The Fourth Sunday of Easter, this year the 29th April, is known as Good Shepherd Sunday. The reason for this title is quite simple, the Gospel passage for the Mass of the Fourth Sunday of Easter, in each of the liturgical years of A, B and C feature Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Within the Easter Season there is a strong theme in the liturgy – Scripture readings and prayers - of the joy in the Resurrection of Jesus, but also the focus is on the responsibility and urgency of the disciples’ commission to spread the Good News to the whole world. Central to the Catholic teaching and tradition is the meeting of Jesus within the Community of Christ, the Church, and particularly in the celebration of the Mass and the Sacraments. We are a sacramental Church! In and through our celebrations of the liturgy we encounter Christ; we are bonded together through his grace, as a community, sustained and invigorated by his Holy Spirit and grow in holiness through our personal relationship with our Lord Jesus.
So much of the life of the Church is centred on the sacramental ministry of the Priesthood. For this reason the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, in marking Good Shepherd Sunday, has encouraged parish communities and families to be the nourishing soil in which vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life can spring to life and grow. He recommends three concrete means for fostering vocations: Scripture, prayer and the Eucharist.
In his message for Good Shepherd Sunday, the Pope writes:
“Dear brother bishops, dear priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, catechists, pastoral workers and all of you who are engaged in the field of educating young people: I fervently exhort you to pay close attention to those members of parish communities, associations and ecclesial movements who sense a call to the priesthood or to a special consecration. It is important for the Church to create the conditions that will permit many young people to say “yes” in generous response to God’s loving call.” The Holy Father said.
He clarified that the task of fostering vocations is to:
“provide helpful guidance and directions along the way.”
“Central to this,” His holiness continues, “should be love of God’s word nourished by a growing familiarity with sacred Scripture, and attentive and unceasing prayer, both personal and in community: this will make it possible to hear God’s call amid all the voices of daily life. But above all, the Eucharist should be the heart of every vocational journey: it is here that the love of God touches us in Christ’s sacrifice, the perfect expression of love, and it is here that we learn ever anew how to live according to the ‘high standard’ of God’s love. Scripture, prayer and the Eucharist are the precious treasure enabling us to grasp the beauty of a life spent fully in service of the Kingdom.”
As a Diocese, Sandhurst is in need of vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life to build further on the foundations laid by those who have gone before us. We can be confident that God’s continues to call young people to this service in the Church, as members of the Church, it is our part to support this calling through our prayer for vocations, our prayer that those called will recognise the community’s support for them in their “yes” to God, in demonstrating our own esteem for and valuing of these vocations. For those of our Church who may be the subject of God’s call to these vocations, I ask that you listen with an attentive ear and a generous and eager heart, to the call. Ponder the invitation carefully and prayerfully in the terms that the Holy Father urges – with attention to sacred Scripture, private and communal prayer and especially through the Eucharist. The future and the vitality of the Church of Sandhurst is dependent on the sacramental life of the Church, made possible through the priesthood and aided and enhanced by selfless lives dedicated to living the Gospel witness.
- Bishop Les Tomlinson, Catholic Diocese of Sandhurst, May 2012
