Pastor's Weekly Message

fourth sunday of easter, 26 April 2026

†

HS

JMJ

My Dear Beloved Fellow Saints-in-the-Making,

Greetings in Christ the Good Shepherd!

ALLELUIA! JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN! ALLELUIA!

The Easter Season continues, even though Easter Sunday was three weeks ago. With this extended Paschal celebration of fifty days, Holy Mother Church gives us a foretaste of the unending Paschal joy of Heaven, which we experience every Sunday at the altar of the Lord when we receive the Eucharist, for in receiving Him, we “have life and have it more abundantly,” as Jesus reveals in today’s Gospel.

With this Fourth Sunday of Easter, we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday, for Jesus the Good Shepherd is the Gate through Whom we might enter into eternal life. And that Gate Who is Christ Jesus opens for us on the day of our Baptism, for it is on that day that we are numbered as sheep of the flock of the Lord.

Consequently, the day of our Baptism is the most important day of our life. I certainly consider it as the hinge of my life, for many reasons, among which I would not be able to serve you as your Priest and Pastor if I had never been baptized. I would never be able to take bread and wine and, through the power of the Holy Spirit, give to you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ the Risen Lord. I would never be able to absolve you from your sins nor anoint you when you are sick nor give you the apostolic pardon at the moment you were to leave this life. As Jesus is the Gate through Which His sheep pass, so Baptism is the gate to all the other Sacraments. God be praised that we are baptized!

Therefore, as Pope St. John Paul II has said, we should not only remember the day on which we were baptized, we should celebrate it. Bake yourself a cake and place on it the baptismal candle you received on your day of Baptism. What a practical and accessible way of celebrating the anniversary of when the promise of eternal life was made real for you. If you do not know the date of your Baptism, find it out. It is one of three dates you should know (Four, if you’re married! Five if you’re married and ordained, my brother Deacons!): Baptism, First Holy Communion, and Confirmation. Indeed, I am unabashed and bold enough to say that I celebrate my Baptism anniversary even more than I celebrate my birthday. For it is God’s great gift, and my parents’ loving concern for my immortal soul and eternal salvation, that I have been baptized and that I might participate actively in the sacramental life of the Church and so “have life and have it more abundantly.” Celebrate these sacramental anniversaries with joy and thanksgiving. They are God’s grace-filled gifts to you, signs of His immeasurable love for you, His beloved ones.

As we enter into the season of Sacraments for our youth, please pray for our young parishioners who will make their First Holy Communion next Saturday May 2 and for our young adults who will be confirmed on Wednesday May 6. Pray, too, for our Deacons, who, in living the charism of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, will be especially celebrated and honored next weekend (May 2 / 3) for our parish’s annual observance of Diaconate Sunday.

Let us listen attentively to the voice of our Good Shepherd so that we might enter into the pastures of His Peace through the Gate He is by living out the charism of our Baptism, by which our souls have been indelibly marked with a special sacramental character, making us the beloved sheep of Jesus the Good Shepherd.

God love you! I do.

In Christ,

Fr. Lewis