4th Sunday of Easter - 2020

Each year,  on the 4th Sunday of Easter  we become re-acquainted as it were with the image of the GOOD Shepherd. 
While many of us have never even seen sheep, except perhaps at a petting zoo, as Christians we feel very strongly about the image of Jesus as Shepherd. This Sunday - Good Shepherd Sunday is also
the World day of prayer for Vocations.

The word vocation comes from the Latin  -  vocare - to hear the voice.  Vocation.  We often think of Priest's and Religious as having Vocations. Sometimes we might acknowledge teaching  and  medical careers as being a vocation, because these "jobs" demand so much out of a person, but I think that each of us has a vocation as a Christian.

All of us - We hear the call of the shepherd - and we follow because the sound of the voice is familiar to us, because it resonates within us.

Often times it is a sound that can trigger a memory ... because it resonates with us.

A few years ago - in a parish a long, long, way away (no its May 3rd, not May the 4th be with you...) there was at the Easter Vigil someone in the assembly who was telling me afterwards,  
that the most Vivid memory - vivid  -  from life - 
was not a sight,   nor a smell,  not something touched  nor  tasted,   
But something heard - the water.
The most VIVID memory was the sound of the water
pouring over the newly Baptized: In the name of the Father, the Son the Holy Spirit ,    again and again the water poured.

The sound of the water cascading over these people filled the church. Neither the sight of the pool,   nor  the touch of the water sprinkled had as much of an effect as the sound of that water.
carried over the microphone, and at the same time as we knew  -deep down - that this sound of water was right   - because it resonated with us, The newly Baptized knew that this water was going to be vivid...  life giving for them, because it resonated within them.

The call of the Good shepherd is strong today in our world.
I was talking with my Dad on Friday about Authority & Relationship. My Dad – My Father … over time friend and confidant, advisor whose voice I recognize. Authority comes from our relationship. 
The Authority of Christ in our lives will stem from our relationship with Christ, the Risen Word of God.
Peace