Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
John 10:22-30
Jesus assures us in today’s Gospel reading that no one can take his sheep out of his hand. He knows each of his sheep by name and their unique identities.
“My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.”
John 10:29
A cloud of mystery surrounds Jesus’ references to the Father throughout the Gospels, but his unmistakable desire is to lead us back to him, the font of Love, who is a person.
“The Father and I are one.” Love is one and interpersonal, a communion of divine persons and the final destination of human persons. As the Son receives his unique identity from the Father, so does each of us, the Father’s adopted children.
Know that the LORD is God.
Psalm 100:3
He made us, and we are his.
We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Thank you for this reminder today, Fr. Victor, that our faith is a call to a relationship with a person. In the last few decades with the rise in popularity of Star Trek and Star Wars, I think some in younger generations, if they believe in God, understand God as some amorphous force, like in “May the Force be with you!”
An old eccentric (?) Passionist systematics professor years ago used to pull me aside occasionally to remind me, “Ernest, Ernest, God is a personal presence.” It took me some time to understand what he was getting at but his words have lived in me ever since.
Faith is an invitation to live in relationship with someone, That someone is God. That someone is Jesus, The Force is really the beating heart of a Person in whom we find eternal Love.
Ernie
Gloria’s Journal, May 9, 2020
The Good Shepherds
In these terrifying, uncertain times of pandemic in our country and worldwide,
there are courageous people from all walks of life, all colors, all religions or no religion: doctors, nurses, hospital staff, funeral directors, police, firefighters, EMS, sanitation, transportation and many others we take for granted who are
there day and night; neighbors who are making sure the homebound and the vulnerable
are safe and have food; famous chefs and restauranteurs and their volunteers feed thousands of people each day. All are courageously “laying down their lives,” each in his or her own way — for the sick, the dying, those who have died, and those in need of life’s necessities. Some have gotten sick and recovered and have gone back to work. Some have made the ultimate sacrifice. All these courageous, caring people are good shepherds.