“Good and Bad Shepherds”
Resistance Sermon by Fr. Pfeiffer
Given at Veneta, Oregon (USA)
2nd Sunday after Easter, April 2015
At that time Jesus said unto the
Pharisees: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep. But
the hireling, and he that is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming
and leaveth the sheep, and flieth: and the wolf catcheth and scattereth the sheep. And the
hireling flieth because he is a hireling and hath no care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd:
and I know mine and mine know me. As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father:
and I lay down my life for my sheep. And other sheep I have that are not of this fold: them
also must I bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.”
(John 10:11ff)
In the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. When
Our Lord Jesus Christ is speaking today, He was speaking to the Pharisees. There are
many audiences that He spoke with. In the Gospel of St.Luke chapter 15, as we mentioned
earlier today, Our Lord was surrounded by publicans and sinners. His heart was moved to
speak about the rejoicing in heaven at one sinner’s return to God. And He gives three parables:
the first about a shepherd who finds lost sheep; the second about a woman who finds money, a
silver piece; and the third the prodigal son. Each one a higher level of rejoicing for
the sinner’s return to God. And His heart is moved as He speaks to the sinners. But today He
is surrounded by the Pharisees, and He is surrounded by the Pharisees and He is speaking
directly to the Pharisees and we can include also the Sadducees, the scribes and High Priests those that consider themselves
leaders amongst the people, and those who were truly
leaders amongst the people. Those who had taken in some way the role of the shepherd. And
Our Lord Jesus Christ is reminded of what He had inspired Ezekiel to say 600 years
before. God spoke to Ezekiel and said: Behold the shepherds! They are wicked shepherds!
How wicked the shepherds were in Israel whom had put over His sheep. Later on Our Lord
would not give up on shepherds. Though there were many wicked shepherds in the Old
Testament, He would also make shepherds in the New Testament, the chief shepherd being
St. Peter, and his successors the Popes.
And He said, “Simon, son of John,
lovest thou me?” “Yea Lord, thou knowest that I love
thee!” “Feed my sheep!” Feed my
lambs, feed my lambs, feed my sheep.
And so what is the proof of love,
and what is the duty of the shepherd? What is the shepherd about? God complained about the
shepherds in the Old Testament and He said: “These are wicked shepherds because they have
driven the sheep off the pasture. The winter has come and they have shorn the sheep so
that the sheep freeze in the winter. And they have taken the grain from the sheep that they
starve. And many of the sheep are scattered. And many of the sheep die. And behold, every one of
those sheep who are scattered and every one of those sheep who dies, there shall be an
accounting of the shepherd responsible for those sheep.”
And Our Lord Jesus Christ, angry at
His wicked shepherds, did not give up on shepherds.
When He decided to come in His first
coming, the first ones who He announced His first
coming to were shepherds. But not
all shepherds. Many shepherds were sleeping that night, on December 25th. Many shepherds were not tending
the flock. But to those shepherds who were awake in the night, to those
shepherds who were watching their sheep in the night, they heard the voice of the Angels.
Angels came down and told them tidings of great joy, that the Messiah was born and laid in a
manger. And Christ spent three and a half years preparing the shepherds of His Church, the 72
disciples and 12 apostles. He spent the majority of His time preparing the shepherds. In
this Gospel we are in a situation where He is looking at the final shepherds of the Old
Testament, the wicked shepherds of the Old Testament, and saying: “You are supposed to be like
the good shepherd that is prophesied in Ezekiel 34, when it says that there are wicked
shepherds who will be replaced by the good shepherd, who shall take care of his sheep and
lay down his life for the sheep.” Therefore the Pharisees and Sadducees were very angry. And
Our Lord Jesus Christ said to the Pharisees: “I am the good shepherd.”
