4th Sunday of Easter

Dear Parishioners, 

This Fourth Sunday of Easter has a subtitle just as the Second Sunday of Easter has a subtitle of “Divine Mercy Sunday,” and today’s Sunday is rightly called “Good Shepherd Sunday,” as Jesus stresses His role as Redeemer and our role as the Redeemed, or more simply: His role as Shepherd and our role as sheep/followers. There are two key verbs, action words, in the Gospel this weekend: “hear” and “follow.” Listening well and hearing correctly and intently are so important in our technological world that advances from day to day and following the voice of Jesus are crucial if we consider ourselves His followers and want to be counted among the believers. We must submit to Jesus, plain and simple. We must let Him be the Shepherd and take our places as the sheep who hear and follow as He firmly but lovingly invites us. From the time people have heard these words from Jesus Himself, the response has been twofold: some people have willingly and lovingly heard and followed His invitation, and others have unwillingly and arrogantly rejected His invitation, feeling that their submission to Jesus makes them weak, powerless, and inferior. How far from the truth and from spiritual reality are weakness, powerlessness, and inferiority when it comes to having a relationship with Jesus that consists of hearing Him and following Him! People who make themselves their god, with their self-acclaimed power, strength, and superiority, are sadly the weakest, least powerful, and most inferior because they fail to let Jesus be their God yet want to bear the name “Christian,” which cannot be in reality. We must take our place as God’s creation and let God – Father, Son, and Spirit - be the Creator. We are called to hear and follow and not the other way around. We are God’s people - the sheep, the beloved, the saved – of His flock, not our flock.