Fullerton T

4th Sunday of Easter

This Sunday  we celebrate the 4^th Sunday of Easter  also known as Good Shepherd Sunday.  On this day we also celebrate the 59th World Day of Prayer for Vocations instituted by Pope Paul VI in 1964. We  are encouraged to pray for an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life as we the flock of the Lord need shepherds after the lord’s own heart. The idea of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is a lovely one because it is a well-known fact that the shepherd never leaves his sheep outside the sheepfold. If any are outside the shepherd will seek the lost sheep at all costs until they are found.  The wandering figure of the shepherd, anxiously tending his sheep to the point where he is willing to surrender his life for them, is the image Jesus uses about himself in this Gospel Reading. That mixture of tenderness, toughness, care and self-sacrifice, is one that summarises his own leadership. It is not a leadership of detachment and defensiveness;  Instead , it is the  leadership of involvement and self-sacrificial love.

In the good shepherd’s extravagant love for his flock, his own life matters less than that of his sheep as we know Jesus left us an everlasting memorial in the Eucharist and then gave up his life for us on the cross on Good Friday. When we see how Jesus as a shepherd  actually behaves we see his tenderness in caring for the people and his courage which led him to the cross.   The parable of the Good Shepherd has many consoling truths and promises for people of every time and place including ourselves in 2022. The good shepherd challenges us not to leave the lost sheep behind.” The Gospel of the Good Shepherd teaches us how to embrace the gift of redemption by hearing and recognizing the voice of the Good Shepherd. There are numerous voices out there calling us to believe and to do  things that might seem good, but those voices are not of or from the Lord. We are his people the sheep of his flock and that means that we are people who are able to recognize the voice of the Lord and to faithfully follow him. 

This Sunday  we also pray for all those young and not so young who have a vocation to the priesthood, Permanent diaconate or the religious life. We pray that in their lives they may be like Christ the Good shepherd who came to bring his people into the sheepfold of God and faith in him. We also pray that the good shepherd will inspire many more people to take up the vocation of being shepherds of the flock.