Characteristics of a Good Shepherd
What are the characteristics of the
good shepherd? St. Gregory the great wrote a special treatise on shepherds, on the care
of the flock, and what a priest or bishop must do to take care of the flock. And he mentions
so many hundreds of duties of the bishop, hundreds of duties of the priest for the care of
the flock. But Our Lord Jesus Christ summarises it all in one duty. The good shepherd lays
down his life for the sheep. That’s what the good shepherd does. There are many duties of the
shepherd. He must feed the sheep: the Faith, he must teach them the catechism. He must
feed them the sacraments, he must give them Holy Communion and absolve their sins. He
must feed the sheep in all kinds of ways. He has many responsibilities over the care
of sheep: to help those having difficulties in their marriages, to help those who are having
difficulties in the raising of their children, help those who are trying to bring souls to
Heaven, the souls of their children and their own souls to Heaven in a wicked world and the world has been wicked ever
since Lucifer entered it and convinced Eve to eat an apple and
convinced Adam to do the same. Since that time there has been wickedness in the world, and
the same wickedness! It has never changed! Satan hasn’t got worse, he has not become more
wicked, he isn’t more intelligent. He has not improved his ways. He uses the same demonic
tactics that he has used for six thousand years, since the beginning of time. He uses his
minions, he uses the world, he uses the flesh, he uses the temptations of his own devils, and
he uses all the same weapons. He is attacking the same God. And the answer to the
wickedness is also the same. It is Our Lord Jesus Christ. Now when we say that Christ is the
answer–how was Christ the answer? Christ
was the
answer because Christ died on the
cross for our sins. That’s how Christ is the answer. So death is the answer. What kind of
death? The death of the shepherd.
Permission to die!
Fr. Chazal sometimes likes to point
out that in the normal times of the church, when the
Church was normal and these normal times of the Church
were from AD 33 until about the year 313, these were the normal
times of the Church in the normal times of the Church every single shepherd, especially
the chief shepherd who was the Pope, would lay down his life for the sheep. And we find that
every single Pope from St. Peter until Liberius, excluding Liberius, every single one of them
died for the sheep. And the bishops of those times: everyone of them died for the sheep. And
the priests of those times: every one of them died for the sheep. When a young man enters a
seminary today, and in the last 1,700 years, since those normal times, he did not always die
for the sheep. Only some would die. There will always be priest martyrs and bishop martyrs until the end of time. But
in those times, it was the normal time in which if you were going to
become a priest, what does it mean? It means you’re going to die. It was like the situation
where the Black Hawk got shot down and two volunteers came forwards and said “We’re going to go
down on the ground to where the helicopter was shot
down.” “But we won’t be able to
retrieve you!” “That’s alright, we want to go down, we’ll
fight against the enemy and we’ll
keep our friends alive a little while longer and we will die with them. Permission to descend!”
And they went down and they died.
And this is the way it was for the
first three hundred years of the Church. It was
so important the Church be founded by these kinds
of shepherds. The shepherd who dies. All other things are secondary. All other things flow
from this death. Imagine that Our Lord Jesus Christ did not die on the cross for our sins.
If He didn’t die on the cross for our sins, we are not saved.
There is no conquering of the devil.
There is no way of spreading the truth. The truth is sealed in the blood of the martyrs; in the
blood of those twelve Apostles, with Matthias taking the place of Judas. The twelve just
Apostles were those Apostles who shed their blood for the truth of the Gospel. The blood of
the disciples, the blood of the deacons, the blood of the priests and the blood of our High Priest Himself.
“I am the Good Shepherd.” The Good Shepherd lays down His life for His
sheep.
Now there are many, many
characteristics, many different personalities, many different duties, many different responsibilities. But
what is the one that saves souls? What is the one that defeats the devil? What is the one
that brings the victory of Christ over Satan? It is only death.
The death of the cross. We all want
to find another way to defeat the devil; there is no other way! And in order to make it clear,
Our Lord speaks about the attack of the devil. You know that in the last 500 years, the
sheep have been scattering. First they scattered to Protestantism, and all the different branches of
Protestantism. Others scattered to all the various different forms of naturalism and atheism. And
within the Church in the last 50 years they’ve scattered away from the teachings of the
Church to modernism and false evolution in the Church. And they are scattering to this very
day. Why are they scattering? Why are they being devoured by the wolves? Why is it that the devil
is so successful in the Church today? Our Lord Jesus Christ makes it very clear in a very
simple answer: because of the wicked shepherds.
Types of wicked shepherd
Now there are two types of wicked shepherd.
The first is the kind who is actually a Freemason like Cardinal Rampolla, the kind who
are actually working for the destruction of the Church. And Our Lord Jesus Christ, we can
certainly say, has a greater respect for this kind of shepherd, because we know what Our
Lord said: “I would that you were hot or cold. But if you are lukewarm I will vomit you
out of my mouth!” Therefore we can know with certainty that Christ prefers Rampolla, Christ
prefers the wicked Cardinals of the world today, Cardinal Meuller and Ratzinger. He prefers
the wicked ones that are working for the destruction of the Church with intention and with the
fullness of their power because they are following Satan knowingly, and because they want to
devour the sheep, and because they are truly wolves in sheep’s clothing. Now this will
always be a minority of wicked shepherds, but this minority knows who their master is, they know
who their enemy is. Their master is Satan, their enemy is Christ, and they work for the
destruction of the kingdom of Christ. One of the chief ones, one of the most wicked men that
there has ever been in the Church is Pope Benedict, Cardinal Ratzinger. He’s a specific example
of a wicked shepherd, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, who was spoken of by Archbishop Lefebvre
himself when he said to him in 1987: “You are working for the destruction and de-Christianisation of society!” (And
when he said “You,” what did he mean, “You in general”? No! “You
Cardinal Ratzinger!”) “You are working for the destruction and de-Christianisation of society, and we
are working for the Christianisation of society, therefore we cannot work together!”
