure the gas was full or do any of that.) We get on the plane
and we trust that the plane is built correctly and designed correctly
and that all of the pieces, those thousands of parts that go to make
that plane work, and all of the people who service it, and the air
traffic controllers and on and on and on and on.... We trust that
everyone has done their jobs, and are doing their jobs, and that I
will get to my destination safely. I always bless myself, every time
I fly, always do. I was in Mexico a couple of years ago and was on a
little plane going from Mexico City to Guadalajara and everybody
automatically blesses themselves. I thought to myself, ”What do they
know I don’t know, that I do not?” We trust a lot. Last year, when I
went to have a benign tumor removed from my neck, (The second time,
it grew in the same place.) three years ago they put me under,
general anesthetic. When I went in to the theatre this time, the
Doctor said, “We’re not putting you under.” And I’m like, “OK...
Don’t want to feel any pain.” We put a lot of trust in the medical
profession. What else can we do?

And in the same way, I think we trust in the Good Shepherd today. We
trust in his voice. We trust in his promise, and we trust in the
servant leadership that is offered to us. But I was thinking about
this in terms, you know, they say “All politics are local.” I think
all religion is local. And, in thinking about this, I thought of
Father Brian Joyce. Father Brian Joyce is someone who represents the
voice of the Good Shepherd. For nineteen years, he has served you in
an exemplary way. He has helped this parish flourish and we have,
including the ordained ministry, fifty-eight different ministers. He
has, out of the very depth of his soul, served you since he was
twelve years old, since he went to the seminary. And he’s a teacher.
He’s a gifted man, and I believe, the voice of the Good Shepherd. I
trust the voice of the Good Shepherd flows through him. And may it
continue for another six, seven years, however long he’s going to be
here. The voice of the Good Shepherd is alive and well in his
leadership, and in his ability to be a priest. He’s an introvert,
but he goes beyond himself. He has suffered pain with you in this
parish and you have held him up in prayer and loved him and carried
him through it. And here he is today because of you and you of him.
He is a servant leader. He is the Good Shepherd for us.

I may get into a little bit of trouble but, to pick out a couple
because this is vocation weekend and I am thinking in terms of
leadership in the Church.... But when I think of Carol Alonzo and
John Alonzo, here is a couple in the parish who, she is a teacher in
our school and is involved in many ministries. John works for a
lumber company. They have raised five children in the parish. They
have an empty nest. They have been here for twenty-seven years. And,
earlier this last year, I asked John along with some others to go
beyond his own comfort level and lead us in our Christ Life
experience. And Wow! Here was a man who was kind of shy, and his wife
was kind of the star. I think of Carol as the star. But John was
able to rise up and lead us in a very, very powerful way. Both of
them, in their marriage and in their service of our parish community,
they are the voice of the Good Shepherd, calling us forward, calling
us to love and calling us to be better. And they are just one example.

My third example is Kate Doherty. Kate arrived in our parish a year
ago, a twenty-six year old from Boston, of all places. And she comes
here with this wonderful enthusiasm, a real gift of faith, a gift of
love of the Church. And she has helped lift up these young people. If
you had been here for our Confirmation celebration last week with the
Bishop, on Tuesday night, absolutely wonderful. Well organized. The
kids were well prepared. It was just a wonderful, loving celebration,
in large part due to Kate, her organizational abilities, her faith.
So, I see the Good Shepherd through her.

I think the challenge is to see the Good Shepherd talking to us in
all of the moments of our lives, where ever we find ourselves. I’ve
picked out three. But I think you can pick out one or two in your
lives that call you and tell you the Good Shepherd is alive and well.
I do not worry about the Church. This is vocation Sunday. We have
sixteen seminarians. Three of them are American born, and there are
six priests retiring this summer, retiring or leaving or going away,
and two priests being ordained. Can you see how that’s going to be
going in the future? You are not going to have five priests at Christ
the King in the future. But I don’t worry about that because if you
think of the fifty-eight ministries that are alive and well and the
way the Holy Spirit is working, it’s going to be OK. It will be OK.
And the Good Shepherd will be there to guide us.

And so, I want to read this for you one more time. “My sheep hear my
voice and 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, because the Father and I are
one.” Amen.