Cor Ad Cor Loquitor: Homily for Good Shepherd Sunday

I am the good shepherd, says the Lord;
I know my sheep, and mine know me.

and the sheep hear his voice,
as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
… and the sheep follow him,
because they recognize his voice.

My dear brothers and sisters in Our Lord Christ Jesus, today, the fourth Sunday of Easter, we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday, and these verses I just recalled, first from the Gospel acclamation and subsequently from the Gospel, offer us great insights into the heart of the Good Shepherd.

The sheep recognize his voice. How do they recognize his voice? St. John Henry Newman’s motto provides the answer: Cor ad cor loquitor; heart speaks to heart. His sheep, hear Him, because there is a resonance of His voice in their hearts. This is to say, their hearts start vibrating to the same pitch as that of His voice. This motto is relevant because it resonates with the response of the crowd to St. Peter’s words in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles:

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart

It is to our hearts that the voice of the Good Shepherd is directed, my dear brothers and sisters, and his voice is directed towards all of us Christians, and to every single person in the world. He speaks to us through His apostles, and His people, who were, and are, charged with proclaiming the Good News to all the earth. Blessed are those who hear this news, who hear His voice, and whose hearts are moved, whose hearts are cut, so that they accept baptism into the faith, and practice the spiritual and corporeal acts of mercy of our faith.

Resonance, my dear brothers and sisters, is manifest when one object responds to a vibration in the other by vibrating similarly. That the life of virtue would allow one’s heart to resonate when called by the Good Shepherd should not be strange. “I am the Good Shepherd” in the Greek original reads:

              Egō eimi ho poimēn ho kalos

The word kalos could translate to good, but it could also translate to noble or beautiful. The Good Shepherd is simultaneously the noble and beautiful shepherd. If our lives are already marked by the practice of beauty or nobility, it is logical that our hearts will resonate with that of the Noble and Beautiful Shepherd.

It needs to be pointed out, my dear brothers and sisters, that Christianity does not have a monopoly on virtuous living. It was possible for the crowd that St. Peter addressed to be cut to the heart because they were following the law of Moses. Similarly, the pagans themselves knew the virtues and many tried to follow them. God speaks to all peoples in every age and gives them the tools necessary – beauty, virtue, nobility – so that their heart may resonate when they hear the proclamation of the Gospel.

A life of virtue alone, however, is not enough to get to heaven, and to avoid eternal death. It is only through baptism and through this baptism becoming worthy to consume His flesh that we can enter heaven. But a life spent in the practice of virtue does allow us to respond to the call of the Good Shepherd.

But what of those who hear His voice, preached through his missionaries, through Christians at work in their daily lives, and yet choose not to respond, not to be baptised. What of these people?

Once again, the voice of St. Peter offers us insight: they choose to remain with the “wicked generation.” And because they choose to do so, be sure that these people cannot enter into eternal life, for these are the words of the Master:

I am the gate.
Whoever enters through me will be saved,
and will come in and go out and find pasture.

Those who do not enter through this gate, those who do not accept baptism do not receive the reward of the salvation. They cannot receive salvation because it makes no sense that Our Lord suffered and died so that salvation may be gained, that He asks that we be baptized in the healing waters He provides, and we reject this path to eternal life.

Beloved brothers, let us set out for these pastures which are the spiritual joys of heaven. There those who respond to the call of the Good Shepherd, look upon the face of God with unclouded vision and feast at the banquet of life for ever more.

(A version of this homily was first preached to the faithful at the Cathedral parish of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Old Goa on 26 April 2026.)

(Image reference: Christ the Good Shepherd (mosaic detail), anonymous artist, Basilica San Lorenzo fuori le mura, Rome.)

Key of David: Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter

Lord Jesus, open the Scriptures to us;
make our hearts burn while you speak to us.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, these words from the Gospel acclamation rephrase the words of the disciples at Emmaus that we just heard proclaimed in the Gospel:

Were not our hearts burning within us
while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?

These words, dear brothers and sisters, permit us to reflect on how to read the scriptures.

Ever since the Vatican Council II, Catholics have been encouraged to engage with the scriptures more actively. This is a good initiative, but we should be careful to not become like the Protestants, who with their cry of “Sola Scriptura” tend to read the scriptures literally, not relying on any other aid. If we adopt this principle, there is a danger that we will not be reading scripture correctly, because the reason to read the scriptures is to get to know Our Lord Jesus Christ more intimately. Indeed, we should allow Him to open up the scriptures for us, so that our hearts will burn while He speaks to us.

And how do we allow Him to open up the scriptures for us? By recognizing His presence in the scriptures, especially in the Old Testament! My dear brothers and sisters, what we need to recognize is that the Old Testament is not simply the history of Israel before Jesus came. On the contrary, the Old Testament has been preserved because it is composed of prophecies about Our Lord, as we learn in the first reading today, where St. Peter demonstrates how Psalm 16 is not about King David, but about Our Lord. The Old Testament is composed of prophecies, yes, but it is also about Our Lord acting silently in the history of Israel, even prior to His incarnation.

Take, for example, the pillar of fire, and the pillar of cloud that accompanied the Israelites as they fled Egypt – this was the Son accompanying His people in the wilderness.

The fourth of the O antiphons of Advent acclaims Christ as:

O Key of David,
opening the gates of God’s eternal Kingdom:
come and free the prisoners of darkness!

Jesus is to be the key through which we understand the Old Testament, and the Old Testament is to be the context through which we read the New. Once understood correctly, the scriptures open up not just our minds, but our hearts too!