Such are the minority of wicked shepherds. But what about the others? The others
are the majority. And the majority of shepherds are spoken of by St. Jerome in the
sermon today. St. Jerome says: the majority of shepherds, that is priests of the Church, are
hirelings, and the others are the ones of whom Christ simply says:
“Their own the sheep are not.” They
are the ones that are distant. “It’s not my problem!” The hirelings and the distant ones.
Usually they’re the same. The hireling is working for hire. Now what about a hireling? When you hire
a man for a job, what does he want to do? Is he wicked?
No. If you hire a wolf, he’ll try to
destroy everything you’re doing. But the hireling, he does not want to destroy he wants to do good, because if he
does a good job he gets a pay raise, he gets a promotion, if he does a
good job he gets security, he can stay with the business for fifty years and doesn’t have to
change jobs. So the hireling does not want to be wicked, the hireling does not want to choose
evil. He wants to do what the master tells him to do. That’s what he wants. He’s not a bad man.
But what happens? When the wolf comes, and the sheep are in danger: “I’m not getting paid
enough! I’m being paid to feed sheep, I’m not being paid to shoot at wolves! I’m not in the
military!” “I’m being paid to teach sheep catechism, but they don’t even want to learn
anyway! So if those people want to come in and teach lies: it’s not my problem! I don’t believe
those lies, I don’t like the wickedness, I don’t want to go to evil... I’m just doing my job.
That’s my duty, to do my job, get my pay, and go home!” And when the wolf comes, the sheep are
scattered.
The sheep in danger!
Now one thing to note about the
coming of the wolves: there is no doubt that the wolf will
come, and there is no exception to
the visit of the wolf. One might get the impression from the parable that if you’re a lucky
hireling no wolves will attack your sheep. There are no such sheep in the sheepfold of Christ!
Every single sheep and every single lamb shall be attacked by the wolf! The wolf is going to
try to destroy every single one, and there are plenty of wolves out there! There are plenty
of devils and there are plenty of men who are servants of the devils, and there are plenty of
means by which the devils, with the world and the flesh for assistance, can go after the sheep
in order to destroy them. And one thing the shepherd can be certain of: his sheep are going to
be attacked! Not only that, they’re under attack right now!
Whenever a priest goes to a parish:
“I wonder if this is the parish of All Saints? I wonder if the devil has given up on trying to
attack these souls because they’re too holy and they’re too strong. I wonder if they are great
warriors against Satan? I wonder if they don’t need to have their sins absolved?” St. Jerome
says: “Send me a sinner! Send me a sinner! What can I do with a Saint?!”
I am a priest, says St. Jerome, if
you aren’t a sinner I cannot absolve you. Priests absolve. If you are not in ignorance, I cannot
teach you. Priests teach. If you are not weak, I cannot strengthen you. Because the priest
brings the holy strength of the Blessed Sacrament, the strength of the sacrament of
penance, the strength of the teaching of the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore if you
are not sick, we cannot help. If you are not a sinner, we cannot absolve. If you are not
ignorant we cannot teach. Priests are not designed for the time of peace. Priests are not designed
for the healthy. Priests are not designed for the intelligent.
We were designed for the sick and
the dying, for those in the most great peril, and for the time of war. The shepherd is a
shepherd that is going amongst the sheep, sheep that are surrounded by wolves, sheep that are
going to be eaten by wolves. And if you’re going to go into that environment which every
priest goes into, every shepherd: don’t go in, unless you’re ready to die. This is the law
of Our Lord Jesus Christ. In the normal times of the Church, every priest knew that he
would die at the hands of the wicked leaders of Rome.
Times haven’t changed that much:
there are wicked leaders in Rome today! And they want our death! They are using different
tactics because they are afraid of the blood, for if they kill us and they shed our blood,
there will be Saints. If they shed our blood physically, there will be mass conversions to Christ.
