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I found it very fitting, as I was reflecting upon today’s gospel, that the idea of remaining in God is connected with the idea of loving God and being loved by God. The more we strive to remain in God the more we begin to love God. The two can not be separated from each other. We can not remain in God and not love God as well as we can not not remain in God and love God. These two go together! We must both love God and remain in God.

Last weekend, the celebration of the Good Shepherd gave us an opportunity to reflect upon the priesthood of Jesus Christ and the priest’s participation as God’s instrument. This weekend, we are able to continue this reflection. Our readings, especially the first reading, talk about having others join Apostles in their ministry as a way to help prevent the Apostles from neglecting good works.

This weekend, we are celebrating Good Shepherd Sunday. This celebration is a reminder for us of the men who have served us and the Catholic Church as priests. It is also a reminder for us of the men who will serve us and the Catholic Church as priests. But we see in this celebration, especially in our readings at Mass, the foundation of the priesthood and essential aspects of the priesthood in the way that it is to be lived out.

In this weekend’s gospel, Luke 24: 13-35, we see Jesus desiring to reveal himself to his disciples. Initially, they did not recognize him physically with them. They thought that he was some stranger. Over the course of their conversation, and, in fact, their evening together, they realize that this stranger is truly Jesus himself.

Whenever we come to church and celebrate our liturgies, especially Mass, we always have a chance to learn something about our faith, about God, and about our relationship with God. There are many different things that we can learn and there are many different ways that we can learn.

Over the past weeks, we have been journeying with our Lord to Calvary. In this journey, we have taken the time to understand, in a deeper way, what the Passion of Christ means for us personally.

Over the past few weeks, we have been reflecting on the virtue of faith in its role in the Christian life. We have seen that faith leads us into a deeper relationship with Jesus and we have also seen that faith helps us to seek forgiveness for our sins. These aspects of faith work hand-in-hand as we grow in the Christian life.

As we’ve been journeying through Lent, each week we’ve been given a different element of our faith to reflect upon. This week, just as we started last week and will continue to do next week, the Church has been offering us a chance to reflect upon the gift of faith and different aspects of faith in the life of believers. It is, as I’ve been praying and reflecting, very fitting that we are given a chance to reflect upon faith during these unique times.