TEXT: Fourth Sunday of Easter, April 26, 2026
April 26, 2026 Father De Celles Homily
4th Sunday of Easter
April 26, 2026
Homily by Fr. John De Celles
St. Raymond of Peñafort Catholic Church
Springfield, VA
In today’s Gospel Jesus reminds us that we are to be like sheep,
following our Shepherd—who is Jesus Himself—wherever He leads us.
He tells us,
“The shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out…
he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him,
because they recognize his voice.”
This is what it means to be a Christian:
We hear Christ call, and we follow Him wherever He leads us.
But Jesus goes on to warn us about “false shepherds,”
whom He calls “thieves and robbers.”
There are lots of false shepherds all around us
—people who lead us into all sorts of wrong directions,
who tell us they know the way to happiness but lead us only
to emptiness or despair.
Who are the false shepherds?
We see them in our civil and secular leaders.
For example, in sexuality, they try to replace chastity with safety,
and love with pleasure.
They confuse charity and justice with wokeness.
And they try to replace “the way,” “the gate,” who is Jesus,
with religious pluralism, religious indifference, religious persecution,
or new quasi-religions.
We also find them among our leaders at work.
They tell you that your career is more important than your family,
that money and power are more important than love and responsibility,
and that cleverness is more important than integrity.
We may even find them in our own families.
Sometimes they tell you that
knowing about science is more important than knowing about God.
Or that knowing the right people
is more important than knowing righteous people.
Or that success or money or fun is more important than holiness.
And, unfortunately, there are false shepherds in the Church.
As we read every day, too many are guilty of
confusing the truth with lies,
formation with corruption,
lust with love,
and self-sacrifice with self-preservation.
None of these are anything like the true Shepherd,
of whom St. Peter says, in today’s 2nd reading,
“No deceit was found in his mouth.”
He is the only one who knows and can tell us the truth about
all of the gifts we have, and how He created us to use those gifts
to find happiness in this world and the world to come.
After all, He Himself gave us those gifts when He Himself created us.
He is the way, the only gate, to becoming who we are meant to be.
He is not “a thief [who] comes only to steal” our gifts,
but a shepherd who gives us gifts and who
“came so that [we] might have life and have it more abundantly.”
And so, regardless of whatever other voices we hear,
to truly have “life in abundance,”
we must listen first and always to His voice calling out to us by name.
_____
In Latin, the word “to call” is “vocare,”
and we refer to Christ’s “call” to us as our “vocation.”
Now, all of us share a common vocation—
the vocation to be holy,
to be Christ’s sheep listening to His voice and following Him.
And we hear His voice calling us right in the words of Scripture.
For example, in the Gospel of John, Chapter 6, Jesus says over and over again,
“I am the Bread of Life…unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood
you shall not have life in you.”
And so, the Lord leads us to the Eucharist—to Himself.
We also hear our Lord’s voice telling us, in various places,
“Keep the commandments.”
In explaining those commandments, He tells us many hard sayings:
“I say to you, if you look on a woman with lust,
you have committed adultery in your heart.”
“What God has joined together, let no man separate.”
“Let your yes mean yes, and your no mean no;
anything else is from the devil.”
And everyone’s favorite, “Love your enemies.”
And we hear His voice telling us over the ages,
“From the beginning, he who made them made them male and female,
and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’
…What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.”
The eternal Word made flesh has spoken to us,
called us to the sacraments,
and called us to a specific and clear way of life, moral life.
Still, it’s often very difficult to follow the Lord’s voice.
Sometimes following Him causes us great suffering.
But as St. Peter tells us in today’s 2nd reading:
“If you are patient when you suffer…this is a grace before God.
For to this you have been called,
because Christ also suffered for you,
leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.”
Some don’t like this at all
—they don’t want the Christian life to be difficult; they don’t want to suffer.
Sometimes you hear people say things like,
“Some people see Jesus as very narrow minded;
but I see Jesus as having wide-open arms welcoming everyone.”
Jesus does welcome everyone, but He welcomes them saying,
as Peter says in today’s first reading,
“Repent and be baptized, every one of you.”
And He tells us in today’s Gospel, “I [alone] am the gate.”
And He tells elsewhere in the Gospel,
“Enter by the narrow gate;
for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction.”
Jesus isn’t narrow minded—He sees all and knows all.
But His way is hard, and His gate is narrow.
He says we must enter this gate if we’re going to be truly happy.
Not just sometimes—but now, always and forever.
And not just some of us—but all of us.
“Repent,” He says, “every one of you.”
This is the universal call to holiness, the vocation of every human being.
Within that universal call,
Jesus also has a particular vocation in mind for each of us.
