Dear Saints,
This weekend we celebrate the Fourth Sunday of Easter, which is also known as Good Shepherd Sunday.
Good Shepherd Sunday reminds me of an story 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.”
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.
In the 10th chapter of Saint John's Gospel, of which this weekend's passage is the beginning, 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.
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.
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 look forward to breaking bread with you very soon!
In the Peace of the Risen Christ,
Father Daniel
δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