In today’s gospel, Jesus proclaims Himself to be the Good Shepherd who even lays down His life for His sheep. And He says that He has “other sheep” that are not of this fold. Jesus accepts full responsibility for All men and women. As the Catholic Catechism says: “There is not any person now, nor was there in the past, nor will there be in the future, for whom Jesus Christ did not die”. Truly, as John tells us in the second reading: “See with what love God has first loved us”. Jesus tells us that we also have a definite responsibility toward all peoples of all time. St. Augustine tells us: “Extend your love over the entire earth if you want to love Christ, since the members of Christ are found everywhere in the world. If you love only one part, you are divided. You are not in the Body; you are not under the Head.”
At the very beginning of the Scriptures, after Cain had murdered his brother Able, God asked: “Where is your brother?” Cain answered as a coward: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The response of God then and the response of Jesus today is: “Yes, you are!” Jesus makes it clear over and over in both his words and his parables that our love, our concern, our responsibility must lie with Every person in the world, especially with the poor and the outcast.
This love must extend to those who are “not of my flock”. Jesus says: “I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice”. It is questioned by some how those not of the flock will be saved. This is a mystery that is ultimately known only by God. However Jesus says: “I must bring them also and they will hear my voice”.
We do not know what will happen to anyone at the moment of death. Yet it seems very possible that at that moment, when Jesus is revealed to us as the Head of His Mystical Body of all peoples of all time, all will hear His voice and recognize that as being the true voice which led them throughout life, even if they thought at the time that it was the voice of Abraham or Mohammed or Buddha. Then they will realize that they are part of that one flock which is Christ, of that one Body of which He is the Head. The voice that is heard at that moment will not be first of all a voice of judgment. It will first be a voice of love and acceptance of all. The question at the last judgment will not be whether Jesus accepts us, but whether we truly accept and love Jesus in the fullness of His total Body which is every person of all time.
This highlights what is perhaps the greatest sin of our time – namely the failure to accept those who are not of our faith or our culture. Augustine again says: “All men are one Man in Christ, and the unity of Christians constitutes but one Man. And this Man is all men and all men are this Man, for all are one, since Christ is one.” (pardon the sexist language!) Hence to establish a policy of excluding all Muslims or all Buddhists is to abort the very Body of Christ. It is a failure to recognize the other as truly our brother or sister. It is to answer as Cain did: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” But the response always remains the same – a resounding YES! We are all a part of the flock of Christ, just as we are all a part of the Body of Christ. And when we receive Jesus Christ in Communion today, we receive with Him all the rest of humanity and Jesus asks us the same question as of old: “Where is your brother? Where is your sister?” That brother or sister is not just our blood relatives, but the person next to you now – the person trying to become an immigrant in our nation, – the person trying to cross the borders – the person persecuted simply because they are not like us in every way. Our nation is challenged today as to whether we are truly a Christian nation or whether we are a national clique of like people.
Jesus Christ Himself calls us today to recognize the fact that we cannot accept Him as our Savior and at the same time reject some who are His brothers and sisters. We are all to be one flock under one Shepherd. And in that way to become the total Christ who is given over to the Father.