For example, at the Paschal vigil this year, while lighting the new fire, because the kindling and wood had been well prepared, we soon had a pillar of fire before us, and my mind was taken to that first Passover, when the pillar of fire led the Israelites through the desert. Some years earlier, as a deacon, I had the privilege of carrying the freshly lit Paschal candle through a darkened church, and received the powerful sensation of the pillar of fire that had cut through the darkness of the Egypt and led Israel through the waters of the Red Sea. And finally, when taking the Blessed Sacrament back to the tabernacle, and have to – in the unusual arrangement within the Sé of Goa – pass through the people who bow in adoration, I think of the pillar of cloud that dwelt with the people of Israel as they sojourned in the desert and pray:

You are in our midst, O Lord, and we bear your name. (Jer 14: 9 NCB)

But the Old Testament does not merely provide us with a deeper sense of Our Lord’s personality; it is also the framework within which we can understand the New Testament. This past Tuesday, we read from the Acts of the Apostles that there was no needy person among them, because:

those who owned property or houses would sell them,
bring the proceeds of the sale,
and put them at the feet of the Apostles,
and they were distributed to each according to need.

If we recognize that the young Church, described in the Acts of the Apostles, is the new Israel, following Christ, the pillar of light that destroyed death and darkness, then we realise instantly that this verse from Acts is teaching us how Israel rescued from Egypt ought to have behaved. When gifted with the manna they were assured they would keep receiving, some still chose to take more than their need (Ex 16: 15-20). The New Israel, however, purified by the Lord, and empowered by the Spirit, thought not of tomorrow, but placed all their trust in the Lord. In this way, we see how the New Testament, is a fulfillment of all the prophecies in the Old.

In this Easter season and beyond, so that Our Lord will be the key that opens our hearts and our minds to the scriptures, let us pray every day of our lives:

Lord Jesus, open the Scriptures to us;
make our hearts burn while you speak to us.

(A version of this homily was first preached to the faithful in Concanim at the Cathedral parish of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Old Goa.)

The Economy of Divine Mercy: Homily for the Feast of Divine Mercy

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today our Holy Mother Church celebrates Divine Mercy Sunday in response to the desire of Our Lord, revealed to St. Maria Faustina Kowalska in the 1930s, that the first Sunday after Easter be celebrated as a feast of His Divine Mercy.

While this feast usually focuses on the mercy of Our Lord, this mercy of the Son is imbricated in a Trinitarian economy of mercy.

In the second reading today, the first letter of St. Peter proclaims the mercy of the Father:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

This is the mercy of God the Father is that even though we sinners deserve eternal death, there is, nonetheless, life after death. This is the living hope which we celebrate at Easter. The mercy of God the Father is the actualization of the ancient promise of life after death. Actualization, because, as we hear in the Gospel today, the apostles and disciples saw and touched the man who had been certifiably dead and was now living and breathing among them.

Brethren, we have lived so long within a Christian era, with the certainties of the Christian faith, that we do not really appreciate what it means to live with the certainty that there is life after death. That this life is not subject to the capriciousness of divine or other beings, but an invitation to eternal life with a loving God, in Paradise. There is no terror of unending cycles of life and death, each new life possibly taking us lower in the hierarchy of lifeforms. Indeed, so long, and so powerful has hope of Christianity been, that even non-Christians seem to now live with the idea that there is a good life after death, that paradise awaits us all.

Typically, with these non-Christians, there is no sense that a great price was paid for us to be able to live with this hope. We Christians, however, know that the price paid so that those excluded from paradise since the fall of Adam could return, was the brutal death of Our Lord Jesus Christ obedient to the wish of His merciful Father.

The mercy of this great price was that we now know that there is no need for us to sin. Until the death, and resurrection, of Our Lord, there was no certainty that there even was life after death. Like the atheists today, who simply believe that life ends with death and all we have is this one life. And since there is only this one life, one must make the most of it, whatever the cost! This cost is very often the abuse of, or lack of mercy to, others. After all, if there is no life after death, and all we have is this one opportunity, we ought to make the most of it, taking care of ourselves, leaving the rest to fend for themselves.

If the mercy of the Father was the giving of hope through the resurrection of Our Lord, Our Lord, the Son, offers His own mercy when He says to the disciples:

Receive the Holy Spirit.

Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,

and whose sins you retain are retained.

The mercy of God the Son is the fact that despite His great sacrifice, which should prompt us to sin no more, He is willing to continue forgiving our sins and thus permit us to enter heaven. As Our Lord promised St. Faustina:

I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment.

And so, my dear brothers and sisters, I urge you all; do not approach the altar for communion if you have not first confessed in the last fifteen days. Confess, and then worthily come to drink from the fountain of Divine Mercy.

The Spirit has its own role to play in this economy of mercy. The Holy Spirit, which is the mark of God’s ownership of us (Eph 1: 13-14) reminds us actively of what God the Son said to us (Jn 14:26):

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. (Mt 5:7)

Adding:

give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back. (Lk 6: 38)

It is mercy that the Holy Spirit urges us to give to each other, whispering to us – those who are baptized – that it is in the measure that we give mercy, that we shall obtain mercy. It was mercy that animated the life of the early church as we hear in the first reading today from the Acts of the Apostles:

They devoted themselves…

to the breaking of bread and to the prayers….

they would sell their property and possessions

and divide them among all according to each one’s need.

It is in the act of confession, dear brothers and sisters, that we are enabled to articulate our desire to show mercy, and beg the grace of the Spirit to help actualize this mercy in Our Lives.

Through mercy, my dear brothers and sisters, we are invited into the inner life of the Trinity; we should grab this opportunity! May Our Lord grant us all the grace to humble ourselves in confession, and benefit from the flow of mercy from His open heart.

(A version of this homily was first preached to the faithful at the Cathedral parish of St. Catherine of Alexandria on 11 April 2026.)

(Image reference: The Throne of Mercy with the Virgin, St. John, and Angels with the Arma Christi, Anonymous artist, circa 1470, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.)