It’s Easter Sunday. The pouring rain stopped yesterday. We’re wearing our best “church” clothes. Our parents tell us not to go outside right now. But it’s Easter and it’s sunny now and we sneak out anyway. All of a sudden, we fall down and scrape our knee and get our brand-new outfit all muddy. We might expect to hear, “I told you not to do that! Don’t you ever listen to me?” But our parent’s first reaction is to take us in their arms and comfort us and tell us everything is o.k. We experience their love without a word being said. In human terms, it’s a love without limits. It’s what parents do. They look beyond what has happened and replace that with love.
Now consider the love God has for us. It is exponentially greater than what we can ever imagine. Try to recall a time in the life of Jesus when He turned His back on someone. Those who wouldn’t follow, those who ridiculed Him, those with unimaginable sins, those who crucified Him were all people who turned their backs on Jesus but He still pursued them. That is truly a love without limits.
Jesus used the imagery of a shepherd because it was a familiar occupation at the time—perhaps not so much today. What’s the message then? If a spouse or a child or a close friend or even an acquaintance hurt us we couldn’t answer how we would respond because we don’t know the circumstances. Jesus could always answer because his response would always be the same—a love without limits.
Jesus doesn’t harbor ill feelings because of things we’ve done or promises we’ve broken. Jesus forgives despite the magnitude of our sin and that’s the example we’re asked to follow today. We are the sheep and Jesus is the shepherd who knows us, loves us and comforts us. We are also the shepherd to all those we come in contact with. That means it’s our responsibility to protect, feed, love and nurture others just like Jesus did.
Now in the
Gospel of John we move to an image of the kind and gentle Good Shepherd, who
calls us by name, who invites us to follow while He watches and protects us.
This Good Shepherd promises to lead us through the sheep gate as a means to
eternal life. This is anything but a lament! This is joyful news! Jesus is
offering His followers assurance that He will be present in their lives. For just
as a shepherd is doing his job properly when he watches, protects and feeds his
sheep, so too will Jesus be doing the same for us. So while Jesus is using
symbolic and metaphoric images as He speaks of the Good Shepherd, making it
perhaps difficult to fully understand the meaning of all that He is saying, we
still follow Him because we recognize His voice, while we avoid following the
misleading voice of a stranger. How nicely John's image of the Good Shepherd
ties in with the Psalm for today, Psalm 23.
Today's
Psalm reflects upon the Lord as our Shepherd. God is portrayed as a faithful
and good Shepherd who leads the flock to green pastures (well-being and
abundance). God keeps us safe from dangers (valley of darkness). Therefore, we
want for nothing and fear no evil, even while surrounded by foes (wolves and
lions). And so we listen for the Good Shepherd calling us by name, and we
follow when called.
This
Sunday marks the 54th annual World Day of Prayer for Vocations. The
church is invited on this day to offer prayers specifically for an increase in
vocations to the priesthood and religious life, as well as prayers in support
of those who have responded to the call to priesthood and/or religious life.
Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has given this day the theme of “Led by the
Spirit for Mission”. Pope Francis has also offered a formal message for the
church on this day. Here is some of what Pope Francis has to say:
Pope Francis points out
that those who find themselves drawn to God with a desire to follow Jesus
“discover within themselves an irrepressible desire to bring the Good News to
their brothers and sisters through proclamation and the service of charity … We
are simply men and women touched and transformed by the joy of God's love, who
cannot keep this experience just to ourselves.” Pope Francis reminds us that
this kind of Christian life, priesthood and religious life is “an essential
element of faith itself.” The Pope also reminds those who are already priests
and religious that they are “called to go forth from the sacred precincts of
the temple and to let God's tender love overflow for the sake of humanity.” The
Pope concludes his message by addressing the People of God with a request. “I ask parish communities, associations and
the many prayer groups present in the Church, not to yield to discouragement
but to continue praying
that the Lord will send workers to his harvest.” (Pope
Francis. Led by the Spirit for Mission. Issued November 27, 2016, Rome).
Through our
baptism we have been called to mission, to proclaim our faith by what we say or
do in our lives. The reading from First Peter reminded us that there is a code
of conduct we are called to follow as we live the Christian life, as we
participate in mission. Acts called for a conversion in one's life in order to
follow Christ, as we participate in mission. The Good Shepherd reminds us that
following Him can lead us to the gift of eternal life, as we participate in
mission. Pope Francis, on this World Day of Prayer for Vocations, invites us to
discover the “irrepressible desire to bring the Good News,” to be led by the
Spirit to mission.
Let
us, as a parish community, rejoice in the two young men from our midst who are
discerning a call to priesthood and who will soon begin their internship
programs (an important final stage of their preparation). Let us also recall
those in our midst considering priesthood and religious life as a way of life
in service to God’s people. Let us also not forget the priests and religious who
serve us.
One
way to keep our eyes on the road, is to be aware prayerfully that Jesus is always offering His followers assurance that
He will be present in their lives. He often does through the symbol of
those around us who seek to be good shepherds leading us toward well-being and abundance and safe from dangers (valley
of darkness) .…let’s pray for them…and ask God to give
them the strength they need to guide God’s people on the way. It’s a tall order but it’s where a love without limits starts.