Welcome.
I am Fr.
Koral Pit from Eden from White-rope Monks of St.
Benedict in South Africa.
We bring you today's homily from the Chapel of St.
Luke in Johannesburg.
I really hope you enjoy the next couple of minutes that we get to share together in the presence of the Spirit.
Today we celebrate Christ as the Great Shepherd,
As the Good Shepherd.
And it's interesting that we read in different pieces of the Bible how God brings up the concept of the Shepherd several times.
In the prophet Jeremiah or the book of Jeremiah,
We see that so many people led God's people astray.
So many people were seen as leaders and yet all they did was to sow division and sow discord in the lives of others.
And God says that I will then bring others who will practice with honesty and integrity and save my people.
We also read in the letter of St.
Paul to the Ephesians that Christ then came.
And the price that Christ paid with his blood took away the separation that we had with each other,
Took away the divide between us as people,
And also I believe that it took away the idea or the mirage that we thought was true,
That there was a divide between us and God.
And we see so many times in our future,
In our current lives,
That people thrive on the idea that I am alone.
And many people try and force that idea through that every person is different and that those differences should make us scared of each other.
That is not what God says.
Jesus came to teach us that the divide doesn't exist,
That we are all children of God,
We are all one body in Christ.
I also think that many of us,
And I include myself in that struggle with the concept of God being inside of us,
It's so easy to see God as this angry being,
This angry old man sitting on a cloud waiting for me to do something wrong so that he can judge me and throw me into hell.
That idea has been perpetuated through the ages by,
Unfortunately,
Many churches and many religious organizations that God is only vengeful and the only way that we can receive the love of God is to follow a specific rule set and a series of rules.
And that is absolute bull.
God is love and God is everywhere and God is everything.
So instead of the image of this angry old white man,
If I can quote the color purple,
What if we see that this divide doesn't exist,
That there's nothing separating us from God other than our thoughts,
Other than our ego?
Then maybe we can stop focusing on finding God outside of ourselves.
Then the shepherd might appear.
God says that he will call new people to be shepherds,
People who practice honesty and integrity.
And we see that many a times God calls people who don't necessarily see themselves as shepherds.
God calls people to do his will that might not feel worthy,
Might not want that responsibility to help others also find God in themselves.
I know that every time God calls me to do something,
There's doubt,
There's a bit of panic.
Why me,
Lord?
You know I'm not perfect.
Far from it.
You know that I struggle,
I struggle to do what I think is your will because how do I know what your will is?
I struggle to love.
Yet,
Apparently those things are okay.
And God says time and time again,
I don't care about those things.
I care that you try.
I care that even if you fall,
You still try and love.
You still try and make a difference in somebody else's life.
And that is enough.
Because then,
As soon as we accept our role,
The energy comes.
The words come.
The knowledge comes.
You don't have to be a learned person then to make a change,
A positive change in somebody else's life.
And then you can answer the call of being a shepherd.
Psalm 23 says,
The Lord is my shepherd,
There is nothing I shall want.
I remember learning the song saying,
The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want.
And since English isn't my first language,
For a long time I wondered at,
Why wouldn't I want the Lord is my shepherd?
Because the song says,
The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want.
It's only later that the comma was seen.
And the true meaning of the Lord is my shepherd,
There is nothing I shall want came to be.
And we can try and intellectualise it and talk about things like,
Why are people hungry if the Lord is their shepherd?
Do we know?
I don't have those answers.
But I know that at times I get to close my eyes and shut out the external world for a moment.
I shut out the noise.
And if I'm lucky,
I get to shut out my own thoughts.
I get to spend time in the silence,
The sacred silence inside of me.
And sometimes I hear the Lord.
And I know that everything will be OK.
God bless you.
Amen.
