• Again, NO MASS this week–my apologies! I am making minuscule improvement each day, just hard to see sometimes. Thank you all for so many well wishes, prayers and love.

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Dear Friends,

Being that my days of late have needed to be about “care for myself” as I recover from knee surgery, I am including a few paragraphs for your consideration from a past homily for this week. Hopefully, you will find meaning in reflecting upon them once again.

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Readings:

• Acts 2: 14, 36-41
• 1 Peter 2: 20-25
• John 10: 1-10

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Thoughts to consider based on the above readings:

     I begin today with a story as it serves well, I think, as a fine example of what we are each to be as Jesus’ followers:   A person stopped for the yellow light, and the person who was tailgating, furiously honked because they missed their chance to get through the intersection.  Still in mid-rant, that person heard a tap on the window. The officer ordered the person to exit the car with hands up, was ultimately taken to the station, searched, finger-printed, photographed and placed in a holding cell.  After a couple of hours, a police officer escorted the would-be criminal back to the booking desk and the arresting officer who said, “I am very sorry for the mistake, but I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, and giving the person in front of you the finger. I noticed the “What Would Jesus Do?” bumper sticker, the “Choose Life” license plate holder, “Follow Me to Sunday School” bumper sticker and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk, so naturally I assumed you had stolen the car.

Good to remember that people are watching!

The reading from Peter today as well as the gospel from John speak of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, one who knows his own and calls them by name—who has “put up with suffering [for us] for doing what is right” and only asks that we try and do the same.  If our stance toward our world is going to be one of “pastoring” as opposed to that of “legislating,” we will have to see our world through a lens that is often more gray as opposed to black and white.

   I began these thoughts with a story that asked us to consider if we merely “proclaim” our Christianity or actually “show it” through our actions.  Only we can determine how that will be for us.  Only we can determine if we will live, as Jesus did—trying to understand, giving a response and action that is reflective of justice, mercy and love for each other, or not.  Amen? Amen!