What we celebrate during these Easter weeks is our new life in Christ. Saint John says:” See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God.” And yet he warns us that the world will never know us because it will never recognize Him.

We forget that the Church will never belong totally to the world and that the world will never fully accept the Church. In fact, if we find we ourselves becoming accepted by the world, we know we have become too complacent. The Church flourishes when it suffers, like Jesus on the Cross.

So, we need to be careful if we are to lead this new life, we need to be watchful that the seeds of this world are not nourished but rather are rooted out by our vigilance in prayer and in the reception of the sacraments.

We have before us today the example of the Good Shepherd who knows His sheep and we know Him. We are familiar with His voice because we listen and are able to speak with Him here in the Mass and through the Teachings of the Church. He will lay down His life for us to protect us and by His example show us the way to truth and ignite our spirit to direct others to heaven.

If we are to truly live this new life we have to remember that Christ is ‘the stone rejected…’ ‘By the Lord has this been done; it is wonderful in our eyes.’