4th Sunday of Easter (C) – May 11, 2025

St. Paul – Lyons, KS

Acts 13:14, 43-52; Psalm 100:1-3, 5; Revelation 7:9, 14b-17; John 10:27-30

“Practical Atheism”

As we heard, today we are celebrating Good Shepherd Sunday. Every year on the fourth Sunday of Easter the liturgy of the Church focuses our attention on the image of Jesus Christ as Shepherd. And traditionally today is also the day we give special thanks to God for the Shepherds he has given us to lead us and to guide us, and to pray for an increase in vocations to the priesthood. And so I think it’s providential then that we are also blessed to receive a new Shepherd, a new Pastor of the Universal Church, Pope Leo XIV, Robert Francis Prevost, a Chicago boy. And while everyone else has been trying to predict what kind of pope he will be, while some have already canonized him or written him off, I’ve been focused on the important thing: his brothers! Have you seen some of their interviews? Gold. His older brother said, “I’m still gonna treat him like my little brother. [When I see him I’ll] say, ‘Rob, you idiot, what have you done?’ Take his hat off and give him a nuggie.” Television gold, those interviews.

But in all seriousness, I’ve been very struck by our Holy Father, our new Shepherd. The way he carries himself, his meekness, his humility. In his first homily—so he celebrated Mass in the Sistine Chapel with all of the Cardinals, which was his first chance to give some decently prepared words—and in that homily he said that many people today believe that Jesus existed, believe that he taught, did some miracles, this and that—and yet they live “in a state of practical atheism.” Practical atheism. In other words, they may believe that God exists, but practically, day to day, in the “practice” of their life they are atheists. Practically, for all intents and purposes, they live as if God does not exist.

And why did that strike me? Because Pope Leo XIV is taking a homily out of the ol’ Fr. Michael handbook! Plagiarized me! That’s what I’ve been saying for weeks! Right? “Faith is not a thing which one ‘loses,’ we merely cease to shape our lives by it.” We don’t stop believing in God or Jesus, we just cease to shape our lives by our faith. Practically, we live as if Jesus did not rise from the dead. Practically, we can often live as if God didn’t exist!

And so—practically, since Easter—that’s why I’ve been trying to help us focus on some of the concrete ways that this faith can shape our life: first and foremost living a belonging to the Church; we also talked about mercy, living out mercy; last week we talked about love, a life of agape love, self-giving and self-sacrificing and total love, and not just boring English “love.”

The Voice of the Good Shepherd

Today, though, Jesus gives us a simple—simple and yet essential, fundamental, practical ways to allow faith to shape our life. Jesus, in this Gospel, a passage where he is referring to himself as the Good Shepherd—Jesus, the Shepherd, gives that insightful description of us, the sheep. He says, “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). My sheep hear my voice; they follow me. And so really, the simple question, the question of, “Does my faith shape my life or not,” the question of, “Do I say I believe all of this, but then practically live as an atheist?”—the question is do I know the voice of the Good Shepherd, and do I follow him?

Have you seen those videos where kids hear their mom or dad for the first time? So they are born deaf, but then they get hearing aids or cochlear implants—and then, for the first time, they hear the voice of their mom?

Moving stuff. There’s one where this baby hears his mom for the first time and then just gets this big smile, and then, just overwhelmed, begins to cry these tears of joy. And then reaches out to latch onto, hold, hug their mom. That is the response of someone hearing the voice of the one who loves them: joy, peace,  an overwhelming sense of love and peace. And then immediately they are drawn to remain with them. The “fruit” of hearing this kind of voice is joy, peace, love, security, hope.

Ok, that’s what Jesus is talking about. Do we know his voice? Can we recognize his voice? And then do we respond to that? Do we follow him?

I once had a kid—middle school kid, really struggling with school, got sent to the principle and she couldn’t figure him out, so she sent him to me—this kid sits down in my office and we’re trying to figure out what’s going on, why he’s struggling in school. And he tells me, “Well, I just don’t think I need school. I’m going to do something else with my life.” And so I asked, “Oh yeah, what’s that?” And he said, “Well, I’m going to play in the NBA.” Now, one thing you need to know about this kid is that he was about the 8th best basketball player in a class of nine boys; he wasn’t ever making it to the NBA. And then he said, “I prayed about it. And I think God wants me to play in the NBA.” Now, regardless of the fact that that kid never made the basketball team in high school and isn’t currently playing in the NBA today—regardless, at that time I knew one thing: he did not hear the voice of God tell him that he wanted him to play in the NBA. How often do we convince ourselves that our own voice, our own ideas, are God’s voice? How often are we following our own ideas?

Can We Recognize Our “Practical Atheism”?

And so that’s what I mean: can we recognize our own “practical atheism”? Yeah, we all believe in God and Jesus and the resurrection, sure, great. But then practically, day to day, does change things? Do we seriously try to listen for his voice? Because statistically, we listen to just about every other voice more that the voice of the Good Shepherd. We listen to cable news, social media news; Facebook reels, Instagram reels, TikTok reels, BeReals (lotta reels); we listen to podcasts, audiobooks, YouTube videos, talk radio. The list goes on and on and on. But we consume so much talk, words, ideas, all of it! And yeah, maybe we get some news, some good ideas. But what’s the fruit? Well, look around: anger, fear, division, anxiety, worry, despair. And then how does that lead us to live, practically, day to day? Is our reaction to certain things, “Oh, what would Jesus think? How does the Church think about this? What does the Church teach about this?” Or, is it, anger, fear, division, anxiety, worry, despair? Who are we following, the thoughts of cable news and Facebook reals and podcasters? Or our Good Shepherd, Jesus, and his Church, the Shepherd he has given us?

Again, I think of our new Holy Father, Pope Leo. Within 15 minutes of being announced, everyone had already decided on everything he was going to do and say for the next fifteen years. Everyone already knew. But few people listened to him, his words.

And the same goes for Jesus. Do we truly listen to his voice? Or do we just come up with our own responses and presume Jesus would agree with us?

Can we listen to his voice?

This is where I think we can very concretely begin to shape our lives with our faith: to listen, to learn to listen, to seek to listen to the voice of Good Shepherd (to hear his voice) and then to respond to it (to follow him).

For example, how much time do you spend reading and reflecting on the Gospels, Jesus’ actual words? Have you ever read the Gospels cover to cover? Do you take time in prayer each day? Do you come to Adoration and spend an hour with him? Do you reflect on your day, asking where Jesus was in your day? Or, do you just presume to know what Jesus says or would say?

Or think, how often do you study your faith? How often do you ask, “You know, I wonder if the Church has taught us anything about X, Y, or Z”? Life, sex, morality, social justice, money, work, war, immigration, pornography, contraception, IVF, surrogacy. Do you go to our Shepherds for this? Do you learn more about what the Church and her shepherds, the bishops and popes, have taught us? Or, again, do you presume to know what the Church teaches, or do you think that the Church’s teachings are just kind of optional and really we just have to decide for ourselves? Do we get our “answers” from our favorite politician or podcaster?

Again, when it comes to the question of does the faith shape my life, today the issue presented to us by Jesus is this: Am I listening to my own voice, or the voice of the Shepherd? Am I following my own ideas, or am I following the Shepherd? Am I practically an atheist, or do I truly, concretely, practically allow the faith given to us, handed down to us, clarified for us, safeguarded for us by the Church and Her shepherds—do I allow the faith to shape my thoughts, my actions, my life? Because when we are listening, when we are following, then we will see the fruit in our lives (just like that baby who heard his mother’s voice for the first time) of joy, peace, love, security, hope. Or as that oh-so-famous Psalm 23 says, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”