Just a word...Fourth Sunday of Easter...April 26, 2026

All the gospels for the weeks immediately following Easter give us images to help us explore how the events of the Resurrection can become real for us now, and how they can shape us going forward. This week the image of the Good Shepherd is presented to us that we might consider the Lord as our shepherd, one who cares, guides and protects his flock, even to the point of putting his life on the line.  This is comforting, but we need to be careful not to sentimentalize the image of the shepherd. 

Images are multivalent...they have depth and layers of meaning. Remember, this shepherd didn’t have it easy; he didn’t sit on a hillside, whiling the day away, dreamily keeping watch. This shepherd fought against injustice; challenged the accepted religious norms of the day; gathered outcasts, the weak, the poor; called and anointed his followers as his flock, going to the cross that they might have life.

  Our shepherd has given us the example of authentic leadership, characterized by loving service. Just as he exhibited overwhelming power and strength in enduring unjust suffering, our sharing in the power of His Resurrection presents us with the challenge not only to follow him, but also to make the shepherding role our own. We cannot dilute the image of our being the flock by thinking that we are docile sheep, blindly following our designated leader. We follow by listening for the voice that inspires us to be who we are meant to be, serving in the roles that were created for us, making the differences that only we, in our personhood and our particular circumstances, can make.

We have seen examples of this in such people as St. Teresa of Calcutta, shepherd to the diseased and the dying; Rev. Martin Luther King, leaving the pulpit for the streets, marching against hate and violence; Dorothy Day, tending the homeless and hungry in New York City. But just as importantly, the role of being a good shepherd extends to parents and teachers and preachers; to spouses respecting one another; to the staff and volunteers at soup kitchens; to those who care for the sick; to those whose livelihood makes them vulnerable to illness for the sake of the common good. Beyond these examples are the people of this parish who share their voices, talents and wisdom with us all, each in his or her own particular way. In all these roles, we can see the evidence of those who hear and respond to the Good Shepherd’s voice.

“I came that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” Jesus speaks to the heart, his voice resonates in our hearts, as we choose between that voice that gives life, and those of the “blind guides” that seek to plunder and destroy. 

As the People of God, as a community bathed in the Resurrection, we are called to make the effects of  resurrection visible in the world. How can we do this, especially in the unsettled times in which we are living?  In these, as in any time, the strength of the Easter message empowers us to give voice to His voice and to care for his people, in whatever way we can.