Psalm 144 : 8-9, 10-11, 12-13ab
Compassionate and gracious is the Lord, slow to anger and abounding in love. The Lord is good to everyone; His mercy embraces all His creation.
All Your works will give You thanks; all Your saints, o Lord, will praise You. They will tell of the glory of Your kingdom and speak of Your power.
That all may know of Your mighty deeds, Your reign and its glorious splendour. Your reign is from age to age.
Acts 14 : 21b-27
The apostles returned to Lystra and Iconium, and on to Antioch. They were strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain firm in the faith, for they said, “We must go through many trials to enter the Kingdom of God.”
In each church they appointed elders and, after praying and fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had placed their faith. Then they travelled through Pisidia, and came to Pamphylia. They preached the Word in Perga and went down to Attalia. From there, they sailed back to Antioch, where they had first been commended to God’s grace for the task they had now completed.
On their arrival they gathered the Church together and told them all that God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the non-Jews.
It is always sad when we hear about those who reject the Lord, and who refused to believe in God and His message through Christ our Lord, who had died on the cross and risen, and had shown Himself to many of the faithful, that many would have hope of eternal life in God. That was exactly what happened during the mission of St. Paul to the faithful in the pagan lands of Antioch and beyond, when the Jews, blinded in their hatred and jealousy, spread falsehood and lies in rejection of the Lord.
God is our Lord, and He is our shepherd, the Good Shepherd, who laid down His life for His sheep. He died on the cross, as our shepherd, that we, who are His sheep, may gain life through Him, and that the wolves, led by Satan, would not be able to attack us and snatch us from His hands. He as our shepherd gave Himself in sacrifice to the hands of the agents of Satan, so that we would be safe and would live.
As Christ had said to the disciples and to the people in His teaching, that His sheep would know Him, just like the sheep knows the true shepherd, and not those paid to be shepherds or the thief, He said that to show that all of us who truly believe in Him and those who belong to Him would recognise Him as their shepherd, their Lord, and God.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in our world today, there are many false shepherds who would want to deceive the faithful and lead the sheep of the Lord away from the true path and pasture of the Lord. There are many temptations and evil in this world, that shake even faithful shepherds that the Lord had chosen for His sheep, His people. Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, be careful, that we will not fall into the trap of Satan that he sprang through his false agents and prophets, proclaiming falsehood instead of truth.
Today, we mark the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, and it is indeed appropriate, for the Fourth Sunday of Easter is also Good Shepherd Sunday, and priests, who we pray for today, and those aspiring to the priesthood and service of the Lord had been chosen by the Lord as shepherds for His people. Today happened to be the fiftieth anniversary of this prayer day, which was promulgated in 1963, during the Second Vatican Council.
Sadly, in recent decades, we saw the vocations to the priesthood in rapid decline, and the number of priests often no longer sufficient to serve all the needs of the faithful as it was in the past. Imagine a large flock of sheep with a single, poor shepherd to herd all of them and guide them! It is not an impossible task for them to do, but certainly many of our priests are burdened with ever greater task, both to administer to the growing number of the faithful in Christ, and on the other side, to combat the rising secularism and evils in our world today.
We need more good, holy, faithful, and dedicated priests to harvest the good harvest of the Lord, which had been bountiful in the wake of the evangelisation attempts of the past decades, especially in Asia and Africa, where our Church is rapidly growing, and with more and more people turning towards the Lord. The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the labourers are few. But the laity too can play a part in providing support to our shepherd priests in various ways and means available to us.
Parents should cultivate good faith and morale in their children, that they will grow up to be good and devoted children of God. Then in the future, these children will become good husbands and wives, caring for one another in love, and for their children. And if God wills it, some of those would be called to serve Him and the people of God either through the sacred priesthood or religious life.
We who are parents should be happy if one of our children are chosen by God to be His shepherds to guide His flock. The community too should provide care and support, ensuring that the children would grow up in a fertile soil for their faith, that would allow them later to be dedicated, faithful, and obedient shepherd of the flock of the Lord. Do not be judgmental and prevent your children from choosing the path of vocation, as if it is the Lord’s will that this happens, you will be against God yourself.
Many of us are too fixated with achievements in life, and therefore, placed too much emphasis on results and material possessions. This is one very major reason, especially in Asia, why many parents oppose, either openly or discreetly, on their children’s decisions to dedicate themselves to God. We are too fixated on the idea of our children’s success, which we often attribute to wealth and possessions, and affluence, to the point that we often dismiss priesthood as a ‘career’ that has no prospect, and therefore is not for our children to take.
