April 27, 2015

April 27

April 27, 2015:  Monday, Fourth Week of Easter



  • 'Eyeball' tie pin:  Peter's vision:... (1st reading)
  • Tie with animals:  "I saw the animals of the earth, the wild beasts, the reptiles, and the birds of the sky." (1st reading) 
  • Green in suspenders:  Spirit gave the green light (1st reading)
  • 'Holy Spirit' chain:  The Spirit directed Peter; Spirit fell on the Gentiles (1st reading)
  • 'Deer' tie pin:  "I long for God as the deer longs for water" (psalm)
  • 'Sheep' tie bar:  Good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (gospel)
  • Red and white shirt:  Red for "slaughter and eat" (1st reading), white for Easter season
Listen

  • As the deer longs/ Hurd (Note v3 ends with "Where, O where, are you?", not "Where the h*** are you?", though both likely express the Psalmist's sentiment)

 You about to be ordained, your homilies should come from the heart, so you'll reach people's hearts.  Never refuse anyone who asks for Baptism.  In the confessional, forgive; never condemn.  You're ministers of unity in the Church, in the family.  You're called to the a pastoral life that is like the Good Shepherd's.
Read
  • Acts 11:1-18  Jews / Peter:  ‘You ate with the uncircumcised.” / “Three times I had a vision of a sheet from the sky with animals on it, heard ‘Slaughter and eat,’ said, ‘No; nothing unclean has entered my mouth,’ and heard ‘Don't call profane what God has made clean’; then everything returned to the sky.  Three men appeared; the Spirit told me to accompany them.  One said an angel directed, ‘Summon Peter; he'll speak saving words to you.’  As I spoke, the Spirit fell on them.  If God gave them the gift he gave us, who was I to get in the way?” / “God has granted life to the Gentiles too.”
  • Ps 42:2-3; 43:3-4  "Athirst is my soul for the living God."  Send your light and fidelity to lead me, and I'll go to God's altar and thank you!
  • Jn 10:11-18  “When a hired man sees a wolf, he leaves the sheep and the wolf scatters them, but I am the good shepherd; I know mine and mine know me.  I'll lay down my life for the sheep; I have power to lay it down and to take it up again.  There will be one flock, one shepherd....”
Reflect
      The Good Shepherd
      (St. Anthony's Monastery)
    • Creighton:  The readings are about discerning God's voice.  In the gospel, Jesus' voice competes with bandits' and thieves', yet the sheep know their shepherd's voice.  In Acts, the discernment stretches out:  the Spirit-inspired Gentile voices offer Peter and his friends evidence of God's vision.  God's voice challenges Peter, guides him through his dream, and calls him to not make distinctions, and the angel's voice opens Cornelius to Peter's message.  God is persistent, but it takes time, prayer, conversation, debate, and hindsight to perceive God's voice. Discernment entails discipleship; we learn to listen by following....
    • One Bread One Body:  "The through-way":  Jesus is Good Shepherd, Lamb of God  and Sheepgate. Don't let anyone enter your life, family, or community except through Jesus.  Live in, with, and through Jesus. If we make Jesus our Gate and Way, we'll have fullness of life.  Jesus is the Through-Way.
    • Passionist:  People exclude “undesirables” in the name of religion, but  Jesus and Paul keep stretching the tent poles, allowing more to belong.  Israel’s identity was founded upon a distinction from other cultures and religious practices.  Suddenly, Paul claims that all are one:  Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female.  Pope Francis challenges us to go to the peripheries to proclaim God’s love.  He's made migration a pro-life issue, saying it's about welcoming people.  He likened us to the priest and Levite who walk by in the Good Samaritan parable.  He asked us to beg God for tears for our “globalized indifference.”
      Christ the Good Shepherd
      (Fr. Vladimir Lysak)
    • DailyScripture.net:  At the end of each day, the shepherd brought his sheep into shelter.  They knew his voice and came at his beckoning.  He called each by a distinct name.  In winter they were brought to a communal shelter a guardian locked and secured;  by a guardian; in summer they were kept in fields, gathered at night, and guarded by a shepherd all night.  He was literally the door the sheep had to pass through.  Scripture describes God as a shepherd bringing his people security and peace.  Leaders of God's people are called shepherds:  they shall lead them out and bring them in; that the congregation may not be as sheep with no shepherd.  As shepherds kept watch over and protected their sheep, so Jesus stands watch over his people as Shepherd and Guardian.
    "Jesus accomplished what he taught us:  he showed us what he commanded us to do.  He laid down his life for his sheep, that he might change his body and blood into food, and nourish his sheep with it. He showed us the way we must follow. He lay down the pattern we must conform to.  The first duty laid on us is to use our goods for his sheep's needs, and, if necessary, give our lives for them.  How will one who won't give of his substance for his sheep lay down his life for them?" (St. Augustine, paraphrased)
    • Today's Saints, thanks to Universalis:
      • Maughold, pirate turned bishop?
    Catch the Good Shepherd Sunday post if you missed it!

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