This is a relatively-famous photo in the Catholic world.  What’s happening in it?  We have a priest vested and celebrating Mass.  His altar is the hood of a Jeep: On top is placed a heavy cloth, then a white altar cloth, a missal, altar cards, and a crucifix; and the altar server is a soldier.

The photo was taken during the Korean war, and the priest is Venerable Emil Kapaun.  Born in 1916 in Kansas to Czech immigrants, he was ordained at 24.  He wrote his bishop many times requesting to ‘spend himself for God’ as a military chaplain, to bring Jesus to people about whom we don’t often think: soldiers.  He served in Myanmar and India, then came home, but twice wrote his bishop to be a chaplain again.  In 1950, he went with soldiers to Korea and died after seven months in prison.

In this last photo, he’s on the right helping a wounded man:

Humanity is in a war against the devil and we’re called to live a heroic life in Jesus Christ, to serve others at the cost of our own lives.  Every fourth Sunday of Easter is the World Day of Prayer for Vocations to priesthood and consecrated life, because the Gospel on this Sunday is always about Jesus the Good Shepherd, Who lays down His life for His sheep.

Today, we hear Him say, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.  All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them.  I am the gate.  Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:7-10).  Jesus uses a reality commonly understood in His time: an enclosure made of rocks for sheep which symbolizes our life on earth.  We, the sheep, exit it through the gate, which is Jesus, Who is the only way we can find true life, symbolized by pastures.  The thief is the devil, who tries to destroy our relationship with God, which kills us.

This parable captures the true story we’re in.  But when we follow our culture, they tell us to focus on a different story.  The mainstream media and our education system tell us that the story about which we should be concerned is politics or the economy because the life we’re seeking is here on earth; the enemy, for many people, is President Trump; and the way to life is being a good person.  So, Jesus is correcting us.  True life is not found on earth, but in our relationship with our Father in heaven; the enemy is the devil; and the focus of our attention should be on the gate to life: Jesus.

Politics and the economy are important because they affect people.  However, if we spend more time on the news than on praying then we’re wasting our time, or worse, we’re damaging our relationship with the Father.  For many Christians, popular culture is their Bible: Their opinions on life, what’s important, and what they talk about are based on a false story.  I mentioned before that the general rule is: We always pray more than we exercise.  If we work out an hour a day, we pray at least an hour.  The same rule applies to the news.

Fr. Kapaun was in an earthly war but knew the true battle was to restore our relationship with God.  He physically pulled wounded men to safety, but more importantly, he heard Confessions, preached about God and His commandments, offered the Eucharist, and gave Last Rites.

Jesus says, “The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep” (10:2).  Later on in this passage, He’ll say that He’s the shepherd, but here, ‘the one who enters by the gate’ refers to priests.  Every priest is good insofar as he focuses the sheep on Jesus and imitates Him in laying down his life.

On March 1, 2026 we mentioned that, for years, we’ve focused on the call for all of us to be saints, but now is also the time to focus on Jesus’ call for some to become priests and sisters.  Today, we’re praying again that the individuals He’s calling will answer Him.

The call to holiness and the call to priesthood and consecrated life remind us of our call to mission.  In four weeks, we’re asking the question: Have I placed Jesus’ mission at the center of my identity?  St. Paul VI famously said, “Evangelizing is in fact the… vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. [We don’t exist primarily to run schools or feed the poor, though that’s part of it.  And we don’t exist to make good people.  If someone ever says ‘Fr. Justin helped me become a good person,’ then I’ve failed.] She [the Church] exists in order to evangelize, that is to say… to preach and teach, to be the channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuate Christ’s sacrifice in the Mass” (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 14).  If ever you want to pay a compliment to a priest, a sister, an Alpha or Faith Study leader, a woman in the CWL, a Catholic teacher, then tell them (if it’s true) that they helped you make Jesus the center of your life.

Everyone who loves Jesus, who’s placed Him at the center of their lives, then has to decide: Is His mission my deepest identity?  Is my first mission to bring Jesus to my family, to the people with whom I work,  to everyone I meet?

We end now with a video, amazingly by the History Channel, when Fr. Kapaun was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

‘I’m going to where I always wanted to be,’ to be with our Father.  May there be more priests like Christ, who lead people through the gate to true life.