This Sunday, known as Good Shepherd Sunday, Jesus uses the metaphor of a shepherd and his sheep to illustrate his relationship with all His followers. Moreover, He notes that He is the gate for the sheep, laying down His life for them. This is in opposition to those who are thieves and robbers, the fraudulent “saviors” of the world who are out for themselves—they come to steal and take—there is no noble good in their words or actions.

The Second Sunday of Easter: Choice and Free Will At the Vigil Mass of Easter, which we celebrated on Holy Saturday night, we welcomed a new catechumen—a 18-year old man to be Baptized—and 6 candidates, those already baptized and now to be welcomed fully into the sacramental life of the Church through Confirmation and First Holy Communion. They came into the Church through a program called RCIA, the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults.

This Sunday we celebrate Easter and the gift of Eternal Salvation for all who choose to follow Christ. As the Apostolic Church on earth, the Catholic faith avails to every believer the Sacramental Life of Jesus Christ. From our beginnings—Jesus and His twelve apostles—we have received every spiritual blessing from the God of the universe; and, we as His Apostolic Church, have been called to guard and transmit that Sacramental Life unto the world.

As we prepare to enter into Holy Week, the most Sacred time in our liturgical year, we shall celebrate God’s Love for us and His desire to suffer, die and be raised from the dead so that we—all of us—might live forever. This weekend we celebrate Palm Sunday, when Jesus entered triumphantly into Jerusalem. Shortly thereafter, the elders and the people turned on Him; they scourged and mocked Him, nailed Him to the Cross and then once dead, buried Him. However, God had a plan