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My brothers and sisters in Christ this is a very special Mass today as all Masses are, but we have three young people receiving their first Holy Communion, and I want to congratulate (the families) and specially (the children) as they prepare to receive our Lord Jesus in Holy Communion for the very, very first time. Our Lord Jesus wants to make a home in you when you receive Him in your first Holy Communion, and every time you receive Him Jesus makes a home in you and you become like the tabernacle there, see the golden tabernacle? That's where Jesus' home is, right? Jesus is there in a very special way, and when we receive Jesus in Holy Communion Jesus makes of us a tabernacle. He doesn't turn you into gold like that, He makes you even more precious than that, a sheep who receives the Shepherd, Jesus our Lord, as the Holy Gospel tells us; so to each of you congratulations, and we are praying for you that God will make you wonderful and strong servants of Jesus the Good Shepherd.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, in the holy gospel our Lord Jesus says: "My sheep hear My voice, I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish." Do we believe that?

In this gospel for Good Shepherd Sunday our Lord Jesus makes a wonderful promise, is remarkable, really. Do we believe it? That the sheep that belong to Jesus receive eternal life. The sheep that Jesus knows, the sheep that follow Him are promised three times that they belong to Him and to the Father in heaven for ever...for ever. Jesus gives to these sheep eternal life. How? Through His life, through His suffering and death, through His resurrection, through His Church and through His Sacraments given in the Church. Through these graces Jesus' sheep will receive eternal life. And not just in some distant future, but now, we have already received that gift. It is not that one day we will be eternal creatures, we already are now eternal creatures, little sheep who live forever, sons and daughters of the Good Shepherd. We've already received the rich fountain of eternal life which wells up in the Sacraments of the Church. We are eternal creatures, even now, thanks be to Christ Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

What this means is: Whoever accepts God, whoever loves God can never again perish. Death has no more power over us, we aren't afraid of it, we are not afraid of evil because we have been given by Christ Jesus the promise that no one can snatch these sheep from the hands of Jesus. The sheep are kept close within the close bond of unity between Father, Son and Holy Spirit; and we are kept safe in that close bond of unity, and no earthly power, not even death can condemn us or harm us even now.

And yet in the first reading we hear of Saint Paul and Saint Barnabas speaking to a vast crowd of people in Antioch, and this reading tells us something important, and it is this: Heaven is not promised to everyone automatically. This is not "no fault insurance", where everyone is covered. Who are the sheep to whom heaven is promised? Who are the lucky sheep, the fortunate sheep?

Eternal life is promised, as our Lord Jesus says, to those who hear my voice and follow me. So you and I are charged with a task, to hear the voice of the Shepherd, and sometimes that voice is a little hard to hear in the midst of all of the noise and din of the modern world, but our job is to hear the voice of the Shepherd and to follow Him, to follow His moral commands, to follow His teachings given to us in the Church, to hear His voice in prayer, His powerful guidance in the Sacraments, to hear His voice and follow the good shepherd.... What a small thing to win so great a reward. Who would be crazy enough not to follow the good Shepherd when the task is so small.

"Listen to Me and follow Me" He says, and the reward of doing it is so great. Our life in this world is so short and eternal life is so long, what God asks of us is so simple: "Hear Me, follow Me", and the reward is so great.

Saint Paul in the second letter to the Corinthians says it this way: "The present burden of our trials is light enough, and earns for us an eternal glory beyond all comparison". Our present trial is light enough but it earns for us an eternal glory beyond all comparison. Who are the sheep to whom heaven is promised? Those who hear the voice of God and follow it.

And as Saint Paul and Saint Barnabas are speaking in Antioch that is exactly what happens, some follow the voice of the Good Shepherd and some reject that voice. Some rejoice and some become angry, and chase Saint Paul and Saint Barnabas out of their city.

And faced with their refusal the apostles say to them: "Because you show yourselves to be unworthy of eternal life we now turn to the gentiles." Who are the gentiles? You and I, folks. And it says in that reading "they rejoiced at the goodness of God", and so do we.

And I close with this: Finally in the second reading we are given a glimpse into heaven; a glimpse into the fulfillment of the Gospel's promise, where our Lord serves a shepherd of a vast army of sheep. And all who followed Jesus as His sheep on earth are part of a great and a wonderful flock in heaven. They stand before the Lamb, Jesus Christ, who is their shepherd for ever and ever.

On Friday evening we had our scrutiny of the word with the seminarians here, and one of the seminarians had a wonderful summary for all of these readings. And he said that what the Lord Jesus has done for us is so wonderful, and he said: you and I are part of a flock of little sheep, we are little lambs, often easily frightened and always lost it seems, we are easily led astray and his image was the devil as a wolf, a very powerful wolf, who waits close by the lambs, and he waits to pounce upon the flock and tear the little lambs to pieces with his anger and with his mighty strength. And as he pounces towards the sheep, there is another little lamb that steps in the way of the hungry wolf and the wolf tears that lamb to pieces. That lamb sacrifices his life so that the flock will be safe from the wolf.

We are the little lambs kept safe, the lamb whose blood is shed is Christ Jesus our Lord, the Lamb of God. And we are kept safe by the cost of His blood, and the blood that is shed by the wolf becomes the blood of Christ Jesus our Lord, and His body that we receive from this holy altar, and it keeps us safe for ever and ever.

In the book of Revelation the lambs that had been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God are now pastured by that Lamb who has become the Good Shepherd, and leads to springs of life giving water all who are saved world without end, Amen.