May 11, 2025, Fourth Sunday of Easter

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:06] Speaker B: Hello. Today is Sunday, May 11, the fourth Sunday of Easter. Today we begin with a question. Did Jesus visit his mother first? In 1997, Pope John Paul II shared a reflection on the resurrection of Jesus. He suggested something not found in the Gospels, but rooted in Catholic tradition and accepted by several saints. Jesus may have first appeared to his mother Mary, on Easter morning. Although Scripture does not record this meeting, Pope John Paul II believed it was entirely fitting. He said it is legitimate to think that the mother was probably the first person to whom the risen Jesus appeared. He encouraged people to imagine the intimate reunion between the risen Christ and Mary, his mother, who had been with him through his entire earthly life, from his conception and birth to his brutal death on the cross. Pope John Paul II emphasized that Mary's total trust in God's plan and close bond with her son naturally would have led her to being the first to share in the joy of his resurrection. He also points out that perhaps Mary's absence from the group of women who went to the tomb at dawn serves as an indication that she had already met her risen son. St. John Paul II's reflection invites us to think more deeply about the role of Mary, not just as the mother of God, but possibly as the first to believe in and experience the joy and glory of the resurrection. Today is Mother's Day, celebrated nationwide since 1908. More than 100 million cards are exchanged each year on this day. Today is also World Day of Prayer for vocations. The full strength of the shepherd image came easily to people whose ancestors were Bedouin shepherds and who lived in a country surrounded by Bedouin shepherds. Sheep were part of their lives. When Jesus used the shepherd image, people immediately understood the closeness he was talking about. From before we were born, God was present to us deep down inside. From the beginning, we had an interior teacher who taught us about God before anyone else did. Teachers helped us to put words on it and helped enhance the truths we held within. Good teachers are a blessing. But as Christians, our best teacher is the spirit of God within us. This interior teacher is within us all through our lives. We need perhaps to be more conscious of this. It is not like a strange voice, as in hearing voices, nor is it instinct. My instincts are often wrong. It is more along the lines of intuition, insight, inspiration. We have a sense of something at we don't quite know how we have it, and it seems to have come from more than ourselves. Something like a melody that comes to a songwriter.