There was a story of a young man who was rejected from entering the seminary, just because the decision to enter the seminary was not his own, but his own parents’, who decided that because he was rather ‘useless’ in life and unable to achieve anything of good, he should be entering the seminary and become a priest instead. While this may not be true anymore today, but I am sure, many of us whose children are aspirants to the priesthood and religious life are reluctant to ‘let them go’ because of reasons similar to the one mentioned.
Our priests and those who serve the Lord must be of good quality, well prepared and trained, and also having a good intellect and knowledge, both of the faith and the vocation which he is about to embark into, but most importantly, they must be dedicated, loving, and faithful, to God, and to His children to whom they are about to give themselves entirely to, as the bride of the Church of God.
Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today, as we commemorate this Good Shepherd Sunday, and the fiftieth anniversary of the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, let us take a step back and reflect, that many of us are called to serve the Lord, in various ways, some of us as laity, and others as priests and servants of the Lord, through the Church.
Let us not say no to the Lord, and let us not close our hearts and our minds to His calling. Let us open ourselves fully to God’s love, and allow Him to lead us in our path, that we will be able to maximise the life that we had been granted, that in this life, we would be able to improve the life of others, through prayer and service, and through dedication into works of love, for the sake of our most beloved brethren.
Pray for one another, and pray for more vocations in the Church, pray for more good and holy priests to serve the Lord and His people, and never cease to continue our own roles and works in helping one another, physically and spiritually. When we see a growing vocation, let us support instead of chastising or badmouthing the person to the point that such a potential be wasted. Trust in the Lord, and do not worry, for God will take care of everything. He is our shepherd, and He cares for us. He will not leave us hungry nor thirsty, because by His death and resurrection, He gave us an eternal spring and bread of life. Amen.
John 10 : 27-30
My sheep hear My voice and I know them; they follow Me and I give them eternal life. They shall never perish , and no one will ever steal them from Me. What the Father has given Me is above everything else, and no one can snatch it from out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are One.
Revelation 7 : 9, 14b-17
After this I saw a great crowd, impossible to count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue, standing before the throne and the Lamb, clothed in white, with palm branches in their hands.
They are those who have come out of the great persecution; they have washed and made their clothes white in the blood of the Lamb. This is why they stand before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His sanctuary. He who sits on the throne will spread His tent over them.
Never again will they suffer hunger or thirst or be burned by the sun or any scorching wind. For the Lamb near the throne will be their Shepherd, and He will bring them to springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away their tears.”
Psalm 99 : 2, 3, 5
Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God; He created us and we are His people, the sheep of His fold.
For the Lord is good; His love lasts forever and His faithfulness through all generations.
Acts 13 : 14, 43-52
While they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. On the Sabbath day they entered the synagogue and sat down. After that, when the assembly broke up, many Jews and devout God-fearing people followed them and to these they spoke, urging them to hold fast to the grace of God.
The following Sabbath almost the entire city gathered to listen to Paul, who spoke a fairly long time about the Lord. But the presence of such a crowd made the Jews jealous. So they began to oppose with insults whatever Paul said.
Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out firmly, saying, “It was necessary that God’s word be first proclaimed to you, but since you now reject it and judge yourself to be unworthy of eternal life, we turn to non-Jewish people. For thus we were commanded by the Lord : ‘I have set you as a light to the pagan nations, so that you may bring My salvation to the ends of the earth.’
Those who were not Jews rejoiced when they heard this and praised the message of the Lord, and all those destined for everlasting life believed in it. Thus the Word spread throughout the whole region.
Some of the Jews, however, incited God-fearing women of the upper class and the leading men of the city, as well, and stirred up an intense persecution against Paul and Barnabas. Finally they had them expelled from their region.
The apostles shook the dust from their feet in protest against this people and went to Iconium, leaving the disciples filled with joy and Holy Spirit.
Mark 16 : 9-15
After Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary of Magdala, from whom He had driven out seven demons. She went and reported the news to His followers, who were now mourning and weeping. But when they heard that He lived, and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.
After this He showed Himself in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. These men also went back and told the others, but they did not believe them.
Later Jesus showed Himself to the Eleven while they were at table. He reproached them for their unbelief, and stubbornness, in refusing to believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. Then He told them, “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News to all creation.”
