4th Sunday of Easter 2025
Acts 13: 14, 43-52; Apocalypse 7:,13, 14-17; John 10: 27-30
Fifty years ago, on this Fourth Sunday of Easter—Good Shepherd Sunday, Vocations Sunday, whatever you wish to call it—I was let loose for the first time on an unsuspecting world to preach. Along with the rest of my year group in the seminary, I was approaching ordination to the diaconate, and in preparation we were sent two or three times into local parishes to deliver a homily.
On this Sunday in 1975, I turned up at the small church in Sacriston, a village in Co. Durham, where the parish priest rejoiced in the name of Malachy Mulligan. His sister, who kept house for him, addressed him as “Father”, and referred to him as “the priest”. The church proved to be packed with people of all shapes, sizes and ages, though in the 1970s North East, of only one colour.
I have never visited Sacriston since that day. If I were to return now, I would probably find that the church, if still open, no longer has a resident priest, or if it has, that he is responsible for at least two other churches. I suspect that it is no longer packed on a Sunday, and that there will be few people present below middle age.
Meanwhile, the seminary at Ushaw, home in my day to well over a hundred students, closed some years ago, whilst the Senior Seminary at Upholland, on this side of the country, will have been fifty years closed this summer. St. John’s, Wonersh, in the South of England, has also gone. Only two seminaries remain within these shores: Oscott, in the Midlands, and Allen Hall in London. For British students there are also Valladolid in Spain, which provides an introductory year, and the English and Scots Colleges in Rome, as well as the Beda, which trains older students from the whole English speaking world.
We are enduring in the western world, and not least in Great Britain and Ireland, a shrinkage in the number of priests which would have been unthinkable in the heady days of the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Yet we can claim that this isn’t our main problem. The real issue is a shortage of people, from whom priests, religious sisters, monks and others are drawn. How many young people are to be found in church, especially in the former Catholic heartlands of Northern England? Some larger cities, London in particular, may fare better because they have benefited from the presence of immigrant families from Africa, India, and Eastern Europe, whose children largely practise their faith, which in turn has a knock on effect on home grown teenagers, who feel less isolated in church when they see people of a similar age.
In that respect, we are beginning to see a slight growth further north. Until recently, the great majority of immigrants into Northern England have been of Pakistani Muslim heritage: in once Catholic Preston, there are far more people to be found in the mosque than in church. A less numerous arrival of Catholics from Africa and India is now beginning to affect congregations in northern towns and cities, which brings some hope for the future, whilst the Church of England is finding potential ordinands among newcomers from Iran, of all unlikely places.
How does all this relate to Good Shepherd Sunday? Our Lord makes the point that His sheep follow Him because they hear His voice, and they know Him. How well do you and I know the Lord? How prepared are we to listen to His voice? How willing are we to follow?
Great efforts have been made, great initiatives undertaken, to spread the Gospel and to build the Church. For decades the cry was “We must do something for the youth”. In addition to spending on Catholic schools, youth centres were established, both residential and non-residential, all over the country; Catholic Youth Workers were employed; and a National Youth Service was established. All of this was highly commendable and apt for its time.
Times, however, change. “Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis”—“Times change, and we change among them”. Has the time perhaps come for fewer initiatives, less activity? Are these the days for less speaking, more listening? For less attempting to lead, more commitment to following? Vocations are, by definition, calls, and calls must be heard. If we are constantly busy, constantly talking, how will we hear the voice of the Lord? How will we know where to follow? Perhaps Good Shepherd Sunday is, above all, an invitation to listen, and, in listening, to read the signs of these times, which ae not the times of fifty years ago—to listen, to know, and to follow.
