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One of the more powerful realities in life is when someone special calls you by name.

I remember well a moment during my senior year at Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington that was rather extraordinary to me. At that time, I greatly admired our baseball coach, Marshal Jacobs (aka Jake the Snake). He was an outstanding coach, the best that I had at any level of play. We had just won the conference championship as well as the Catholic state championship. Jake was also a man of deep faith. While a little firm on the outside, he deeply cared about his boys and looked out for us in many ways, on and off the field. I recall being completely surprised and overwhelmed with gratitude at our end-of-the-year banquet when he called my name to offer me the Most Outstanding Player award.

Another moment, enormously more important than the first, was May 20, 1989, when the deacon at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington called me by name during the ordination ceremony. I was being called by Bishop John R. Keating and the church to come forward and be ordained a priest of Jesus Christ. Hearing my name being called out in the cathedral was a seminal moment in my life.

Today, on the Fourth Sunday of Easter, the church celebrates Good Shepherd Sunday. Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd who oversees his flock with tender care, generous mercy, sacrificial love and eternal wisdom.

In Jesus’ day, shepherds who worked near towns or cities regularly placed their sheep in a large corral at night that was carefully guarded. The shepherd would come in the morning, enter through the gate and begin to call each of his sheep by name. He would then lead them off to safe and green pastures.

I invite you to ponder in quiet prayer Jesus calling you by name, perhaps for the very first time when you were younger. Perhaps the Lord wants to call you by name in a powerful new way this day. Try to imagine the personal tone in his voice, dripping with care. Imagine the look in his eyes. It is a call to draw close to him, to dwell in an intimate relationship with him, to be his precious disciple and to receive great strength and wisdom from him as you help to build his kingdom on earth.

Another critical aspect to the work of a good shepherd is to protect the flock from thieves, predatory animals and sometimes, even themselves. Sheep are known on occasion to wander away from the flock. This protection demands diligent attention and a willingness to risk his own life.

Just a few weeks ago, as a church, we took a week to recall all that Christ sacrificed for the sake of his flock during his last days in Jerusalem. St. Peter speaks of Jesus’ tender care for the flock: “He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.”

Jesus sacrificed so much for me and for you. He did the unfathomable. The eternal Son of the living God, the source of all life and the totally innocent one, laid down his life for his sheep. We can never fully grasp the beauty of this mystery or the depth of the love that drove Jesus to empty himself as he did. Yet, in humility and gratitude, we strive to glimpse the beauty of his Passion and to love him with more of our hearts.

Furthermore, on that glorious Easter morning, Jesus rose from the dead so that we might rise with him. He redeemed us, enabling us to rise from the clutches of sin and the grip of death and to avoid the fires of hell. He sacrificed his life that we might have life in abundance.

Jesus is indeed the Good Shepherd who calls each of us by name, protects us from our enemies and lays down his life that we might become brand new creations.

Allow me to finish with the collect for today, “Almighty ever- living God, lead us to a share in the joys of heaven, so that the humble flock may reach where the brave Shepherd has gone before. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever.”