Bishop Richard presided over a Mass, in celebration of our new Pope, held at the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Friday 16 May. We share his homily, a homily of great joy.

In the early hours of that morning when the Cardinal Deacon came out and gave the notice of great joy - we have a father - habemus papam, it brought together so many promises of the Lord. Promises that begin right back as the Lord is picking up Adam and Eve from their fall and promising them a Saviour, a promise that traces through a multitude of Shepherds.  Beginning with Abel and Abram, and in many ways Moses, King David and his most remembered Psalm - indeed the Lord is my Shepherd - through to Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

In His call for us to change our ways and change our minds is what ‘to repent’ means, commit to Him, commit to the Kingdom of Heaven, commit to the Gospel - the Good News.  The announcement of great joy.  In doing so, the Lord promised he would give us shepherds.  When, in the Old Testament, they had failed, the Lord said that He Himself would become our Shepherd, and in taking on flesh and coming amongst us, He proved his words to be true.

When He left, returning to heaven, He promised those who would Shepherd in his place, would do so - not on their own strength and not by their own skills, but by His strength and His skills. 

To prove it, He established Peter, the blowhard, the one who rushes in where angels fear to tread, the one who said he would never never leave the Lord, then denies Him three times. Peter the apostate, a man who completely denied the Lord. That's the man the Lord chose, to prove that Christ’s shepherds would shepherd on God's terms and not on human terms.  So Shepherding has gone on through these next 2000 years, through those who claim it, seek it and are chosen for it. Sometimes it's only one of those things, sometimes all three. The Lord takes that person and gives them a share in Himself, the Lord's shepherding.

We judge that new Shepherd's excellence in as much that Shepherd reflects the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, both it the way he comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable. 

We are called firstly as baptised members of Christ, sharing in His body to be disciples, to conform our will to His, to live our life according to His will.  This is also true for those of us who have been chosen for the ministry - the Lord Himself configures us through grace.  When we are open to grace, the Lord can work. Particularly for those of us chosen to look after whole churches as bishops. Like Pope Leo, as Bishop of Rome - it is not just looking after the people in and about Rome - but a universal ministry.  Everywhere the church is He can be. This is a gift the Lord has given us by His own command and by His own design,  and by His grace we continue. 

When Pope Leo came out onto the balcony, as he began to reflect on what his election meant for him, he picked a phrase from his mentor, St Augustine “with you I am a Christian - For you I am a bishop” Left unsaid, was what St Augustine (as Bishop of Hippo) had said immediately prior to this,  “the task the Lord set before me fills me with terror.” You could see that on Pope Leo's face, the 20 mins he spent in the chapel of tears, which is not just a tradition but a real place, to be elevated to this place the papacy in particular is frightening. It is the Lord's' own doing, and the Lord will not be denied, The Lord will have his way.  So here is Leo facing the reality that the Lord has called him into this new position. He finds comfort in the fact that before the Lord, he is first a disciple, he is a baptised member of the Body of Christ, and the task the Lord has placed before him, a cross as it is, an enormous task which is only achievable if he clings to the God who made him, the God who loves him and the God who saves him. 

That is also true for us in our own vocations, in our own walk of life, so in that sense Pope Leo is not that different from you and me.  In another sense the Lord has laid this burden on him, he picks up a mantle that only the Lord can give the grace to carry.

It's important for us always to keep him in prayer, as we did Francis, Benedict, John Paul II and I (and for those of you with ‘longer memories’ Paul and John)

For us, our sacred task is to beg the Lord's mercy, which is His favour and  His grace. His mercy to shower upon our new leader, our new father - Pope Leo, a mercy to extend throughout the whole world.  So that we who know Him, may learn more of Him, love Him more, follow Him more.  Those who don't know of Him, may come to hear of Him through us, through our actions, through our living, and may to turn Him and believe and become saved. Just as you and I are in this process dependant on the Lord.  

As a shepherd we are to stand in the midst of the sheep we have been entrusted to - point out the Food of Life, point to way of peace, point to the other side of the valley of death and go there ourselves, taking with us those the Lord has entrusted to us. Pope Leo has to do this in an enormous way.  Let's continue to beg the Lord's help, that Leo will be for us a Shepherd after the Lord, a guide to heaven, a way of peace.