Presider: Fr. Matthew Widder Parish: Holy Name of Jesus & St. Clement Choir: Mother of Good Counsel Children's Choir www.MySundayMass.org TEXT FROM THE GOSPEL AND HOMILY The Lord be with you. And with your spirit. A reading from the holy gospel according to john. Glory to you o Lord. Jesus said: "My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the father's hand. The father and I are one." The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ. On this Good Shepherd Sunday our Gospel reveals to us in the voice of Jesus saying my sheep hear my voice. The image of a good shepherd is different than an image of, we could say, a good cowboy if you will, because a cowboy drives the herd from behind but a shepherd pulls the herd forward from the front there's nowhere that we can go in life where Jesus hasn't already walked that same ground, where Jesus hasn't gone before us, pulling us forward with his voice, pulling us forward with his love. Growing up on a dairy farm I remember when my dad and I would have to transfer calves from one farm to the other and when we'd get them in to the new pen the first thing that my dad would say is "We have to get one of them to drink from the water, because if we can get one of them to find where the water is, once one of them knows, they all will know." It just takes one in order to lead the others and we think of our relationship with Jesus, we think of our walk with life and there's an old quote that says each one of us is a beggar leading another beggar telling them where the bread is. We're all beggars leading other beggars telling one another where the bread is, where the joy is, where Jesus Christ is. Who are we leading into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ? I think of a very young girl named Kayla that I had the chance to meet. I met Kayla when she was 7 years old. She had a genetic disorder, she spent her life in a wheelchair she couldn't talk, she could smile and she had joy in her eyes. The school that she went to, the school made a conscious decision to allow her to be in the same classroom as the other kids, not to have her own special program and one of the beautiful things that happened, one of the changing things that happened was one of the other girls had a birthday party, this young girl named Alexia, she could take one friend from her class to go on a special trip to the Mall of America. Alexia chose to take Kayla and when she came back to that school suddenly Kayla was not someone on the outside but everyone wanted to invite Kayla to their parties, to their get-togethers, everyone wanted to invite Kayla. Alexia led others to show us how to be Jesus Christ to one another. We think of our own lives, we say who am I leading? Because we all lead in different ways, we might be leading our family through a difficult moment. We might be embracing the news and the challenging news of being diagnosed with cancer or a disease, how are we gonna get others to recognize that Jesus is present even in the midst of those very, very difficult moments? There's nowhere we can go where Jesus hasn't been before us. He pulls us forward with his loving voice and as we hear the voice of the Good Shepherd we pray in our own unique way to call others to follow behind us to encounter the love and mercy of Jesus. At this time I invite you to join with me in praying the Apostle's Creed found on page 37 of the Prayer and Worship Guide.

• published: 16 Apr 2016
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