Induction of Fr Joe Noonan
Solemnity of Christ the King 2005

It may seem strange that on the day when we celebrate the feast of Christ the King, that in the first reading God describes himself not as a powerful King but as a shepherd seeking and minding his scattered sheep during the mist and darkness; and the Gospel tell us that the King will judge us not by how we behave towards him in some splendidly ornamented royal court but by how we serve him in the least of his brothers and sisters.

On the day of the inauguration of his ministry as Pope, Benedict XVI made a very important point which might explain why these readings were chosen:

In the Ancient Near East, it was customary for kings to style themselves shepherds of their people. This was an image of their power, a cynical image: to them their subjects were like sheep, which the shepherd could dispose of as he wished. When the shepherd of all humanity, the living God, himself became a lamb, he stood on the side of the lambs, with those who are downtrodden and killed. This is how he reveals himself to be the true shepherd: “I am the Good Shepherd… I lay down my life for the sheep”, Jesus says of himself (Jn 10:14f). It is not power, but love that redeems us! This is God’s sign: he himself is love.

We are followers of the Good Shepherd; we have been gathered by the Shepherd who ‘himself became a lamb’, a loving shepherd who has stood on our side and who laid down his life for us. But his horrific death was the beginning of something entirely new – the fulfillment of all creation, when God will be everything to everyone. Jesus the true shepherd leads us to the life where death and mourning and weeping are no more and all things will be made new (Rev 21:4, 5). He is the first fruits of that life.

He judges us by how we treat the weakest because he himself became a lamb and stood on the side of the weakest. And so he left us a simple command, which should guide our whole lives: “Love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 15:12).

In other words, we are to be shepherds too, shepherds for one another, shepherds who identify with those who suffer, because we are lambs like them, totally in need of the merciful love and care of the Good Shepherd as they are.

We are meant to rescue and care for one another. Pope Benedict also said in his homily:

The Church as a whole and all her Pastors, like Christ, must set out to lead people out of the desert, towards the place of life, towards friendship with the Son of God, towards the One who gives us life, and life in abundance.

Every time we gather for the celebration of the Eucharist, we should remember what Jesus said: ‘When you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift’ (Mt 5: 23,24). Today’s Gospel goes even further: if we have not been generous in giving food and drink, comfort and care to the weakest and most vulnerable, then we are not worthy to stand at the right hand of the King. It is a test that none of us can confidently face. But we come here to offer our efforts, however inadequate, to the Lord who fed a multitude with a few loaves and fishes.

In building a community that seeks to be like the Good Shepherd, each person is important. Each of us can bring care and encouragement and comfort and energy and creativity in a way that nobody else can. A parish is a community of Christ’s followers in which one should be able to say, without cynicism, ‘See how these Christians love one another”. We need only read newspapers and watch television to have some glimpse of the pain, anxiety, injustice, betrayal, and sorrow that is around us in our own country and in the rest of the world. All of those who suffer speak to us through Jesus, I am hungry, thirsty, naked, lonely, sick, in prison, disillusioned, angry, frightened – will you see Christ in me? Will you be a shepherd to me?

In that community, the Parish Priest has a special place, which we recall in this ceremony. His ministry is to care for the sheep, like Jesus himself, to be a shepherd who reveals himself as a servant of the true shepherd not by power but by love.

We might also say that he is a shepherd of the shepherds – because his task is to encourage and strengthen all the baptized and confirmed people of the parish to do the work of the shepherd, to lead people out of the desert, to rescue, bandage and strengthen one another.

In this Mass we pray particularly for Fr Frank Moriarty, who has fulfilled that demanding role here for over fourteen years. We ask God to grant him good health and contentment in the years ahead. And we welcome Father Joe Noonan. He brings many gifts to this task and a wide experience – not least his thirty-two years of working with young students in St Munchin’s College and his seventeen years as Director of the Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes.
Like any shepherd, it will be his task to ensure that the sheep are nourished. He will try to preach the word of God in a way that responds to the hunger deep in every human soul, but which will at the same time awaken an ever deeper hunger for the greatness of what God promises in the fresh and green pastures of his Kingdom. He will celebrate the Eucharist and the other sacraments, in which the Lamb who was slain and who now receives blessing and honour and glory and might forever (Rev 5:13), meets us and touches our lives. He will lead the people of the parish to recognise and to develop and to celebrate the great variety of gifts that the Spirit gives you. I know that in that task he can rely on the prayers and the help and the encouragement of all of you.

In this church dedicated to the Holy Trinity, you will be especially aware that the Good Shepherd, Christ the King, gave his life for us so that filled with his Spirit, we might cry out Abba, Father (Gal 4:6). Therefore, we place the ministry of Father Joe, and the whole life of this parish in the hands of our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

+Donal Murray
Bishop of Limerick