Dearest brothers and sisters, peace be with you. Continuing our joy at the election of the Holy Father, Pope Leo, whom God has made the universal shepherd of souls and the successor to Saint Peter, we continue to draw water out of that well spring of grace who is Jesus. Like deer who drink to their heart’s content from the running stream, so too our hearts yearn for God.
Like sheep, the Good Shepherd gathers us unto Himself. We must remember as we exalt our new Pope that he is not thee Good Shepherd or thee Father, or the One and Only Teacher, but simply the representative He sends on His behalf, for this is merely one of the ways our Lord fulfills what he declared in today’s gospel:
“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.”
We are in Jesus’ hands! And we are in the Father’s hands! This is why the popes have generally directed praise and acclaim that is sent their way by the cheers of all the admiring faithful, with an upward motioning of the palms of the hands… as if to say, “Any glory or praise or honour that you are sending me, I in turn, redirect to God alone.” The Successor of Peter is called to continually put into practice what the Apostle himself strived for – a yearning for Christ to be known and loved.
Let us remember that our primary relationship is what makes all our other relationships meaningful and precious. That primary relationship is God and it is the focus of Jesus’ insights today within this gospel passage from John quoted above, in which the sacrality of the human person, so dear to the heart of Christ, is on full display.
Another thing to consider is that although our Heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus have us in the palm of their hands, not to be snatched away, they nevertheless will not force us to remain there. Like the Father of the prodigal son in that incredibly rich and profound parable that Jesus highlighted the Father’s mercy with, the Father in that story actually let his son go when he asked to do so. He never forced him to stay home. So too it is with God – he respects our freedom. Instead of remaining in the secure and loving hands of his father, the prodigal son placed himself in the hands of thieves, manipulators and sinners, and as a result became destitute and desperate. So too it is with us. We can remove ourselves from the hands of God, and place ourselves into the hands of wolves, or the relativistic opinions of the world, with so many competing ideologies wishing to dominate us – all of them mere pawns in the hands of the master manipulator.
We pray that our Holy Father, illuminated and emboldened and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, will lead us through the grime and stench of Satan’s cesspool, elevating our spirits above the relativism and the corruption of both politics and that which has even entered our very Church. We know, that in the end, the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph, and her house – her beloved house – is due for a cleaning. We pray also that Saint Peter will send Pope Leo XIV his spirit of martyrdom, as the pope himself has already mentioned in his first homily, acknowledging that what the Cardinals have elected him to, is the cross. We pray that the Lord give all of us a valiant spirit to give our everything for our Lord, even if it means the worst case scenario in the eyes of this world, knowing that our home is not here, not this brief worldly existence, but rather the eternal halls of heaven… paradise without end, in the most glorious joy and bliss with God, the angels and the saints, that our minds cannot yet possibly fathom.
Nothing compares to this victory, but it is one that can only come through the sacrifice of the Cross of Christ. Our Lady, Queen of Patriarchs and Bishops, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
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