The Beautiful Shepherd
Easter's fourth Sunday
Announcements for April 24, 2021:
Youth Ministry is back! Our next meeting is Friday, April 30 at 7:00pm in Gordon Hall, and is open to teens in grade 8 through 12.
We've made major improvements to our Listen Everywhere stream. If you need help hearing during Mass, check out our Pew Resources.
I have reshuffled some things on the website, but you can still find all of our announcements in our Parishioner Portal.
Please be in touch with me if you need anything at all, or if you'd like to share any questions or concerns.
Dear Saints,
This weekend we celebrate the Fourth Sunday of Easter, which is also known as Good Shepherd Sunday.
In our Gospel passage, 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."
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.
It's right that Good Shepherd Sunday is also celebrated as the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. The Good Shepherd calls us (from vocare in the Latin) to follow him in the way of self-gift, on the path that he has pioneered for us.
On this path each one of us has a vocation, a call within the call. Jesus entrusts to us some specific participation in his mission, a particular way we are to bring God's love to life in the world.
That would sound overwhelming - no, it would be overwhelming - were it not for the fact that ours is simply a response to the Beautiful Shepherd's loving summons.
I love you, my friends, and I look forward to seeing you 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
Christ as the Good Shepherd
Philippe De Champaigne, c.1650