Fr. Aidan Writes:
Fourth Sunday of Easter
The Gospel today is very short and it refers to Jesus, in his guise as the Good Shepherd, having a constant and unbreakable love for his flock. We hear his call and we follow. When we link this with today’s second reading from the Book of
Revelation, where it refers to a countless multitude, we must not fall foul of a great religious disease, exclusivism.
All people are part of the countless multitude. This is in line with another text where Jesus tells the disciples that he has sheep of other flocks that he calls, who listen to his voice, and he must tend to them too. So from this I have a wonderful belief in the inclusiveness of God’s love, mercy and friendship for all people despite their race, ethnicity, sex, creed or orientation. Our faithful following within the Catholic Church tradition is how we wish to fol- low him righteously, but we must never be judgmental of our other Christian and Non- Christian brothers and sisters; they may well be listening to the call of God faithfully in an- other tradition in which he is speaking. The Second Vatican Council affirms this when it talks of “the seeds of the truth” in other traditions, and Peter Berger, a great sociologist of religions, talks of the “Rumor of angels” in other faiths.
As the whirlwind of issues surrounding a leaked Supreme Court document on Roe-v-Wade continues to fly around, let us pray for the souls of the unborn who must be counted amongst that great multitude standing before the throne.
May God bless you, your families, and the week ahead,
Fr Aidan Peter