This Sunday, the fourth Sunday of the Easter season, is also known as Good Shepherd Sunday, as we always hear a Gospel reading this Sunday about Jesus as the Good Shepherd. In addition, with great love and joy, we celebrate Mother’s day in our Church and in our country this weekend, as we show our love and gratitude for our mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers. Good Shepherd Sunday is also a great day for us to celebrate the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, fulfilling the Jesus’ instruction to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest. We all have different vocations to which God calls us, but, particularly on this world day of prayer, we pray for vocations to the priesthood, diaconate, and consecrated religious life. Yes, this is a very busy weekend for us in the Catholic faith indeed!
Today, in our very short Gospel reading, Jesus states that his sheep hear his voice, that he knows his flock, and that his flock follows him. As disciples of Christ, indeed, we are called to hear the voice of our Good Shepherd, a voice that leads us, guides us, and helps us on our journey. There are so many roads we can travel down in life. There are many voices that call out to us. But there is only one Good Shepherd. We have to make the choice in life to have Jesus as our Good Shepherd; there is no other way of putting it. This can only happen if we are engaged in that journey, if we commit ourselves to following Jesus as our Good Shepherd.
This language echoes what we heard Jesus tell Peter at the end of last Sunday’s Gospel: “Feed my lambs; Tend my sheep; Feed my sheep.” As we just complete our journey of Jesus passion and his death on the cross during Lent, as we journey with the risen Christ during the Easter season, we can see how Jesus’ life, ministry, death and resurrection are all examples of his shepherding, both protecting and leading those who follow him. In light of last Sunday’s Gospel, we are also reminded that we are all called to be like the good shepherd, tending to the needs of our community and protecting those who are most vulnerable. We are to act as a shepherd in the world, leading and responding to the needs of others.
On this World Day of Prayer for Vocations, we fulfill Jesus’ instruction for us to pray that the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest. As we get ready for Andrew Bowden’s ordination to the priesthood next week and for Mark Bowden, Andrew’s dad’s, ordination to the diaconate this summer, we recognize how supportive our parish of St Jude has been to vocations. At the end of our weekday Masses, we always pray a prayer for vocations here at St Jude, emphasizing how important it is to pray for vocations and to be supportive of vocations. While we in the Church appreciate and support all vocations, we concentrate our attention this day on vocations to the ordained ministries (the priesthood and the diaconate), consecrated life in all its forms (including male and female religious life, societies of apostolic life, consecrated virginity), secular institutes in their diversity of services and membership, and to the missionary life. We here at St Jude host the diaconate formation program as well as the Carmelite secular group and the Marian servants. You cannot find a parish in our Diocese that is more supportive of vocations. We can be very proud of that as a parish.
In speaking about vocations, it is important for us to emphasize unity, of all of us united as a Church and serving in the Church, but noting that unity does not mean uniformity. It does not mean that we all are exactly the same or that we are called to serve in the Church in exactly the same way. In our unity as a Christian community, there is also huge variety. It is this variety that makes our unity so striking. This variety is based on the special gifts that each one has received, on our charisms, and on the grace we receive from God.
We also need to say on this day that every single person has a vocation, that every single person here has been and is being called by God through the Holy Spirit to offer their special gifts to the rest of the community. We need to ask ourselves: What is your vocation? What is your special gift? What contribution is God asking us to in the life of this parish – inside the Church and outside it of it?
Here at St Jude we had reflected upon gratitude during the season of Lent. Gratitude is such an important essential characteristic of our Catholic faith. With Mary as our Mother leading us and guiding us and interceding for us in our faith, we express our love and appreciation for our mothers today. We honor and remember our mothers and mother-figures and their role in our family, the women who have given us life, biologically and emotionally. Mothers have a special place in our lives. For Catholics, our relationship with a mother goes beyond the presence of an earthly mother. We honor the Blessed Mother we all share: Mary, who said the “yes” that changed everything and had the honor of raising the Savior of the world. Let us all express our love for our mothers, grandmothers, and great grandmothers, all the mother figures that are important to us in lives.
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