4th Sunday of Easter – B
April 21, 2024
Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton
The New York Times
Not long ago, I read an article that had been in the Metropolitan Diary column of The New York Times.
I think this column appears in The Times every Wednesday. The Metropolitan Diary contains stories or anecdotes sent in by readers about their life experience in New York.
Well, this one person wrote about losing his wallet on the subway. A young man named Paul found the wallet, returned it, and refused to accept any reward.
Apparently, when Paul returned the wallet to the owner, he had his nine-month-old son Malachy with him. So, the owner of the wallet decided to write a letter to Paul’s little son Malachy and here is what he writes.
Malachy’s Dad
“Dear Malachy,
“I wanted to tell you why we met, because your father probably thinks his kindness was not worthy of a boast. But seeing the love that surrounds you, I think you deserve to know what I know of your father, Paul.
“We were fellow travelers on the subway at 34th Street, separated by moments. As I sped along, your father stopped.
“He stopped long enough to find my wallet. Its return to me was priceless.
“Your father went a lot further than the person who had stopped to pick it up and place it on a railing. Paul took the time to find its rightful owner.
“He correctly concluded that the transit tickets and business cards in the wallet would reveal my place of work. He would not take a reward.
“In a city of millions, your father Paul became a singularly important person. It is what each of us should strive to do – perform a kind act for each other.
“Your father was willing to make sure a simple wallet made it home. Just think about what he would do to make sure that you, someone he loves immeasurably, will always make it home safe too.”
Touched by the Good Shepherd
Whether he was conscious of it or not, Paul – the finder of the wallet – Paul was expressing the care of Jesus the Good Shepherd.
Today, when he calls himself the Good Shepherd, Jesus says, “I know my sheep and my sheep know me.” In other words, Jesus has and wants a personal relationship with each one of us.
In a similar way, in a city of millions, Paul treated the owner of the lost wallet as a person who could have been inconvenienced, upset, and victimized by this loss. Paul personalized the wallet.
He looked beyond the wallet and saw the owner. Paul cared for that owner, whom he did not even know, as a special and worthy person.
And then, he was moved by that to do something. Today Jesus says that, as the Good Shepherd, he “lays down his life for his sheep.”
In fact, Jesus uses this expression five times in today’s short passage – just eight verses. So, this must be important, central to who Jesus is as the Good Shepherd.
We know that Jesus literally “lays down his life for his sheep.” In a less literal but similar way, this man Paul went out of his way to return the lost wallet.
He probably changed his plans and inconvenienced himself by an hour or so to take the time to return the wallet to its owner. In a real-life, everyday way, he “lays down his life” to help this person.
The Obvious Conclusion
The conclusion for us is obvious.
We are to allow ourselves to be touched by Jesus the Good Shepherd and then be the Good Shepherd for one another. We are not to live like the hired hand whom Jesus describes, concerned only for ourselves and what’s in it for me.
Instead, we are to see others, each person, as possessing the value of a child of God. And we are to find our long-term fulfillment in knowing and doing what Jesus says today about the Good Shepherd.
In “laying down” our lives for one another, we will someday also “take up” our lives again, as Jesus also says today – the Easter promise. And as we do this, just think of the difference that can be made in New York or Parkton or our country or our world if we live as that man Paul did in returning the lost wallet.
