4th Sunday of Easter | 4/22/18 -- Deacon Jim Thill

This Sunday/Weekend is often referred to as “Good Shepherd” Sunday.

In the gospel Jesus say “I am the good shepherd. A good definition of a shepherd is “someone who guides or guards.”

As I reflect on Jesus as my good shepherd…

• I see how Jesus has very often provided for me through people…
• my parents and grandparents…my wife Sandy…priests…the good Franciscan Sisters in and out of school…
• and many good people throughout my life such as you.  

I think of Aloysius Bassler who hired me at age 11 to clean up in his shoe shop and moved me along to at age 16 understanding many business principles and start

fitting and selling shoes. On Saturdays at 8:00 I stopped at his house, picked up the key and the money bag, and opened and ran the shop all by myself till he arrived at 1:00 in the afternoon. He prepared me with many valuable principles of life.  

My life, and I suspect yours, is an amazing experience of Jesus as our good shepherd.

GOSPEL  (John 10:11-18)

Jesus says of Himself, I am the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep.

He also identifies what I will call a bad shepherd one who abdicates (that is fails to fulfill or undertake) his responsibility to guide and guard the sheep.

And it is important for us to hear Jesus say throughout the gospels, “As I have done so you must do.”

SO WHAT ARE WE TO DO…HOW ARE WE TO LIVE AS GOOD SHEPHERDS?

• in the gospel we are told as good shepherds we guard and guide one another and others.

 READING 2  (1 John 3:1-2)

• we are told we may be called the children of God.
• what are we to do…how are we called to live as children of God?
• it is not rocket science…to live as children of God is to live love.
• and God has written the law of love in our hearts.
• Jesus sums up the law of love in the two great commandments… it is to love God and love our neighbor.
• Jesus fleshes out the law of love when He says…give food to the hungry… drink to the thirsty…welcome strangers…clothe the naked…care for the sick…          visit the imprisoned (homebound and nursing homes).
• the Church fleshes out the law of love in the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy.
• the Church fleshes out the law of love in a call to be good stewards of our time…talent…and treasure.
• to love is to guard and guide others.
• to be willing to provide for other’s needs…
• or connect them with those who can meet their need.
• it is to do what we can…with what we have…where we are at…it is that simple.

READING 1  (Acts of the Apostles 4:8-12)

Peter and the apostles are being examined for doing a good deed.

• we are called to do good deeds… easy to say Deacon but what are the good deeds we are called to do?
• listen to the love in your heart…it also speaks the good deeds we ought to be about.
• a good principle might be “the need is the call.”
• if we see the need God may be asking us to do something about that need.
• it may not be easy…it may not be what we want to do… it may not be who we want to do it for…but Jesus may be asking us to do it.
• remember there is a cross in Christianity.
• Jesus has written the law of love in our hearts.
• sometimes when someone comes to me wanting to know
• what they are to do in a given situation…
• my guarding and guiding them is simply to help them understand
• what the law of love in their hearts is already telling them to do.
• my responsibility is to help them see what they already know and to name it and claim it and live it.

It is Jesus who is our cornerstone…Jesus has laid down His life for us… Jesus who is our salvation.

Jesus is our good shepherd…always guiding and guarding us…and He enlists us as His co-workers in His vineyard helping Him…through us to guide and guard each other and others.

This is some of what Eucharist at these tables is about… worshipping and receiving in order to be all the Lord calls us to be… and do all the Lord calls us to do.

Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd.” If He is…and He is… then we are called to be good shepherds.