Fourth Sunday of Easter: Jn 10:27-30
Jesus said: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”
Quote
“Prayer is called mystical, because of the hidden nature of the conversation: God and the individual speak heart to heart, and what passes between them can be shared with no one else.”
(Treatise on the Love of God, Book 6, chapter 1)
Reflection
The deeply personal union between God and humanity is described in this Sunday’s reading from the Gospel of St. John (10:27-30). The metaphor of a shepherd who intimately knows his sheep describes the close relationship we have with Jesus. God the Father and God the Son are one, and thus, the Divine knows us and draws us into an eternal union. God truly gets us, but how do we get to know God? Saint Francis de Sales reminds us in his Treatise on the Love of God (1616) that through prayer, the intimate “heart to heart” communication between the individual person and God is fostered. The closest of friends or lovers know each other – their thoughts, their (re)actions; likewise, humanity and God can be just as close through prayer.
Provost, DeSales University
