“I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” John 10:11

My most boring job was working at an insurance company as a college student. My main task? Filing. Now imagine if I had told my supervisor, “I just want you to know, I’m willing to die for these files.” She would have called a psychiatrist — or at least security.

When I first read Homer's Odyssey as a teenager, one scene captured my imagination: Odysseus finally returning home after 20 years, yet no one recognized him. Disguised as a beggar, he speaks with his wife, his son, and even his enemies. He is fully present, yet hidden. Only at the right moment does he reveal himself, and everyone realizes he has been with them all along. I was struck by the mystery that he could be so close to his loved ones, and yet they simply could not identify him.

"Then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe." (John 20:27)

In my early 20s, I volunteered at a parish youth group. I witnessed teens encountering Jesus with a fresh, romantic wonder that reminded me of my own teenage conversion. But something had changed in me. I was quietly jaded and cynical. When teens shared stories of encountering Christ, I'd want to sarcastically murmur, "Well, good for you." I had grown suspicious of the zeal I once knew.

Zander Price was the fastest kid at my grade school. He won every race on Field Day. To me, his swiftness meant he was the greatest. Zander was the best.

It’s the same with the speediest Apostle on Easter morning. John tells us he “ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first.” (John 20:4) But only after Peter entered did John go in, see the burial cloths, and believe. Here is a symbol of two dimensions of the Church. John, the beloved disciple, represents the contemplative, mystical life: affection, prayer, intimacy. Peter, the rock, represents the Church’s institutional life: steady, authoritative, structured… but slower.