Pastor’s Letter: April 21, 2024

Pastor’s Letter: April 21, 2024

23 Apr 2024 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear friend,

This Sunday is the annual Good Shepherd Sunday because the Good Shepherd Gospel passage is read at Mass. Jesus used many ordinary aspects of 1^st century life to explain deep spiritual realities. The occupation of the shepherd was common, as well as the agricultural society and the cycles of the seasons. From the beginning of the Bible, God created humanity to work. God made us to produce. One of the seven deadly sins is sloth or a spiritual laziness when one fails to use gifts and talents for the greater good. The Bible calls us to understand our gifts so they benefit others. The times when communal life is embraced in the scriptures, we read that it wasn’t forced. Service of the other, self-sacrificial love puts the other first. This is one of the main Biblical invitations: to live as God calls us to live; to live in the way that is for our good and the good of others.

The Church says that the Eucharist, the Real Presence of Jesus Christ, is the source and summit of our faith. The meaning here is that the Eucharist is Jesus. All of Jesus’ Biblical stories illustrate that He is God, He is the one to imitate. He is the one who sets the standard for human life. As Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd, he invites the reflection about what it means to be a “good” shepherd. The Bible is filled with teachings about what is good and what is bad. Jesus discusses many of the common and ordinary known ways people live, succeed and fail. Jesus lives like us in all things but sin so that we all might have a model for living and call ourselves Christians. The Good Shepherd is not just the one who loves the sheep, although He does love us all, the Good Shepherd is the one who set the perfect standard. Jesus is the objective reality of what is good, holy, beautiful…perfect.

The concept of the objective good is increasingly difficult to discuss in our culture, as more aspects of life are relative. Much of the Bible dialogues about yes and no, right and wrong, truth and false, the way of God and the way of the evil one. Right and wrong is not relative in the Bible. There are objective realities about what is right and wrong. This is what is so amazing about Christianity. Jesus makes Himself the standard in His preaching. Even though He made Himself the standard, His followers didn’t truly get that He was the standard until Easter. The Resurrection of Jesus solidified His message and His trustworthiness. If you want to live truthfully, then live like Jesus. Although we don’t have every single possible life situation in the Gospels, the stories about Jesus and those told by those who watched Him live, give enough insight into how to walk the path to heaven. Good Shepherd Sunday is our Church’s profession that Jesus Christ is the King of Israel, He is the Messiah. The path to eternal life is in living in communion with Him. The Eucharist gives us His Real Presence, but the Mass then sends us into the world to live that communion with others. The world should know we are Christians by our Christ-like lives. May we all let the Lord Jesus shepherd each of us to a holier life. Have a great week.

God bless,

Father David