Welcome to Finding God in Our Hearts. The following production Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a weekly program of deep spiritual insight on Scripture, revealing the indwelling presence of God. Monsignor Fisher is a Catholic priest, a member of the Diocese of Dallas, and founder of the Pastoral Reflections Institute, a nonprofit in Dallas, Texas, dedicated to to enriching your spiritual journey. We appreciate your listenership and if you find this program valuable, please subscribe and share with your friends. This program is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you. Make your donation@pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com Today we celebrate the fourth Sunday of Easter.

The opening Prayer Almighty Ever Living God, lead us to share in the joys of heaven so that the humble flock may reach where the brave shepherd has gone before, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen. A reading from the Acts of the apostles 4:8 12th verse Peter filled with the Spirit said Leaders of the people and elders, if we are being examined today about a good deed done to a cripple, namely, by what means he was saved, then all of you and all the people of Israel should know that it was in the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead in his name. This man stands before you, healed. He is the stone rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.

The Word of the Lord. Responsorial Psalm the stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone. A reading from First John 3 Beloved, see what love the Father has bestowed on us, that we may be called the children of God. So we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now.

What we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is the Word of the Lord. Alleluia Verse I am the good shepherd, says the Lord. I know my sheep, and mine know me. Hallelujah. The Gospel for this Sunday is taken from St.

John 10, 1118 Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man who is not a shepherd, and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd and know mine, and mine know me, just as the Father knows me. And I know the Father.

And I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead. And they will hear my voice. And there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me.

Because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down and. And power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father. The Gospel of the Lord this Sunday focuses on the ministry that we all participate in, the ministry of caring for one another, shepherding one another.

And one of the things that strikes me about this set of readings is, in a way, the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles describes what was happening to the people who were believers. That had never happened before because of this mysterious thing called redemption. God coming into the world and revealing something that was beyond our imagining. He’s revealing the fact that we, we all of us, are called to be like Christ, to be other Christ. It means our destiny is to be doing the same work that Jesus came into the world to do. And there are two things that Jesus did so powerfully and so clearly.

One of the things he was doing was revealing the heart of who God is. The Old Testament, as we well know, is a long history of God slowly revealing himself to be the God who is. He begins with an image of the gods that are revengeful, angry, demanding. And slowly he becomes more and more into the God who he is, slowly revealing to us a God that’s beyond our imagining, a God who is there because of his desire to be there for us. And the being for us is to engage us in the same work that he has come into the world to accomplish. And the role of God in the world is to save, to save us, bring salvation.

And the shocking thing in the way it unfolds is that not only is he revealing to us his role in this incredible work of drawing us not into a place of shame or fear or anger, but a place of peace, knowing that we’re being saved, we’re being lifted up, we’re being given everything we need in order to grow into who we are intended to be. That’s a powerful way of imagining salvation. Salvation is entering into the life that God has called you to live with the energy and with the strength that he has given to you. To accomplish it. What are we being saved from? All those difficult tasks of trying to be worthy of a God who is not in need of our performing for him, so that we are then worthy of his love?

No. He reveals himself as the lover, the one who created us with a destiny. And all he longs for us to do is to enable him to reveal to us the fullness of who we are. And we are other Christs. We are those that are called into the world. Like Christ was called into the world to heal the world.

Because of the divinity that Christ was participating in, he was also fully human. And so he’s inviting us to move from simply solely being human to also adding divinity into our essence. We are children, as the second reading says, of God, children of the Father. Why would it be important to be told that? Let’s say in the Old Testament, you might say that the gods of the Old Testament, particularly the last thing that we’re saying is that you are equal to me, or you are part of me, or you will be like me. No, no.

They were always demanding something from them so that the God of the old pagan gods could dole out some kind of favor. No. We have this amazing new image of divinity. And divinity is not something that is lording something over us, demanding something from us, but a divinity that enters into us and empowers us. And the fact that we are children of God means that as we evolve, as we develop, we become more like God, like the Christ. To be like God does not mean in our humanity, we shed humanity and become divine.

No, it means we have this incredibly complex and wonderful communion of two dimensions that have always been in God’s plan to be united. And that is divinity and humanity in one person. That’s what it means to be a child of God, to have this dignity in us, that we are participants in this mysterious thing called incarnation. And when it’s in us, we do the most extraordinary things. And the extraordinary things we do are symbols of what it means to be saved. So you look at this first reading when the disciples are being hauled in to the authority figures of the temple and saying, what are you doing?

