Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever. Amen.
On this Fourth Sunday of Easter, we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday. The Church recognizes the Risen Jesus as the Good Shepherd. This Shepherd listens to His sheep, and His sheep listen also to Him. His voice is like music to the ears of His sheep. He knows them, and they follow Him. This Good Shepherd gives His own life so that His sheep will gain eternal life. No sheep will perish under His guidance and care. And not even a single sheep can be taken out of His hand. The Good Shepherd shepherds with love and shows untiring sacrifice for His sheep.
This weekend, we also celebrate the 59th World Day of Prayer for Vocations. This is a way to remind us that the Church, the Body of Christ or the flock of the Good Shepherd, is still in dire need of many holy Vocations. We celebrate this annual Day of Prayer for Vocations so that many of us may have an active awareness that we can prayerfully contribute to the needs of our Church today. The Church needs good and holy workers to continue serving many people, especially those who are abandoned like sheep without a shepherd. One of the goals of this Prayer for Vocations on this Fourth Sunday of Easter is to fulfill the great, vital, and divine command of Jesus our Good Shepherd who says: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, ask the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Lk. 10:2)
Saint Hannibal Mary Di Francia (1851-1927), patron of the Prayer for Vocations and father to orphans and the poor, founded the religious congregations of the Rogationist Fathers and the Daughters of Divine Zeal to perpetually ask the Lord of the Harvest to give His Church good laborers. St. Hannibal faithfully spent his life working in the Lord’s vineyard while constantly asking Him to provide the Church with holy ordained ministers, consecrated persons, and lay leaders. He truly believed that prayer for holy vocations is an essential key to let the Church be filled with dedicated laborers to extend the care and love of the Good Shepherd for His flock.
Send, O Lord, Holy Apostles into Your Church. This is the prayer that responds to the Lord’s instruction to ask the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. As a community of St. Jerome, we are already doing this every day. This is already part and parcel of our spiritual life. However, we have the obligation to promote and spread this prayer for vocations. This is also the invitation of Pope Francis who says, “I ask the Church to continue to promote vocations. May she touch the hearts of the faithful and enable each of them to discover with gratitude God’s call in their lives, to find courage to say, ‘yes’ to God.” Vocation is a precious gift coming from God. This gift is given to all. We all live because God has given us the vocation to love. To live in love is our authentic response to God’s call. The vocation that God has given to each one of us should be translated into loving God and our neighbor. Our yes to love is also our yes to God.
My dearest parishioners of St. Jerome, praying Send, O Lord, Holy Apostles into Your Church is our actual ‘yes’ to the divine command of Jesus our Good Shepherd. As a community of believers, let us continue listening, discerning, and living out God’s call every day so that we, too, may be the answer to our own vocation prayer. I pray that your family may be a true seedbed of holy vocations. I wish that in your own profession you may be able to foster a true character of a good laborer. A true character of a good laborer is to be a good sheep to the Good Shepherd and to be a good shepherd to the sheep.
Happy Easter! May you have a meaningful celebration of this Good Shepherd Sunday and 59th World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Send,O Lord, Holy Apostles into your Church!
May God bless you and your family!
Fr. Joel Ricafranca, RCJ
Associate Pastor