Father Aidan's Sermon – Sunday 20th July 2003

Jesus is a Good Shepherd. He saw that the ordinary shepherds, the leaders of the Old Testament and the New were not very good at it really. So he became the Good Shepherd and it's great to hear what he says tonight. He says to us as He said to the Apostles 'Come away and rest awhile.'

The Good Shepherd tells us to have holidays, a perfectly timed Gospel with many of the schools starting their holidays yesterday. So we need holidays and it's extraordinary that in our pagan country we are dominated by a Protestant work ethic. Underneath it all, if you're good then you work really hard, so people who are in work are usually working 16 hours a day or something like that. This idea that that's how you get to Heaven, either the heaven on this earth or the next; by working like mad, and it's a Protestant work ethic that's very English, heresy, actually - it dates from beyond the Reformation to Palagius who thought that if you worked hard enough, everybody could get to Heaven.

And the Good Shepherd says 'No, it's a gift. Everything is a gift'. So thank God, in the Catholic countries of Europe they have a different attitude. If you go to Spain, especially in the south of Spain, they regard work as an evil necessity to be avoided on every occasion if possible, which is the other extreme but one which I favour much more, personally.

So the Good Shepherd recalls us to be good shepherds to follow Jesus and he says to us 'Come away and have a holiday.' Why do we need holidays? Schools are off for six weeks, universities three months. How inefficient it is, when we could be working all that time and yet we need the rest. To begin to organise our lives and to see the whole picture, Holy Days are seeing about the wholeness of life and to see the whole picture and, if we're not careful, in this mad, hectic world, we won't see the wood for the trees. So we need somehow, as we're learning, as we're growing up, time for the knowledge to settle and for wisdom to have a chance. And the way we do that, and holidays are Holy Days, and we should be careful to make them Holy Days - that's how they'll be happy ones, if we're aware that the holiday is a gift from Jesus and He's asking us to come to the Good Shepherd and to be with him and to rest awhile with him.

So He gives us Holy Days so that we can see the whole picture and that's what a shepherd is about. A good shepherd is one who helps us to see the whole picture. That's why grandparents are so important. Very often they can help us to see the whole picture, help familes to see the whole picture. When parents get in a knot about one particular child who is being a pain in the neck at the time, they can help us see the whole picture. And they know that the years go on and children change and they have a whole lifetime of experience.

Archbishop Murphy O'Connor, our Cardinal recently was a good shepherd in that sense. Seeing the whole picture, criticising the Government spending so many hours, you know, time and time and time again, the Government have not given any time in the Houses of Parliament to debate the issue of life and abortion. Time and time again it has run out of time and yet they have spent hours talking about foxes. The foxes deserve to survive maybe, but not all those hours of Parliament time which is precious and there's no time to discuss those important issues like the human life of a child, of a baby in the womb, of what we're doing with all these modern scientific technological advances, manipulating foetuses and genes long before the child is born.

So he is calling for us like a good shepherd to look at the whole picture, not to get caught up in the tiny detail. One thing, you know how Parliament talk about passing a rule that you shouldn't clip your child behind the ear, don't hit children. We shouldn't abuse children, we shouldn't be violent to children, of course not, but to pass a law saying that parents shouldn't slap them. What model does our Government give us? We've got trouble in Afghanistan, we've got trouble in Iraq. What do we do, bomb them out of existence. Send the bombers in from ten miles off and blast them, and we're worrying about clipping a child, slapping its legs, and how do our modern Governments show us how to deal with problems. Zap them from on high with all the ammunition you've got. We need to stand back and see the whole picture.

I remember my Father was a good shepherd at times, though he also clipped me behind the ear quite often - maybe that was being a good shepherd! He died a long time ago, but he was a good shepherd in the sense that he could see the whole picture because I can remember an insurance man came to the door and said to him 'Oh, by the way, have your got any insurance policies?'

My Father replied 'No I haven't actually.' The insurance man said 'Well you'd better have one because you never know what will happen to you', and my Dad said 'What do you mean, I might die'. The insurance man was very embarrassed by that word 'death' 'You mean my life isn't going to go on for ever and I'd better look after it and have an insurance so that when I die ....'.

But when he was dying it was a lovely death to share with him and he talked about all the people he'd see in Heaven and he was filled with a deep joy as he was dying, and he knew that Mary, Our Lady, because he'd always been good with the Rosary, would be close to him and would comfort him at the right time and he died on Her Feast Day. On every Feast Day of our Lady, we think is it today and the beginning of Advent and Christmas came, but it was 2nd February, the Purification of Our Lady in those days.

So, he saw the big picture. You've been very lucky with having Father Michael Turner here. Father Michael could see the big picture and he said to his brother Greg, when he went to see him when he was dying, 'Don't get upset. Don't worry kid. I'm only going through what you're going to have to go through'. That ability to see the big picture, so often the trees of this life. The shepherds have to shine the light of Eternity on everything we do and everything we are.

That's the Good Shepherd and that's why we need holidays and Holy Days. Time to be with Our Lord and to ponder on the reality of our existence. Something which we are called to offer others, to be aware of the real things so that we don't go astray by concentrating on the little things.

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