Third Sunday of Easter Cycle C
04/28/2022
May 1, 2022
Third Sunday of Easter
Cycle C
In the Gospel reading we hear that Jesus, after his resurrection, is preparing a meal for the apostles.
At first they do not recognize Him.
But then they do and Peter, out in a boat fishing with the others, jumps into the water and swims to the Lord.
Jesus tells that tells them all to... "Come follow me and feed my sheep."
At our baptism we were each called to follow Him and to feed his sheep. But how???
Each day, in whatever situation we find ourselves, it's important to think about this call that we were given at our baptism.
We, unlike the apostles in the first reading, are probably not called to go into the temple area, the street corners and boldly preach.
But in our every day life we are called to preach and to feed his sheep. That may mean to pray for the gift of patience, mercy, compassion, understanding, forgiveness,etc. toward all people, both deserving and undeserving, friend or enemy.
Here is a little background to the first reading.
The apostles had been arrested and put in prison because they had been told not to preach about Jesus...
...but they continued to preach about Jesus.
Then during the night and angel releases them...
and, not surprisingly, they immediately go back into the temple area and begin preaching Jesus Christ.
We too need to pray for the gift to preach Jesus Christ and not to give up even when we are held captive by what our society basically says, if you want to be accepted and not considered foolish, do not talk about Jesus or God, but about more important day to day things.
Society also seems says to have mercy, compassion, etc. etc. only to those who deserve it.
When no one else will feed his sheep, do we have compassion?
When no one else will have mercy, do we have mercy?
When the world tells us not to forgive, do we forgive?
When the world tells us not to love the enemy,
the one who gives us stress and problems, do we pray to love even the enemy?
When the world says put yourself first,
do we say no I'm putting the other person first?
These are some of the ways we are to preach, by not only our words but our actions, about Jesus and his Kingdom.
In the second reading from the book of Revelation, Saint John has a vision of heaven.
He sees Jesus as the Paschal lamb in heaven, being adored by and worship by all the people and angels because they all understand what he has done in freeing humanity and giving all the opportunity of eternal life.
Let us pray that we too, come to understand, as did the Apostles, the great gift that God has given us.
Let us be willing to always...
Come follow me!
Feed my sheep!
In the days ahead this week, God will give all of us an opportunity, many times, to go out of our way for the other.
Watch and see!
Sometimes we will succeed and other times we may fail, but God is always full of mercy and calls us to start over again and again.
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