Fourth Sunday of Easter -- April 22

Reading 1, Acts 4:8-12
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 118:1, 8-9, 21-23, 26, 21, 29
Gospel, John 10:11-18
Reading 2, First John 3:1-2

Coincidentally, today, Good Shepherd Sunday is Earth Day! In the opening chapters of Sacred Scripture we are each called and gifted to be good shepherds of all creation. And in today’s Gospel we hear Jesus empower us to continue what he began, shepherding one another with encouragement to do the right thing in his name. Jesus, the good shepherd, shepherds us to be good shepherds.

 thank God that when we were raising our children every parent in our neighborhood as well as our children’s coaches were good shepherds. One such moment occurred in a neighbor’s kitchen. When a visiting 16 year old girl while speaking on the phone to her mother said what you would not want to read or hear here or anywhere. I became a good shepherd as I softly said, “Excuse me, please.” Catching the eye and attention of the girl, I gently but firmly said, “Please don’t speak that way to your mother or anyone, ever.”

At McQuaid Jesuit High School, among the good shepherds was Bob Bradley who not only coached our sons English, Latin and running skills but nurtured their moral compass and conscience. One decision made the NYTimes and national TV due to Mr. Bradley’s good shepherding. McQuaid won States on a technicality; Syracuse’s Corcoran runners ran faster and farther but slightly off course due to a four inch snowfall obliterating all the markings. Mr. Bradley knew the right thing to do and laboriously convinced his runners to give that trophy to Corcoran!