This personal vocation includes a basic state of life He calls you to live:
That is, either in the married state,
or the consecrated celibate state as a religious sister or brother, or priest.
But while we are truly free to choose which life we will live,
there is always only one thing we should choose:
the choice that the voice of the Good Shepherd calls us to follow.
Most people choose to follow the married state,
as they hear the voice of the Good Shepherd calling them
to this blessed vocation.
They follow the voice of the good shepherd,
who tells them to cling to their spouse,
to give themselves entirely to their spouse,
to become a servant and even lay down their life for their spouse.
He tells them to be faithful, committed for life, and open to children—
to let their love truly be fruitful and multiply.
But others choose this state for all the wrong reasons.
They don’t follow the voice of the Good Shepherd.
Rather they follow the voices of false shepherds,
the voice of Hollywood or social media or ideological activists who tell them
marriage is whatever your own selfish desires tell you it is.
So, men and women often chose marriage and particular spouses
for all the wrong reasons,
and then wonder when they wind up with all the wrong consequences.
And more and more, too many men and women
follow these same voices to their inevitable end
and adopt such an impoverished and even perverted notion of marriage,
that they don’t actually pursue marriage at all
but rather a series of temporary “life-partners,”
enjoying some of the temporary benefits of marriage
without all the hard parts, like commitment and true love.
Then there are some, more and more, in our current culture,
that do try to find the spouse God has in mind for them,
but can’t seem to find them.
Personally, I think this is usually because the one God had in mind for them
chose someone else for all the wrong reasons,
and so abandoned or refused to even notice the one God had in mind
and whom they have now left all alone.
This causes more hardship and sadness for the innocent single person.
And it is a sin.
We must pray for these innocent single people,
that God will choose for them another spouse,
that they may recognize that person,
and that the person recognizes them as well.
That’s the Good Shepherd’s call to marriage.
Now let’s talk about the Good Shepherd’s call to celibacy.
As I noted earlier, lots of voices call out to us everyday.
In particular, the single person often hears:
the voice of parents saying “grandchildren”;
the voice of friends saying “success” and “pleasure”;
the voice of fear saying “loneliness”.
But if you choose based on these voices, you will always choose badly,
whether in marriage or the celibate life.
Many voices are raised against consecrated celibacy today.
Some voices say it’s too hard.
I have two things to say to that.
First, does that mean they think marriage is easy?
Married life is filled with hardship,
and raising children can be a real cross.
Many a time I’ve met with a couple having troubles,
maybe between themselves or maybe with their child,
even the death of a child,
and I go to bed thanking God my celibacy frees me from those troubles.
Second, Christ says enter through the narrow gate,
but He also says that His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
Sure, celibacy is narrow or restrictive,
but like a narrow gate that opens up to a wide and boundless field or valley,
consecrated celibacy opens up all sorts of possibilities
to love and serve and discover true happiness in Christ.
Some say celibacy is unnatural, especially for men.
Well, tell that to the first Catholic priest.
Jesus of Nazareth was a celibate, and His human nature was perfect
—He was the most well-adjusted person ever to walk the earth.
And tell that to the next twelve priests, the twelve Apostles,
all of whom lived as virgins, widowers,
or as brothers with their wives—what we call “continence.”
Moreover, celibacy is not just “giving up” something.
As Christ taught us, celibacy “for the sake kingdom” is an act of love,
a giving of oneself to Christ and His Church.
And so, it is a supernatural fulfilment of natural marriage:
Scripture tells us Christ is married to His Bride the Church,
and so is the priest; similarly, the religious sister is called a “bride of Christ.”
So while the celibate gives himself or herself,
he receives so much in return.
So, Jesus treats celibacy as a gift, telling the apostles,
“Everyone who has left…father or mother or wife or children
…for my sake
will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. “
He concludes, “He who is able to receive this, let him receive it.”
In short, while other voices say marriage is good and celibacy is bad,
the voice of Jesus says both are great gifts,
but calls each of us to accept the particular gift He gives us.
______
There are many voices in the world today calling us
to follow this road or enter that gate.
But there is only one voice we should listen to–
a voice that calls us to become who we were created to be,
to receive and put to the right use all the gifts God has in store for us.
And there is only one Gate we should enter
–the gate that is Jesus Himself.
Today, stop and listen to the voice of our Good Shepherd,
follow Him wherever He leads, and enter the gate He opens—
the gate that opens to the life He wants to give us,
a life certainly filled with the hardships every human being encounters,
but a life also filled with the truly good things
that only Christ can offer.
“I am the gate,” He says, “Whoever enters through me will…
have life and have it more abundantly.”