The Beautiful Shepherd
Easter's fourth Sunday
Dear Saints,
First, some announcements:
This Sunday we will host our first Drive-In Mass. Join us in the Walmart parking lot for 10:00am. If you are interested, please check out the new page on our website.
The Outside Confessional carries on. Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday 10-11:30am and 3-4:30pm.
Our Mission Hub is still our go-to spot for information during these Church-in-exile days.
This weekend we celebrate the Fourth Sunday of Easter, which is also known as Good Shepherd Sunday. In addition to our drive-in Mass, you can find Mass streamed online here. There are actually any number of ways to join us for Mass, so let me know if you want to get connected but haven't been able to.
Good Shepherd Sunday reminds me of an anecdote I heard some years ago. It goes something like this:
A census worker found himself in the outer reaches of civilization to gather information. He asked the mother of a large family how many dependents she had. She began, "Well, there is Rosie, and Billy, and Lewella, Susie, Harry, and Jeffrey. There's Johnny and Harvey, and our dog, Willie..."
The census worker interrupted her: "No, ma'am, that's not necessary. I only need the humans." "Ah," she said. "Well, there is Rosie, and Billy, and Lewella, Susie, Harry and Jeffrey, Johnny and Harvey, and...."
Once again, he stopped her. Slightly exasperated, he said, "No, ma'am, you don't seem to understand. I don't need their names, I just want the numbers." To which the old woman replied, "But I don't know them by numbers. I only know them by name."
The Good Shepherd, late third century
From the Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome
With some 2+ billion Christians on earth, it would be easy to think that God counts me as one sheep among many. Good Shepherd Sunday tells a different story.
Following on from the Gospel passage we hear proclaimed this weekend, Jesus says: "I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep" (John 10.14).
This is an astonishing statement: that the relationship of the Shepherd to his sheep reflects the inner reality of God's own Triune life. The loving fellowship - the perfectly fulfilling and everlasting interpersonal exchange - of Father and Son is ours as sheep of the Good Shepherd!
But that word - good - doesn't quite catch the full meaning of what Jesus says here. The word can also be translated as beautiful, which gives us some sense of the sheer attractiveness of Jesus' summons to trust and follow him.
Saint Augustine once famously said, "God loves each of us as if there were only one of us." This kind of love might be beyond our imagining. But when the Good Shepherd calls, how can we resist?
God only knows us by name!
I love you, my friends. I hope to be able to see you and call you by name very soon.
In the Peace of the Risen Christ,
Father Daniel
δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ
Preparing for Mass?
Check out this weekend's readings:
Fourth Sunday of Easter
The Good Shepherd Mosaic, fifth century
Ravenna, Italy