Today is Good Shepherd Sunday and the day we also pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. The opening sentence in today’s gospel passage is very comforting. Jesus says “I am the Good Shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. The image of the good shepherd manifests the various aspect of the person of Jesus. In this image we see a fierce protector who, at the cost of his own life, stands up to anybody who threatens his flock. The description of the good shepherd laying down his life for his sheep alludes to the servant offering his life as a sacrifice. This is what Jesus is for all of us as He gives His life for us. He fights for us and saves us from any kind of harm that threatens our life and makes life unbearable for us. He gives His life in exchange for our lives.

We are still celebrating the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ by which He conquered the power of shame, injustice, evil, lies, darkness, death and sin and taken the victory. In His name mighty deeds are done because there is power in the risen Christ, this is what Peter in the first reading exhorts the crowd who were amazed at the miracle Peter and the apostles did in the name of the Christ by healing a crippled beggar. He takes them through the Old Testament and explains to them how God has glorified his servant Jesus whom He caused to rise from the dead. He proclaims that they are witnesses to these great works of God that is they who give the testimony of His rising from the dead and believe in it. We as Christ followers should also believe in it and give the testimony of our own faith in the Risen Christ. As Easter people we have also received the power to conquer the power of evil, despair, sin and darkness in our own lives.

The second reading John explains to us that Jesus is the advocate who is the expiatioREAD MORE

What a wonderful joy fills us today as we ponder the inexhaustible mercy of God. “Mercy is the heart of God,” Pope Francis tells us. The image of a heart has been used to point to the very life source of a person as it is the organ that allows life to flow through our veins and sustain us. Mercy is the heart of God. Imagine this dynamic, powerful, compassionate, piercing, embracing, loving, propelling, penetrating, absorbing, and enveloping, transforming presence of God flowing into the very depth of our souls. It is God’s mercy that allows blood to flow through our veins. It is God’s mercy that forms every atom of our being and leads us to what is true. God’s mercy reveals all superficiality and falsehood, and lays bare all distortions, empty promises, weakness, and sin.

Today we celebrate the greatest solemnity of our Faith. The foundation on which our hope and faith as Christians stand. We celebrate and rejoice that Our Lord Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. By rising from the dead He has defeated the power of death, Satan, evil forces, falsehood, and injustice and took the Glory. God made Him to rise from dead to prove that He has power over life and death. As Paul would say, “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and our faith is in vain” (1 Cor 15:14-15). But because Christ has been raised we have hope and our faith is credible and that is what we celebrate. That is the reason we shout Alleluia! Alleluia! Indeed the Lord has truly risen.