You can’t do this sort of stuff. Stop it. You know? And they’re looking at him and saying, sorry. What we’re doing is simply what we’ve been called to do. If you don’t understand salvation, salvation is the promise in God for us that we will become who he intends us to be.

And so salvation has something to do with being wholly ourselves, whole, healthy. Notice always the Miracles of Jesus were healing people of blindness and deafness and being mute and not being able to walk and not being able to do something with their hands, not being able to make something. I mean, it’s so clear to me that this dynamic force in the world, divinity in us is there because we’re called to be instruments of giving life, wholeness to another. So then we get to the image that Jesus loves about his role as one who is mirroring who the Father truly is. Instead of having a revengeful master God, we have a, a servant God. But this servant God then is described in a way that the people of the time would understand because they knew crops, they knew how to raise animals.

So they had this image easily that could make sense, that there are people who give their life, their time, their energy to caring for a flock of sheep. And there’s a wonderful relationship in that whole dynamic of sheep and shepherd, where the sheep know somehow who their shepherd is, that intuition in an animal who knows who their master is. It’s a beautiful image of the potential in the human being to intuitively know who is the one we turn to for true care, for true protection. And so we have in this image of the Good Shepherd a beautiful image of the ministry that we are called to have as people empowered by grace, by presence of God. And so let’s look at that a little bit more in depth because there’s something in this way that Jesus describes a Good shepherd that we need to understand is a description of how we are to take on this role as we evolve and become more like the God who is revealed in Jesus. Jesus is the perfect representative of who God is.

We’re told that our destiny is to be like that God, to be like him, not by being him, but by participating in him, by him being in us. And how, as you, how do you as a human being deal with divinity inside of you without getting caught up in thinking I am that source that is in me one direction which should be, I guess, egocentric and self centered. And the other one would be, I’m not worthy. What am I? I can’t do anything. I’m just a lowly human human being with a zillion problems and all kinds of failures and sins.

So there’s no hope for me to be able to be used by God. That tension between divinity and humanity is something that I believe Jesus is trying to describe in this very well known passage of the Good shepherd because he’s describing your work, my work as we participate in the role that God has given to us as partners with him in this incredibly fascinating story of bringing the world to its full potential. God has planned for us to be his partners in this work. And we have extraordinary dignity in that role. But at the same time, we have another role in that that is described in the heart of the good shepherd. That is the idea that he will lay down his life for the sheep.

Now what does that mean? It means if it comes to someone destroying my sheep or destroying me, I would let them destroy me before they ever let them destroy my sheep. Now that’s a. How would you say, that would be a very, very clear understanding that in a role that God has as our God, our Father, helping us grow in this world into who we are intended to be like him, he is willing to do anything for this to make it happen. And so what is it that he did that made it happen? Well, he became incarnate and laid down his life and allowed himself to be destroyed in the eyes of the world and suffered death.

And then he rose up again. He took his life. His life came back to him. So there’s something in that image that is connected to what I think is the heart of this set of readings is how do we understand being engaged in this mysterious union of humanity and divinity. How do we understand the role of those two things? Because in one sense, we know that there is this divine power in us that gives us an enormous, enormous dignity and value and worth and needs to be honored.

There’s something about human nature that is sacred and beautiful. And we’re told that we should honor and respect everyone for who they are. They have dignity, they have value, they have worth. At the same time that we’re told that we have all this dignity and worth, we’re told that there’s something else about us that’s so important for us to develop and understand is the capacity we have to put all of that aside and not to claim any part of that dignity and value that we have and to become absolutely in service to something bigger than ourselves in that moment, but with a kind of diminishing of our value in the eyes of ourselves and others. To be the fool, to be the one who is seen as is without value or dignity in all the ways of the world. As we enter into another world, the world of the Spirit is so radically different than the world as we know that God says is not part of us.

It’s that egocentric, power centered world. So how do you understand this mysterious thing that Jesus is trying to say, that if you are going to Enter into the world that he’s inviting you into, you will be like him. And what he has as his greatest capacity is the ability to lay down his life and also to pick it up again, to lay it down and pick it up again. How does he lay down his life? When he was on the cross, he gave up all of his power in the sense of his divinity. And even said out loud, if I wanted to, I could call upon all these angels and I would be the most powerful person in this situation.

