This Sunday is Good Shepherd Sunday, also known as Vocation Sunday. Its a day we dedicate our prayers to bring forth more shepherds for the Church. In the Gospel, Jesus says “He who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber; 2 but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens; the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”
Our Church needs our shepherds. To lead us to green pastures and clear water. To guide us through this meandering journey of this life we are called into. We need to build trust with our Shepherds, to know that they will not lead us astray like the thieves and robbers. For we are merely sheep.
It is a big responsibility for those called to be shepherds.
We want our priests to be model and moral beings, eloquent, smart, friendly, kind, empathetic, self-giving and at our disposal 24 hours a day. But when the call for vocation comes up, we pray that God uses other families’ sons and daughters to go into the religious vocations.
The homilist reminds us that if we have a lack of religious vocations in our society, and we do, it is due to a lack of vibrancy, spirit and faith of the society itself. If our’s were a truly vibrant, spiritual, evangelical Church alive with the Spirit of God, the vocations will come naturally as a fruit.
So this Sunday, may we extend our prayers and thoughts towards our Priests and religious vocations locally, that more be inspired and called upon by God to serve.
For we, the people, need them as beacons in this life.
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