Today’s First Reading begins by giving us a time frame—the events take place during the days between Christ’s Ascension and Pentecost. We’re at the same point in our liturgical year. On Thursday we celebrated His being taken up in glory, and next Sunday we will celebrate His sending of the Spirit upon the Church.

Jesus’ prayer in the Gospel today also captures the mood of departure and the anticipation. He is telling us today how it will be when He is no longer in the world.

God is love, and He revealed that love in sending His only Son to be a sacrificial offering for our sins.

In these words from today’s Epistle, we should hear an echo of the story of Abraham’s offering of Isaac at the dawn of salvation history. Because Abraham obeyed God’s command and did not withhold his only beloved son, God promised that Abraham’s descendants, the children of Israel, would be the source of blessing for all nations (see Genesis 22:16-18).

In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that He is the true vine that God intended Israel to be—the source of divine life and wisdom for the nations (see Sirach 24:17–24).

In Baptism, each of us was joined to Him by the Holy Spirit. As a branch grows from a tree, our souls are to draw life from Him, nourished by His word and the Eucharist.

The image of the good shepherd was well known by those listening to Jesus. In the Old Testament, Moses and David, before God chose them to be shepherds of his people, had been shepherds of flocks. Later on, during the exile, Ezekiel had spoken of God himself as the shepherd of his people: “As a shepherd seeks out his flock … so will I seek out my sheep; and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness” (Ezek 34:12).

The Resurrection of Christ marks the beginning of a very special liturgical season in the Church called Easter, whose origin dates back to ancient times and has various traditions.

1. The origins of Easter go back to the feasts of ancient nomadic or semi-nomadic shepherds who, some 4000 years ago, celebrated outside a sanctuary, without a priest or altar. A young animal was killed and cooked, without breaking any bones. The blood was smeared on the tent poles as a protection against dangers.

At a recent community meeting, many residents were expressing their fears—fears of crime, terrorism, the economy, health care, etc. It seems as though we are controlled by fear. People base their decisions and actions on the negative things that might happen, rather than the positive things that could happen. Such negative thinking only engenders more fear and apprehension, drowning out the possibility of a better, more creative society.