It will do them grave harm. But they still want to destroy the sheep, and they want to destroy
the shepherds. And the way to destroy the shepherd is to corrupt the shepherd, the way to
destroy the shepherd is to deceive the shepherd, the way to destroy the shepherd is to distract
the shepherd and make the shepherd interested in his own survival and make him become a
hireling.
The majority of priests go to hell!
We must pray that God send true
shepherds into his flock. And that requires a great miraculous intervention from heaven. To
send true shepherd into the flock. Shepherds who will imitate Our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Good Shepherd. His requirement is very simple: the shepherd must die for the sheep.
What must be his interest? That which is for the salvation of souls. And he must fight against
that which is against the salvation of souls. And he must look towards death. Remember that
Our Lord Jesus Christ, when He was on this earth, was only preparing for His own death,
that’s all He was doing, preparing for His own death. That’s all. He had no other
interest. And He says: “The hireling, and he that is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are
not, seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep and flieth. And the wolf catcheth and
scattereth the sheep.” And the hireling flieth why?
Because he is a hireling! Not
because he’s working for Satan. Because he’s working for
God. If you work for God, you don’t
make it to heaven. There are no employees in the kingdom of heaven. Either we are the
sons of God, the lovers of God, or the employees of God. Most of us are employees. What does
an employee do? I do good for you: you do good for me. You scratch my back, I scratch
yours. And this is the way we treat God. We want to receive a material blessing, we want
to receive our pay, we want to receive our security, and we don’t act out of love, and we
don’t act out of Faith. That’s why St. John Chrysostom says that the majority of priests go
to hell. And the majority of priests, he says, lose their souls not because of the wicked
things they do, not because of the heresies they teach, not because of the lies they tell and
scandals that they do, or their external sins and weaknesses, but because of the good that they do
not do, because of the responsibilities that they do not fulfil. And that is why it is so
important at all the times of the history of the Church that the faithful always pray for their
priests, because the devil is always trying to surround the shepherd. Because the wolf has
scattered the sheep, who is responsible? The shepherd! The shepherd. Of course the sheep are
guilty of sins, and in Ezekiel 34 God does not exempt the sheep. He says at the end of that
same chapter that the sheep are also wicked and they shall be punished. It is true that sheep
are also wicked. But what is the duty of the priest? He must go to the wicked sheep and find a
way to take away their wickedness. He must go to the wicked sheep in order that they
might be converted and live, for God does not desire the death of a sinner but that he be
converted and live. That’s what sacred Scripture tells us.
Our Lord Jesus Christ gave the great
example of the Good Shepherd. But what about our present situation in the crisis in
the Church? We are looking at things in the wrong way. What is it that makes the success of
the devil? He does not need every shepherd to be the friend of Satan. He does not need
every shepherd to learn the demonic lies. He doesn’t need the shepherd to live in sin. He
doesn’t need the shepherd to be impure, he doesn’t need him to be a liar, he doesn’t need him to
be wicked, he doesn’t need him to be greedy... He just needs the shepherd to be quiet. He
just needs the shepherd to take care of his own little sheep in order to get his little pay
cheque and stay out of trouble. That’s all he needs, and the sheep shall scatter. Some are hirelings.
There are others whose own the sheep are not. “I’m responsible for my sheep! I’m not
the pastor of this flock!” Now, for instance, in the Society we run into many cases that we used
to experience many times in the Novus Ordo: “I’m not going to go and anoint that man, I’m
not going to go and anoint that woman, because they’re not parishioners, it’s not my
flock!” How many times in the 1980s and 1990s did people come to Catholic Tradition because,
when they called at 2 o’clock in the morning, all the Novus Ordo parishes phones were off
and they reached the Society of St. Pius X priest and asked, “Can you anoint my
grandmother?” “Can you anoint this police officer?” My brother did the funeral of a New York police
officer because in New York, about 15 years ago, they called every single church and no
one answered the phone. And then they called our church in Ridgefield and he went to the
scene and anointed the dying police officer. And then did his funeral before the entire New
York city police department and thousands of people a few days later. Because we were the only
ones who would answer the call. They called all the other Novus Ordo priests first but
they didn’t answer. And now we’re experiencing similar things. And what answer is given?
“That’s not my sheep!” “That’s not my responsibility!”