I would have everybody terrified. I could have them destroyed. I could call upon that power if I want to, that life that I am, that’s divine. But I lay it down, I set it aside. Instead of that, I’m seen in the eyes of the world as a victim, as valueless, as a nobody. And yet in that moment of surrender, of his need to be exalted or honored, he takes that role of a servant, of a shepherd.

And he is so powerful in terms of changing the world and what changes the world. Hearts that understand this mystery of what love really is. To be a loving individual in the world, a life giving individual in the world, is to be held in high esteem in terms of the way we understand truth. Nothing is more valuable in the world than a loving, giving, serving human being that cares more about others than themselves. That’s the goal. And yet, you know, the world would want us to be in this position of authority and power over things.

And the power that God wants us to see that is most essential is that power that a human being has to put themselves second and to put somebody else first. That’s real power. That’s the power of divinity in humanity. What a gift to be in a position of wanting to serve someone else at no matter what the cost is to us, because all we care about is with every ounce of energy and desire inside of us is to give life to someone else. And when you do that, and you understand you’ve done that, you’ve emptied yourself, you’ve laid down your life, but when you realize what you’ve done, you lift it up again and you are awesome. What a mystery.

What a beautiful image to work on when we work on becoming who God’s called us to be. Closing prayer Father, your plan to live within in us and empower us to be like you and to heal and to bring life at the same time to embrace our humanity, our weaknesses, our sinfulness. This is a gift that can only be understood by your wisdom, not our understanding, not our minds. So bless us with the wisdom of understanding our dignity, our worth, our role, and how it is that you call us through this work of service, to be served and to be filled and to be all that you intend us to be. So bless us with this wisdom. And we ask this in Jesus name.

Amen. Hello, my name is Will Richie, and I work for Pastoral Reflections Institute. Monsignor Fisher has asked me to share a personal reflection on today’s homily. What strikes me is when he says nothing is more valuable in the world than a loving, giving, serving human being that cares more about others than themselves. He tells us that’s the goal, to serve others more than serving ourselves. Think of a person when you were growing up who modeled that, if you can.

I think of Mrs. Bernadette Day, our high school English teacher, and how we lost. We ranked number one in the state in basketball and we lost by a buzzer beater in the semifinals. Color picture of my teammate Brian on the front page of the Baton Rouge Advocate. The next day when we went to class, Mrs. Day, who had taught for maybe 30 plus years, walked up and down through the aisles, not saying a whole lot about English, but talking about life and how these kind of losses build character.

And we’ll still have all the memories of what it took to get there, being such a good basketball team. I think about my Uncle Bill, the man I’m named after. He was married to Aunt Wava. She was a piece of work. But I think about how amidst all of her opinions, amidst her fiery nature, he was like an oak in our family. And every time we went over there after he retired, down the gravel road in Ragledy, Louisiana, to go to his pool, he’d tell us stories, he’d pick us up, he’d throw us in.

And he always kept everything calm, serving others, no matter how up and down that waiver would be. That’s the goal, to serve. Because the world wants us to seek power over things. Monsignor says, though God wants us to see the power of putting ourselves second and another for whom we serve first to give life to someone else. I think of my wife and I and how we became pregnant with our first child before we were married. I think about how the very next day she immediately went to the store and got her pregnancy vitamins she had already.

It was like a whole world unlocked for her. And this responsibility was very palpable. I was a young man in my mid-20s and I didn’t know what to do about that. Came from a family where that’s not what it was taught. But What I learned through her example is that she began focusing on our child. No matter where I was, she stayed consistent.

And we’re married today with four children. And I tell you what, that example of service from hers is real now, as it was with Ms. Day in English class and as it was with my Uncle Bill. Grateful for today’s message for sure. The music in our program was composed and produced by Ryan Harner for this show. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher, a listener supported program, is archived and available on our website pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com and available anytime, anywhere and for free on our podcast, Finding God in Our Hearts.

You can search and subscribe to Finding God in Our Hearts anywhere you download your podcasts. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you. You can make a one time or recurring tax deductible donation on our website pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com we thank you for your listenership and your continued support. Without it, this program would not be possible. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a production of the Pastoral Reflections Institute, a NonProfit in Dallas, Texas dedicated to enriching your spiritual journey. Executive Producer Monsignor Don Fisher, produced by Kyle Cross and recorded in Pastoral Reflections Institute Studios.

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