Today is the 2nd Sunday After Easter, but is also known to us as Good Shepherd Sunday. We know Christ to be the Good Shepherd who desires to protect the flock and bring them to everlasting life. When it pertains to the flock, Jesus is most important for He is our sustenance and without Him we are nothing.
Sadly, we live in the midst of a world which sees no value in religion. At this point in history this is the first time in America that people belonging to a religious community are no longer in the majority. Some of those who proclaim to be Christian and even Catholic have been swept away by a spirit of relativism. It is relativism which leads us to reject truth and therefore we reject the ultimate truth which is God. The world is in search of something to fulfill it, but that can only be encountered through Christ who is our Good Shepherd.
This Sunday we had the opportunity to witness the reception of the sacrament of confirmation. To receive this most wondrous of sacraments is to be sealed with the Holy Spirit. There are many who are unable to properly articulate why this sacrament is important. This sacrament is not the moment when one becomes Catholic for that was accomplished at one’s baptism. Rather, this is a sacrament of initiation which brings to fulfillment that which was begun at baptism. To be confirmed is to receive grace, grace which sends us out into the world to live a life of faith and to draw others towards Christ.
Therefore, this sacrament, sets our attention upon Christ. The world with all its temptations and trails takes us down many paths. We cannot continue to twist and turn to the point that we get lost along the way. Instead we must stand firm with Christ and desire to know and serve Him above all else. Baptism is not the end, but the beginning. So too with the sacrament of confirmation because it does not signal the end of one’s journey with God.
Christ is our Good Shepherd. We need to know Him by name. Think of the many priorities that you have built up in your life. Relationships, work, the pursuit of money, and pleasure. Have you truly made room for Christ or have you instead allowed other pursuits to reign supreme over Him? Again Christ is our Good Shepherd and He desires that you know Him in thought, word, and deed.
On this Good Shepherd Sunday may we come to do precisely this. Let us be sent forth from here to love the Lord our God. Let us come to know Him in the Eucharist for He is truly present with us there. Let us come to know Him in the sacrament of confession for there we come to encounter He who is merciful and just. Truly let us come to know and follow Christ the Good Shepherd.
No comments:
New comments are not allowed.