In his very first homily as Pope, Pope Benedict XVI preached the following, he said: “One of the basic characteristics of a shepherd must be to love the people entrusted to him, even as he loves Christ Whom he serves. 'Feed my sheep,' says Christ to Peter, and now, at this moment, He says it to me as well. Feeding means loving, and loving also means being ready to suffer. Loving means giving the sheep what is truly good, the nourishment of God's truth, of God's word, the nourishment of His presence, which He gives us in the Blessed Sacrament.”

Today, is Good Shepherd Sunday, today is World Day for the Prayer of Vocations, both of which, in this day and age, seem like the last choice anyone would want to make in his or her life. For, daily we are reminded of the bad shepherds, daily we are exposed to those who have freely turned their back on their vocation, and daily we watch as our Church is attacked for it.

So that another priest is accused, another bishop maligned and even the Pope threatened to be arrested, and yet, history shows that this is not new, history shows that for thousands of generations, this was the Church, the only Church, a persecuted Church, and that what was true back then is also true now, that both the good and bad shepherds were mixed together as one, so that it would be difficult to distinguish who was laying down their lives for the flock, like any good shepherd, and who was fleeing in fear of the enemy.

Because, we have before us a Church that is suffering, attacked as it is, from within and without, and, yet, history also shows us something else, that try as we might we cannot destroy that Church, we cannot take it down, because, as Christ promised, if the Church has stood for this long, for over 2000 years, unless the end is near, the Church will still remain.

And, what’s more, is that it is in this environment, when the Church has always been stronger and more vibrant, because it is in this that we truly see that, in spite of ourselves, Christ is the one who is truly in charge, Christ is the head, the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for His people, for His Church.

And that, too, is why it is so necessary and so important for everyone, for all of us, to pray, to pray for vocations, that men and women will stand up, as they have for centuries, and answer the call that God has placed within their hearts, that they will allow themselves to not just listen but to follow that call, knowing that their witness is even more important now than it might have ever been, knowing that it takes courage to live a consecrated life, and though difficult, it is not impossible, for, as St. Paul says elsewhere: “With God all things are possible.”

And that, too, is why we need to pray, pray for our priests, pray for our shepherds, those who have been conformed to Christ, those who stand before you each day in Persona Christi, in the Person of Christ, acting as they do as an “Alter Christus,” Another Christ, because, as Fr. Corapi and many others remind any oppressive group, any enemy of the Church will attack the shepherd, because, by doing so, they know something we all know, that the sheep will scatter, and if we didn’t believe it before, we see how true it is now. And, unfortunately, there is something else we can never forget, that, sometimes, the greatest enemy of the shepherd, is, indeed, the shepherd himself.

Yet, that is why our prayers are not some empty words, they are the fundamental and the core of our strength, and while Christ, of course, is in the midst of the Church, while Christ is in the middle of the storm bearing the brunt of it all, it is our prayers that support the Church, it is our prayers that give it strength, hope and courage.

Today is not just another Sunday, today should be a reminder, a wake-up call to all of us of how important it is to pray, for those who are discerning and those who already serve, and of how crucial it is that we do so, because, whether we want to believe it or not, we are starting to see how the early Church existed, we are starting to see where the core, the strength and the endurance of their faith originated. The Church was strong, not because it had bad shepherds, not because it was comfortable, but because every single one of its faithful members, was ready, at any moment of any day, to witness to their faith, whether by word, by action or by literally laying down their very lives.

Because, in the end, this is the true test of our valor, this is what it means to be a Christian, for us to not be ashamed that we are Catholic, for me to wear my collar no matter where I go, not because we desire martyrdom, but because we have faith and confidence in one greater and more powerful than ourselves, the same who established the Church and the same who will keep it exactly where it is, until He is, ultimately, ready to return.