“These are not my sheep!” Our Lord
Jesus Christ says: “...whose own the sheep are not.” Who is the sheep that the priest is
responsible for (and this is part of the grave responsibility of each priest)? Everyone that we
meet! Everyone that calls for a confession, everyone that calls for the sacraments, everyone
that calls for the truth! One day St. Peter was not happy because it was not a good morning,
it was a very early morning, it was out of hours, and a woman said to him: “Art thou not one
of his followers? Thy own speech betrays thee!” And he began to curse and to swear that
he did not know the man. That was his denial. How many times do priests deny Christ, how
many times? Not by being very wicked, but just by saying “It’s not my problem! It’s not my
concern! It’s not my worry! It’s not my difficulty! As long as I don’t have to lie...”
One easy example is abortion. It is
very difficult for men to have abortions. It has never been recorded in history that one man was
ever guilty of the sin of aborting his own baby, because men can’t get pregnant and they
don’t carry babies. But are they responsible for abortion?
Would there be abortion if men were
men? No there would not! The fact is a man cannot
say: “Well I’ve never had an
abortion, so what’s the problem? It’s not my problem!” And
what do the “pro-choice” people say, the pro-abortion murderers say? “It’s her
body, it’s herproblem. It’s not your body, it’s
not your problem!” This is an attack of the devil, and this attack enters into the Catholic
Church when the priest says, “It’s not my problem! It’s over my pay grade! It’s not my concern!
That’s the other Father’s problem, that’s not my problem!” His own the sheep are not!
Remember what the devil said about St. John Vianney. If there were two or three more like
him, the kingdom of Satan would be finished.
And so what’s the trouble in the
Church today? We are weak shepherds, if we are good, who do not care for the sheep; we are
hirelings; or we are wicked shepherds. And there are not shepherds who are good shepherds as
Christ demands. No one fulfils the bill as it should be fulfilled except Our Lord Jesus
Christ Himself and the great Saints. But we must pray that there be a rising up of shepherds,
that there be an imitation of the Good Shepherd. Our Lord has demanded that there must be an
imitation of the good shepherd, with a willingness to lay down our life for the sheep, and the
same holds true for the faithful, though the faithful are not shepherds, the faithful are
stewards and the faithful have the exact same responsibility, but in a lesser degree. We have to
be ready to go to death for our Faith.
How to prepare to die
One way, for instance, that the
devil is preparing your soul to fail in the great battle to come, as we mentioned earlier today:
selfishness. You can’t handle waiting in line. What does it mean “to die”? Letting someone else
go first. So when someone cuts in front of you at McDonalds, you might be a holy
Catholic, but you’re going to kill him, and it’s not going to be a happy meal that day! And if
someone drives in front of you in traffic, you’re going to kill him! And there’s always anger at
anyone who get in my way; anyone who interferes with my coffee, anyone who interferes with
my time; anyone who interferes with my comfort in anyway; and especially the most great evil of all evils!
Anyone who puts a dent in my pocketbook! What does that mean? Hireling!
When Sacred Scripture says that
money is the root of all evil, it is not an accident. Why are there wicked shepherds? Because
they’re concerned about money. What made Judas become a wicked shepherd? Money! That’s how
it all began. There are so many wicked shepherd, and there are wicked sheep. In the exact
same passage in which Ezekiel curses the shepherd, he reserves the same curse for the sheep
at the end of the chapter: that just as the shepherd drives the sheep away from the field, so
the fat sheep drive away the lean sheep. And the sheep are imitating the shepherd. And the
sheep are just as wicked as the shepherd. And therefore the sheep are not innocent, and they
shall also be punished for their sins. That’s what God told Ezekiel.
And so when we are warned about the
good shepherd, it refers to the wicked shepherd, but also the wicked sheep, not only the
wicked shepherd. And the wicked sheep: some of them are very evil and wicked and others exactly like the majority of
shepherds!
They are just hirelings. They don’t want to harm
anybody. They just want to take care of themselves. They don’t want to cause any trouble. And
St. Jerome says in his sermon yesterday, about this good shepherd: What is our first duty? We
must take care of the material needs and the external needs of our neighbour. For if we
cannot take care of the needs and concerns of our neighbour, how are we going to be able to
die for our neighbour? If you cannot do the lesser things for your neighbour, you will not be
able to do the greater things for your neighbour. That’s why, if you want to be trained to
become a martyr, trained to become a Saint in the times to come, then learn how to let other
people go first. Learn how not to curse when you get cut off in traffic. Learn how to let
others be in front of you in the line. There are many opportunities now because the world is filled
with animals! And they are all behaving in wickedness all around us. And there is anger
all around us. One thing I always noticed coming back from the Philippines and especially
coming back from India is how in America, every single day, all you see all day is angry people because we see it every day we don’t
pay attention and we don’t notice it. But when I get
on the train in India: I jump on the train with two million of my closest friends, and my bag
goes and smashes somebody in the head, and we plough through bodies. And they say “How
are you doing Father?” It’s just getting on the train. And sometimes you don’t make it because
somebody throws you off the train. OK, I’ll get on the next one. It’s just another day of
getting on the train. And no one is angry. Nobody. Nobody is cursing, nobody is upset. They’re
just singing and playing their little drums. And you just jump on the train and jump off.
