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4th Sunday of Easter

Added May 08, 2017 •

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Fr. Marcus Milless, Associate Pastor

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Miss reading this morning is taken from John's gospel from chapter 10 and it's the beginning of the Good Shepherd disc and so our discourse turn up the Good Shepherd Lord and what what else could I say about this you love us yes great 11 a.m. hit and the children the first graders were let outside for recess and there they went and they began playing this game right they picked one boy and I had 12 others 12 girls who are following him they were running around chasing him everywhere listen to what they were saying to him there's sings daddy daddy daddy this is interesting and then I yelled out feed me feed me take me somewhere and then they pulled him to the ground and I thought they were going to consume him right there this is an image of the Good Shepherd cheap in our hearts all of want to be lead all of us want to be fed  it's it's in The Human Condition wants to lead us and feed us and he is speaking directly to the to the Pharisees and this image of the Good Shepherd this is an ancient image in an ancient raise the Kings would refer to themselves as pastors and their main goal entrusted to the care and image shows for tenderness and the his subjects to know that he would care for them turn the weakest among them and we see this in the Old Testament with the 23rd song the Lord is my shepherd there is nothing I shall want through Green Pastures or to Green Pastures he leads me you lead me through dark valleys and I know this for he is at my side something along those lines what was interesting about this discourse is Jesus doesn't start with I am the Good Shepherd that's not how he preaches to the Pharisees starts by saying I am the gate I am the gate he says the gate X over elsewhere is a thief and a robber but whoever enters the Shepherd of the Sheep trees making it very where to them if they want to lead others they themselves have to go through him and there's no shortcuts around it's through him and what he's getting at be like me  that's what he's teaching them  and the shepherd is the one who leads people in the pastor there the first one the open the gate and let the sheep and they themselves the sheep hear the voice of the shepherd anything like that lead others in this way now how does one enter through the gate how was the gate opened there's an image from John's gospel as well 11 chapters later  and to enter the gate we are to answer this question  Jesus which Jesus poses to us do you love me do you love me that's what Jesus asks Peter in chapter 21 remember after Peter had YG's or deny Jesus three times Jesus appears to him on the seashore and they have this little meeting in the first thing do you love me and Peter response yes Lord you know that I love you and just then tells him then feed my Lambs feed my sheep there's a particular word for love that's two different Jesus is saying do you love me with agape love Do You Love Me With self-sacrificial Love do you love me crucifixion love are you willing to lay down your life because I've laid down my life for you and Peter's responses love you  with phileo love with friendship love when things are good I love you yeah when things are nice tell me things I like to hear  that's when I love you  and then Jesus asks him again do you love me agape love self-sacrificial love  please response Lord you know that I love you like a friend you know when it comes is a cabin or going to mass on Sunday  I'll just stay in the cabin  or when you're calling me to something difficult I'll just take the easy Road  and then the moment of conversion happens when Jesus Center Cinema third time  do you love me like a friend  repeat a response yes I love you Lord make a friend but he begins to break through and then he says to Peter when you were younger used to dress yourself and go where you would like to no but when you grow older someone else will dress you and you will be led to a place you do not want to go  next Peter then follows Jesus Remember Peter was he didn't want to follow Jesus he would have rather stayed by the fire to warm himself but at this moment he changes he is converted fire that he warmed themselves by now consumes his soul in his within him and we see it in the first reading and in the second reading and the first he preaches Redemption he preaches that Jesus had come to save Sinners and then conquered sin and death moment when they hear him they were cut to the heart and why were they because it was knew what it was like to be outside Jesus is Love and he was living within it and he wanted to bring people into the pasture he had went through the gate was willing to suffer for them that moment it changes and you see it to in his preaching that he understands the Ness city of self-sacrificial love he says this by his wounds you have been healed had gone astray like sheep but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls he knew that intimately and he received the invitation and he took it and that's what the Lord is inviting us into today  do you love me like the way I love you cuz I've given my life for you I will not abandon you I open this for you but you have to choose whether you want to enter or not and a choice is between following a thief and a robber or following the the thief wants to take he wants to take for himself he's concerned about himself what's best from me  not what's best for others  the Good Shepherd says what's best for others how can lay down my life but this isn't just for Pharisees  in a shepherd's see the Shepherds I have a heart of a lamb as well it's also for us who are sheep  who follow the question is is our mindset like the thief what can I get  what what makes me comfortable  as opposed to how can I lay down my life this for you houses husbands for your wives wives for your husband's are you willing to lay down your life  are you willing to give up everything are you willing to sacrifice for the other and forgive the other and lay aside past wounds and hurts that may still be there but that can be a place of going of glory and that's crazy  how do you say okay I'm willing to can you to lay down my life I don't feel like it anymore but Jesus leads us in that and he loves us and it's Embrace of Jesus that we experience Divine Life and what he invites us into today so my brothers and sisters there's one way there's one way to the pastor It's Right Through the Heart of Jesus let's accept the invitation he offers us to enter into those Green Pastures and if we do we'll hear those words and will experience some is true which he says to us behold I've come that they may have life and have it to the full well that is the formal ending I also want to say that I've had a full life here a beautiful years of priesthood and I've I'm still learning to enter through the gate of self-sacrificial love but I received who's this this week in this confirm that I will be reassigned to HCMC in Downtown Minneapolis I will be a hospital awful in there and I will live in Saint Stephen's Downtown Minneapolis as well until I'm so thankful for the three years and for your willingness to walk with me on this journey and it has been beautiful and continue to please pray for me be sure to my prayers for you

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