Catholic Radio Dramas

Christ the Good Shepherd

From a homily on the Gospels by St. Gregory the Great, pope (c. 540-604)

Christ the good shepherd

Narrated by Frank Dugan, Huntington Beach, California

I am the good shepherd. I know my own - by which I mean, I love them – and my own know me. In plain words: those who love me are willing to follow me, for anyone who does not love the truth has not yet come to know it.

My dear brethren, you have heard the test we pastors have to undergo. Turn now to consider how these words of our Lord imply a test for yourselves also. Ask yourselves whether you belong to his flock, whether you know him, whether the light of his truth shines in you minds. I assure you that it is not by faith that you will come to know him, but by love; not by mere conviction, but by action. John the evangelist is my authority for this statement. He tells us that anyone who claims to know God without keeping his commandments is a liar.

Consequently, the Lord immediately adds: As the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep. Clearly he means that laying down his life for his sheep gives evidence of his knowledge of the Father and the Father’s knowledge of him. In other words, by the love with which he dies for his sheep he shows how greatly he loves his Father.

Again he says: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, they follow me, and I give them eternal life. Shortly before this he had declared: If anyone enters the sheepfold through me he shall be saved; he shall go freely in and out and shall find good pasture. He will enter into a life of faith; from faith he will go out to vision, from belief to contemplation, and will graze in the good pastures of everlasting life.

So our Lord’s sheep will finally reach their grazing ground where all who follow him in simplicity of heart will feed on the green pastures of eternity. These pastures are the spiritual joys of heaven. There the elect look upon the face of God with unclouded vision and feast at the banquet of life for ever more.

Beloved brothers, let us set out for these pastures where we shall keep joyful festival with so many of our fellow citizens. May the thought of their happiness urge us on! Let us stir up our hearts, rekindle our faith, and long eagerly for what heaven has in store for us. To love thus is to be already on our way. No matter what obstacles we encounter, we must not allow them to turn us aside from the joy of that heavenly feast. Anyone who is determined to reach his destination is not deterred by the roughness of the road that leads to it. Nor must we allow the charm of success to seduce us, or we shall be like a foolish traveler who is so distracted by the pleasant meadows through which he is passing that he forgets where he is going.

Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings

Saint Gregory the Great (c. 540-604) Born the son of a wealthy patrician, Gordianus, he was educated at Rome. He was prefect of Rome when the Lombard invasion of Italy was threatening Rome in 571. Attracted to the religious life, he converted his home into St. Andrew’s Monastery and became a monk there under Valentius and founded six monasteries on his estates in Sicily. He was ordained a priest by Pope Pelagius II and served as papal nuncio to the Byzantine court 579-85 but then resumed his monastic life and became abbot of St. Andrew’s.

A plague struck Rome in 589 taking the life of Pope Pelagius and Gregory was elected Pope on September 3, 590. He established many reforms and disciplines among the clergy and ransomed captives from the invading Lombards and protected Jews from unjust coercion and fed victims of a famine. Remarkably, he confronted the Lombards at the gates of Rome, and through the eloquence of his discourse, he was able to persuaded them to spare Rome.

Gregory was responsible for ending injustices imposed by the Byzantine Emperor and for the conversion of England to Christianity and dispatched St. Augustine of Canterbury there with forty monks. He commissioned the structure of sacred music to sing the Psalms of the Divine Office, now called ‘The Gregorian Chant”. He referred to himself as the “Servant of the Servants of God”, a title used by Popes to this day. He wrote treatises, notably his Dialogue, a collection of visions, prophecies, miracles and lives of the Italian saints. He is the last of the traditional Latin Doctors of the Church, and justly called, “The Great.” He died in Rome in 604 and was canonized by acclamation immediately after his death.