Here, no matter what happens, no matter where you are, everybody is always angry.
There are many opportunities to let others go first, many opportunities to take care of the good of others, many, many opportunities to try to break down the pride of our own will, our own comfort, and be patient. And this is the way to begin to become a shepherd or a sheep in the flock of Christ.
There are many opportunities to let others go first, many opportunities to take care of the good of others, many, many opportunities to try to break down the pride of our own will, our own comfort, and be patient. And this is the way to begin to become a shepherd or a sheep in the flock of Christ.
The time of persecution is coming
again. It will always come back. Even though the devil
doesn’t like to do it, he can’t hold
himself back, there’s too much evil in him. And when it
comes we must not flee. Therefore we
must not be hirelings, we must consider everything we meet as our responsibility. His own
the sheep are not, that’s what it says, his own the sheep are not. “Well, that’s not my
responsibility!” “This man on the side of the road, who fell amongst robbers, that’s not my
responsibility! That’s the job of the police! That’s not our responsibility!” We’ve noticed many
times, not only now, but over the last 15 years, in our little chapels throughout the
Society, especially since the year 2000, if we need help for some work: “Father, that’s what we give
you money for! Pay somebody to do it!” “You need help for this, you need help for that?
Well, pay somebody to do this, pay somebody to do that!
That’s what we put money in the
collection for!” It used to be that we would find somebody, instantly, they would respond. “I’ve
got twenty people coming who need somewhere to sleep tonight.” “OK, they’re going to
crash on the floor in our house, no problem.” Now, they need to get a hotel. Now there have to be
all kinds of preparations in advance. Now you’ve got to phone ahead and prepare every
detail. It wasn’t that way, fifteen years ago. It wasn’t that way twenty years ago. The will of
our people has changed. And the devil will destroy the Catholics of Tradition, even if they
don’t accept modernism, by changing their hearts and by making sure that they are not ready
to die for anything other than themselves.
One point I forgot to make earlier
in the sermon is this. We are all ready to die. Everyone is willing to die. But what do we die
for? What we love. On my first day in Phoenix, Arizona in the 1990s, on the day I arrived a
man was killed on Seventh Street for four dollars and twenty seven cents. He was killed. He
didn’t want to let go of his money. We’re all ready to die for what we love. The question is,
what do we love? And God knows what we love. We think we love God, we think we love
the Faith, we think we love the Truth. Unless somebody’s touching my wallet! Unless
somebody’s making me uncomfortable! But when somebody comes and tests my faith, I
back off and make adjustments in my beliefs. So what we think is not correct God knows the heart. Everyone is
ready to die for something, and what are we ready to die for? What we
cannot live without! Now if we cannot live without Christ, if we cannot live without His Faith,
if we cannot live without His Hope, if we cannot live without His Charity, then we will
not allow ourselves to live in a way that is contrary to those things. If they command us to break
Charity, and if they command us to break Hope, and if they command us to break Faith, and
they command us to break any one of the virtues, we say “No!”
Better to die. Better to die than to lose that life inside us. So what do we love? The
Better to die. Better to die than to lose that life inside us. So what do we love? The
command of Our Lord Jesus Christ is
that the shepherd must love his sheep, and the sheep must love souls. What does God love
more than anything? He loves souls. He loves His Father and He loves souls. And if we
are members of the army of Christ, we must love the Father and we must love souls. And
that applies to all. Of course it applies to the priests in a special way on this feast of the
Good Shepherd, but it also applies to all of us, not only the shepherd. So pray that God send good
shepherds and labourers into His harvest, because the harvest indeed is great, but the
labourers are few. And let us pray that we get the grace to persevere in the Faith when the
great trial comes, which is impossible without the love of Our Holy Mother. She will protect us and
teach us how to be good shepherds and good sheep who love Christ and souls more than
ourselves.
I’ll close there, God bless you all, In the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
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Thank you for the sermon's transcription!
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