Photo: Natalino Ueda/cancaonova.com

We just listened to the world of God and it reveals a pain in the heart of God. I would like to begin my homily by referring to this:

“Woe to the shepherds that allow the loss and scattering of the flock of my pasture, says the Lord” (Jr 23:1)

Given in the heart of God, when, those that have the duty of being pastors, do not drive the flock; overall, when it is young. These pastors omit the truth, feed doubts, do not act in conforming to the will of the Lord, because they do not want to commit to the truth.

All of us that, in a certain form, exercise authority over the youth – parents, professors, politicians, priests and bishops -, we need to ask pardon to you for the moments that we were not good pastors.

Better still that we are here at PHN, in the moment of rebeginning. Today is, therefore, the day to make a decision, and this is to want to say to cut off all that does not bring us to the Lord, that we may walk the path to Him and also to allow ourselves to be guided by good shepherds.

Christianity is not a religion of persuasion, but of the greatness of life, of noble values and immense ideas. Therefore, we need to pray for shepherds, so that they show us the roads of true life, which we have the right to now and to live.

Jesus in the Gospel, speaks of rest (cf Mk 6:30-34). The Word of God says that the disciples do not have even time to eat, for they were good shepherds, giving themselves integrally, to the mission entrusted to them. Therefore, Jesus, who was the Good Shepherd of the body and of the soul, lead them to rest, teaching them to rest and have fun.

One interesting detail is that the false shepherds, present in the real world, seek to teach us that, to have fun we need to live some words as enjoy, to have fun, to ready ourselves, etc. However, Jesus, the Good Shepherd teaches us that to rest we need to love, to give of ourselves, to give our life for something worth it.

Also the false shepherds teach us that we need to drink, to have sex, to have things. But the Lord, teaches us the following vergs: “to be”, “to convert” remaining in God.

Finally, the bad shepherd present the verbs: to lie, to argue, to pretend, to flee from God, from truth and from the good. Already the Good Shepherd, teaches to follow. These are the verbs of the good and of the bad shepherd.

“Young Person, The Lord hopes that you may be a good shepherd.” affirms Bishop Antônio Augusto

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The encounter with the Good shepherd, changes the history of men, I present as an example St. Augustine, he was a lost youth, he lived far from God, only he wanted to put into practice the verbs of the world, but, he countered a good shepherd: St. Ambrose, bishop who bit by bit, showed him the way of truth, teaching him to conjugate the correct verbs. Augustine transformed his life because of the encounter with this shepherd; but this was not enough, he became a good shepherd himself.

Young people, not only the bishops, priests, parents, professors, need to be good shepherds, but also you are called to be good shepherds to each other.

Today’s gospel teaches us of the Good Shepherd that knows to bring rest to the body and to the soul. You should leave here praying for the bad shepherds also you should be good shepherds for your friends.

In the year that comes, we are going to have the World Youth Day (WYD) in the city of Rio de Janeiro. From there, we need to want to be there to have an encounter with our good shepherd Pope Benedict XVI; principally to have an encounter with Jesus, From this way, PHN, in the year that is coming needs to have many more youth and  this depends on  you. Just go behind the sheep, that are your friends that are distant, for many will be able to be here, because you were a good shepherd for them.

Therefore, be a good shepherd en your house, in your work, in the university, know and teach people to conjugate, correctly, the verbs conforming to the teaching of the Lord.

Young people, God counts on you and waits. He is the model of how to be a good shepherd.

Courage, leave here teaching the world the verbs to love, to forgive, to give and to remain.  In order that, from your life many will encounter the road to a full life in the following of Jesus.

God bless you,

Bishop Antonio Augusto

translated from Portuguese