One Minute Reflection – 29 May – ‘ All should Him speak with the one voice…’

One Minute Reflection – 29 May – “Mary’s Month” – Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter, Readings: Acts 25:13-21, Psalm 103:1-2, 11-12, 19-20, John 21:15-19 and the Memorial of St Pope Paul VI (1897-1978) and Bl Rolando Maria Rivi (1931-1945) “I belong to Jesus,” Seminarian, Martyr

“Do you love me?” … John 21:17

REFLECTION – “Here I find all good shepherds in the one shepherd (Jn 10:14).   Good shepherds are not lacking but they are in the one.   To speak of many. implies division …  If the Lord entrusted them at the time we speak of, it was because He found Peter – indeed, in Peter himself, He recommended unity.   There were many apostles but to one is said:  “Feed my sheep” …  When He entrusted His sheep to Peter, as one to another, He wished to make him one with Himself and, so to entrust the sheep to him, as to be Himself the Head, while Peter assumed the figure of the body (Col 1:18) …  What, then, does He first say to Peter, in order to entrust the sheep to him yet avoid entrusting them as if to another?   “Peter, do you love me?”   And he answered:  “I do love you.”   And again:  “Do you love me?”   And he answered:  “I do love you.”   And a third time: “Do you love me?”   And he answered a third time:  “I do love you”  He makes sure of love so as firmly to establish unity.

Jesus, the one shepherd, feeds His sheep in these shepherds and they in the Him …  It was not because of a scarcity of shepherds (as though the prophet were foretelling bad times to come) that He said:  “I will feed my sheep myself” as though He had no-one to whom to entrust them.   Even when Peter himself was alive and the apostles were still alive in the flesh, He, the one in whom all the shepherds are one reality, said:  “I have other sheep, that are not of this fold;  them also must I bring, that there may be one flock and one shepherd” (Jn 10:16).   So let them all be in the one Shepherd and speak with the one Shepherd’s voice…   All should Him speak with the one voice and not with different voices.   “I beseech you, brethren, that you all say the same thing and there be no divisions among you” (1Cor 1:10).   Let the sheep hear this voice, cleared of all division and cleansed of all heresy and let them follow their shepherd as He says:  “Those who are my sheep hear my voice and follow me” (Jn 10:27).” … St Augustine (354-430) Father and Doctor of Grace – Sermon 46, On the Shepherds, #30

PRAYER – Heavenly Father, help us to accept the tasks you have given us to do in life. Let us be faithful all our days and be able to attain Your eternal reward in heaven.   May our Blessed Mother, St Paul VI and the Blessed little Rolando Rivi, who so diligently showed their love for Your Son, pray for us that we may always praise Your glory and be faithful at all times and in all circumstances, amen.