Bassem, a Palestinian shepherd, herds sheep and goats on the hillsides of Zanuta, West Bank, April 2, 2022. (CNS photo/Debbie Hill)
Source & Summit: Fourth Sunday of Easter
(The faithful) taking part in the Eucharistic sacrifice, which is the source and summit of the whole Christian life, offer the Divine Victim to God, and themselves along with it.
-The Second Vatican Council fathers in Lumen Gentium, #11
Source & Summit is a feature of The Western Kentucky Catholic online, celebrating the National Eucharistic Revival: Year of Parish Revival. Intended to help Catholics of our parishes to probe the riches of our liturgical year and celebrate the liturgy well, the column will always start with the Bible readings for the Mass of the Day to help us reflect on, and help to “unpack” and expand our experiences at liturgy into the domestic church (the home) and the workplace.
Sunday reflections will be based on the Lord’s Day, the Liturgy, the Eucharist, and, occasionally, community.
Sunday, April 21, 2024
Fourth Sunday of Easter
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042124.cfm
Acts 4:8—12
Psalm 118:1, 8—9, 21—23, 26, 28—29
1 John 3:1—2
John 10:11—18
When I was in high school, the priest who was my theology teacher asked me to prepare a young developmentally disabled guy for First Communion so that he could receive the Eucharist with his class. I taught him a few words from the standard prayers. He did very well with “Our,” “Hail” and “Glory.”
As his First Communion day was drawing near, I wished him a Happy Easter at the beginning of one session. He pointed to a little book on the table with a picture of Christ emerging from the tomb. He said, “Big,” “Wide,” “Open.”
For Catholics, the great Easter event we celebrate is embedded in our circuitry with the image of the Good Shepherd. Since Vatican II, the Shepherd motif surfaces at Mass on the Fourth Sunday of Easter. For families long steeped in Catholicism, this theme colored the Sunday after Easter for hundreds of years before Vatican II. Our collective Catholic consciousness holds the Resurrection of Jesus and the image of the Good Shepherd together tightly.
I had the honor of doing music for the funeral of a friend several years ago. Sr. Joseph Angela Boone, OSU, was the former chancellor of the Diocese of Owensboro. She was frugal to say the least. Yet she was one of the most generous, big-hearted, merciful, welcoming and kind people I have ever known. At Communion time, we sang a song about what it means to be a shepherd. Though not ordained, she was one.
The baffling line for me in today’s Gospel from John has Jesus saying, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead.” All I can do is ponder this, and pray to move beyond my small-minded concepts, my narrow conceptions of community, and my emotional frugality. This Easter Season, I am praying for the heart of a shepherd, “Big,” “Wide,” “Open.”
-Mike Bogdan
Mike Bogdan is the Director of the Office of Music and Chair of the Eucharistic Revival Committee of the Diocese of Owensboro.
To learn more about the Diocese of Owensboro’s celebration of the National Eucharistic Revival, visit https://owensborodiocese.org/eucharistic-revival/.
