Monday, April 23, 2018

“God attaches no strings to His love. None. His love for us does not depend on our loveliness.”


A father is respected because
He gives his children leadership...
Appreciated because
He gives his children care...
Valued because
He gives his children time...
Loved because
He gives his children the one thing
They treasure most - himself.
Poem – A Father's Love

Gospel Text: (JN 10:1-10)
Jesus said:
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate
but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.
But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice,
as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he has driven out all his own,
he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him,
because they recognize his voice.
But they will not follow a stranger;
they will run away from him,
because they do not recognize the voice of strangers."
Although Jesus used this figure of speech,
they did not realize what he was trying to tell them.

So Jesus said again, "Amen, amen, I say to you,
I am the gate for the sheep.
All who came before me are thieves and robbers,
but the sheep did not listen to them.
I am the gate.
Whoever enters through me will be saved,
and will come in and go out and find pasture.
A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy;
I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly."

Being a Christian is never just about “me and Jesus”. As soon as we try to separate love of God from love of neighbor, we will love neither God nor neighbor as He wants, or as He does. Within the flock of the Church is where God teaches us to mingle our love of Him with our love of neighbor.

Here we start to see the importance of the gate. The gate is an entrance into the life of God’s people, not just into divine life: not just into some abstract nirvana or state of good vibrations, but into the life of God’s flock. This is a chief focus of the Easter Season. 

God’s flock on earth is His Church, which we live out practically within our parish family, and at home within the domestic church.
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