Universi Dominici Gregis
Gospel Reflection for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, May 11, 2025 - John 10:27-30
My sheep hear my voice: and I know them, and they follow me.
And I give them life everlasting; and they shall not perish for ever, and no man shall pluck them out of my hand.
That which my Father hath given me, is greater than all: and no one can snatch them out of the hand of my Father.
I and the Father are one. (John 10:27-30 DRA)
The readings for this Fourth Sunday of Easter focus on one of the themes which are central to Scripture’s imagery for the relationship between God and His people, the Church, throughout history and today, and which was one of the key symbols used by St. John for Christ: the Good Shepherd. This theme is especially appropriate today, as our new Supreme Pontiff and Successor of St. Peter, Pope Leo XIV, celebrates his first Sunday as pope.
Christ is the Good Shepherd, and those “who were destined for eternal life,” who are sheep of His flock, are those who know His voice and belong to Him. Contrary to universalists, this clearly indicates that not all people are one of the “many” (Mt 26:28) who will wash their sin-soiled robes white in the Blood of the Lamb and which now only those who are in full communion with Him may worthily receive in the Eucharist. Those who believe in Him and seek to be His disciples must always remember that He is our true Shepherd; we must listen to His voice above all others, rejecting any word or deed that contradicts His voice as it is given to us through Tradition.
This gets us to the second element of the theme of the Good Shepherd which is especially applicable to our new Holy Father: Christ established a new ministerial priesthood, (1 Cor 4:1; 1 Tim 1:12) handed on by the apostles to their successors the bishops and priests for two millennia, with the guidance of the Holy Ghost to ensure that they hand on Tradition as they received it, (2 Thess 3:6) to correct errors in the Church and the world, to dispense the grace of the Sacraments in persona Christi (2 Cor 2:10) and to act as living witnesses to the wisdom and holiness of Christ, so that all the fish in the great seas of the world may be caught in the net of the Church.
The “mission” of the pope, as Leo XIV called his papacy in his first homily, is not to reinvent the Church anew in his own image, to accommodate the world or to make life easier for Christians: rather, His vocation is to act as the gatekeeper of the flock of Christ, guarding its ancient walls against intruders, discerning authentic shepherds from the many wolves in sheep’s clothing and allowing sheep to respond to the voice of the Good Shepherd and enter freely into His flock. St. Paul thus gave this rule to the priests and bishops of Ephesus:
For I have not spared to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed to yourselves, and to the whole flock, wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed you bishops, to rule the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. (Acts 20:27-28)
The offices of the papacy and the episcopacy are grave responsibilities given by the Holy Ghost as a participation in the authority of Christ the Good Shepherd. This is why Pope St. John Paul II named his Apostolic Constitution establishing the rules for the election of a new pontiff Universi Dominici Gregis, meaning “the Lord’s whole flock” and opening with the clear statement, “The Shepherd of the Lord's whole flock is the Bishop of the Church of Rome.” The pope shepherds the flock of the Church in Christ’s name, as do the bishops for their own individual dioceses and the priests for their parishes, just as they act in persona Christi to dispense the Sacraments and just as all Christians, on Earth and in Heaven, participate in the role of Christ as the “one mediator of God and men” (1 Tim 2:5) by praying to Him for the salvation of the world. The pope should thus be a shepherd, not a tyrant or despot, as Pope Benedict XVI reminded us in a 2005 homily,
The Pope is not an absolute monarch whose thoughts and desires are law. On the contrary: the Pope's ministry is a guarantee of obedience to Christ and to his Word. He must not proclaim his own ideas, but rather constantly bind himself and the Church to obedience to God's Word, in the face of every attempt to adapt it or water it down, and every form of opportunism... The Pope knows that in his important decisions, he is bound to the great community of faith of all times, to the binding interpretations that have developed throughout the Church's pilgrimage. Thus, his power is not being above, but at the service of, the Word of God. It is incumbent upon him to ensure that this Word continues to be present in its greatness and to resound in its purity, so that it is not torn to pieces by continuous changes in usage.
Similarly, St. Peter, the first pope, warned,
The ancients therefore that are among you, I beseech, who am myself also an ancient, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ: as also a partaker of that glory which is to be revealed in time to come: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking care of it, not by constraint, but willingly, according to God: not for filthy lucre's sake, but voluntarily: Neither as lording it over the clergy, but being made a pattern of the flock from the heart. And when the prince of pastors shall appear, you shall receive a never fading crown of glory. (1 Pt 5:1-4)
The pope and bishops truly deserve our obedience, as Princes of the Church and shepherds of the Good Shepherd, and we must pray for them, especially our new Holy Father Leo XIV, reserving judgment until we see what fruits are produced and imploring God to gave him the grace to restore unity, courage, missionary zeal and adherence to Tradition to the Church, so that he may merit, by grace, “a never fading crown of glory” like the saint-popes of history. May Pope Leo XIV, like his great predecessor Pope Leo XIII, protect the rights of workers, encourage faithful Catholic biblical scholarship, inspire a revival of Thomism and work to restore Christendom.
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Thank you Kaleb. I am very excited about our new pope. I would also add, in reference to your "gatekeeper" analogy, that his role is to identify and call out the many "false shepherds" in our midst; those who lead many of the flock astray into false worship and even self worship.