• Home
  • Mary Immaculate
    • Novena of the Immaculate Conception
  • Oblates
  • Blog
fatherdaniel
dd text

4th Sunday of Easter - homily

4/27/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
            The image of Christ the Good Shepherd is one of the most recognised images of Our Blessed Lord. However as he presented himself as the Good Shepherd Jesus wasn’t very original, he didn’t come up with anything new. The image of a shepherd was known and cherished by the people of the Old Testament. They referred to God who appeared to Abraham, Jacob, Moses and many other prophets, kings and holy people as their Shepherd. Those simple nomads from the Middle East who were called to be the People of God didn’t complete sophisticated studies on religion or God but they were attentive observers. They had observed that God was always with them, that no matter what, he would be always in their midst like a shepherd is in the midst of his flock. They described God as their shepherd because that was the language of their daily life. By the way, a few months ago there was a movie called “Exodus: Gods and Kings” I don’t want to go into details about the film but let me share with you a scene that I still treasure. It is one of the final scenes of the movie. The events of Egypt and their escape happened a long time ago. Moses is an old and fragile man by now. He is travelling in a carriage where the box with the Ten Commandments is kept too. In the scene we find Moses looking through an opening in the carriage and around him there is a huge crowd of people walking. As his eyes examine that stream of Israelites in the desert, still walking to the Promised Land, he discovers among those people the God who appeared to him, the God who sent him to free his people from the slavery in Egypt, the God who gave him the Ten Commandments and the God who performed so many miracles. When the old man Moses sees God he smiles and returns to the carriage. Nothing has changed God is still with them.

            My Dear Friends when Jesus described himself as the Good Shepherd he had given a hint to the people listening to him. Do you know what the hint was? “I am your God. I am still in your midst.” This Sunday as we begin the week of prayer for new vocations to the priesthood and the religious life I would like to say to the young people: If the image of Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd speaks to you in a personal way maybe it is because the Lord Jesus is calling you to resemble him in the midst of God’s people of our own time. Don’t be afraid, but listen to his voice in your soul. What may look like a difficult and challenging path to choose can become your path with Christ where you discover the truth of his words: “Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” The Gospel passage for this Mass is not a long passage and in that relatively short reading we heard Jesus speaking five times about “laying down his life for his sheep.” If Jesus kept repeating that so many times it means that what he was saying was of extreme importance. Laying down one’s life for his friends is of extreme importance indeed. It includes shifting the focus point from myself, my own needs and dreams to the other person. It means discovering that serving others, making others happy is more important that being served or looking for the ways to make myself happy. As the Bible says: “There is more happiness in giving than in receiving.”

            Dear young Friends let me finish with the words of our Oblate Cardinal Francis George who died a few days ago after a life time struggle with his disability caused by polio he contracted as a young boy and cancer. He could find many reasons to complain but he never did. In fact when he was appointed as Archbishop of Chicago, which is one of the biggest catholic dioceses in the world, he held a meeting with the priests of Chicago and he said to them: “Never feel sorry for yourself.” Everyone could tell that it came from the gut. He knew the happiness of laying down his life for others, happiness of forgetting himself in order to make others happy by drawing them to Jesus. Do you reckon it speaks something to you? So don’t be afraid. Follow it up.


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013

    Fr Daniel OMI

    An Oblate Priest

    Categories

    All
    Holy Land
    Homilies
    St Eugene De Mazenod

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.