Alleluia! The Lord is Risen! He had conquered death through His glorious Resurrection, and victory over death. He triumphed over Satan, who had tried to end His mission on this world by condemning Him to death through the people and crucifying Him, but all to no avail. Satan failed to realise that in crucifixion lay the very key to our redemption by Christ, who became our Paschal Lamb, through whom we are made whole and worthy of God.
Yes, just as the lamb was sacrificed and the blood marked the doorposts of the people of Israel in Egypt, Christ had shed His blood on the cross, and this blood marked all of us as His chosen people, whom He would protect against certain death, and bring into life in Him. For the blood marked the people of Israel apart from their Egyptian masters, so that the angel of the Lord passed over them when they killed the firstborn sons of the Egyptians, animals and humans alike.
Therefore, in Christ, lie our new Christian Passover, for all of us deserved death for our sins and our sinful ways, and through the rebellion of our forefathers, since the days of Adam and Eve, who disobeyed the Lord and ate the fruits of the tree of knowledge. But although we deserved death, God loves us so much that, He could not bear us to face death and separation from Him.
That is why, God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who became man like us, and was born in the flesh through Mary, His mother. He is the Lamb of God, that became the Paschal Lamb, that is the lamb of sacrifice for our sins, but not like any other lamb. Being divine, and yet lowering Himself as a human, He alone is worthy to redeem all mankind from their sins. His Precious Blood that flowed down from the cross washed down evil and sin in those who believed in Him, and who has faith in Him and believe in His Resurrection.
Let us firmly reject Satan and his lies, and reject his temptations on us with worldly goods and desires, just as our Lord rejected his approaches in the desert. Remain true to our mission just as Christ was obedient unto death on the cross. That through our faith we will be rewarded with resurrection into life just as Christ was resurrected. Let us renew our commitment to serve the people of God and make the Holy Spirit that God had given us through baptism and confirmation to bear much fruit in both ourselves and in our fellow men.
Let us strive to become truly the people of God in this blessed Easter season. Let us make full use of this season of Easter, both in our great joy in the resurrection of our Lord, and as well as to share this joy that we have, with others around us, that they too will learn of the great joy of all Christians, that is the Lord crucified had been risen from the dead, and through that resurrection, all of us are saved, and had our life restored to us.
Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us keep on praying that God will continue to bless us everyday of our lives, and may He guide us as we embark on the new year after this Easter season, that from today onwards till the next year when we celebrate Easter again, we can make this year a truly fruitful and blessed year. Also in the spirit of the Year of the Faith, let us also strive to strengthen our faith in the remaining half a year of the celebration of this Holy Year.
I wish everyone a happy and blessed Easter, and may the Risen Christ our Lord shine His face upon all of you, to share in the glory of His Resurrection. Amen!
John 20 : 1-9
Now, on the first day after the Sabbath, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning while it was still dark, and she saw that the stone blocking the tomb had been moved away. She ran to Peter, and the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and she said to them, “They have taken our Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have laid Him.”
Peter then set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb. They ran together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down and saw the linen cloths lying flat, but he did not enter.
Then Simon Peter came, following him, and entered the tomb; he, too saw the linen cloths lying flat. The napkin, which had been around His head, was not lying flat like the other linen cloths, but lay rolled up in its place.
Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in; he saw and believed. Scripture clearly said that He must rise from the dead, but they had not yet understood that.
Alternative reading
Luke 24 : 1-12
On the Sabbath the women rested according to the commandment, but the first day of the week, at dawn, they went to the tomb with the perfumes and ointments they had prepared. Seeing the stone rolled away from the opening of the tomb, they entered, and were amazed to find that the body of the Lord Jesus was not there.
As they stood there wondering about this, two men in dazzling garments suddenly appeared beside them. In fright the women bowed to the ground. But the men said, “Why look for the living among the dead? You won’t find Him here. He is risen. Remember what He told you in Galilee, that the Son of Man had to be given into the hands of sinners, to be crucified, and to rise on the third day.” And they remembered Jesus’ words.
Returning from the tomb, they told the Eleven and all the others about these things. Among the women, who brought the news, were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. But however much they insisted, those who heard did not believe the seemingly nonsensical story.
Then Peter got up and ran to the tomb. All he saw, when he bent down and looked into the tomb, were the linen cloths, laid by themselves. He went home wondering.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 