Sunday April 21st: Empowered to serve

“I am the Good Shepherd; the Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.”

John 10:11-18

In today’s Gospel, Jesus the Good Shepherd describes the type of intimate love he has for his sheep. An intimate love he already shares with his Father and which he extends to all of us. Jesus who is fully God and fully man, is empowered in his vocation to lay down his life and pick it up again and he is inviting us to share in this power through the merits of his death and resurrection.
He wants us, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to be empowered with charity, justice and truth, patience, kindness, mercy and self-control, in our vocation to live as one family, community, church and society. He wants us to be moved by temperance, prudence and fortitude, so that we could faithfully give ourselves to and for each other, not for sordid money in a world that seeks to acknowledge the almighty dollar, but because we are obedient to the Voice of Almighty God, who has lavished his love upon us by calling us his children.