Listening to the voice of the Good Shepherd

Homily for 4^th Sunday of Easter Year A 2014

Acts 2:14, 36-41 • 1 Pet 2:20-25 • John 10:1-10

Introduction

What does Jesus’ claim to be the Good Shepherd mean for us, city people of today?  After all, our experience of shepherds is probably only in the movies and our experience of sheep is at the dinner table, when have lamb chops.

Thankfully for us, Jesus adds to the image of a shepherd, two other images with which we are more familiar, namely, the voice and the gate.  He says:

·        The sheep follow the shepherd because they recognize his voice.

·        “I am the gate for the sheep.... Whoever enters through me will be saved.”

It seems that sheep need both things: a voice to lead them towards the pastures and a gate to protect them from predators.  The Good Shepherd provides both.

You have probably seen the TV show called “The Voice.”  In the first stage of this competition, participants compete in a blind audition in front of four coaches.  During the actual audition, the chairs of the coaches face away from the performers towards the audience.  The coach interested in a particular artist must make a decision to consider coaching them, based only on the voice of the prospective artist.  And when a coach has heard enough to impress him or her, they press their button and turn their chair towards the artist.  In the Italian version of this show, the coaches were surprised to see that the beautiful voice they had just heard was an nun, by the name of Sr. Christina.

The voice is a powerful instrument.  We use it to say things; but it can also be used to identify us.  We can tell a lot just by listening to a voice.  How often will we remark to someone on the phone, “are you okay,” because we hear something in their voice that tells us that all is not well.  Apparently, sheep also have a knack for identifying their shepherd by his voice.  And because they are used to him and know him, they will follow him when he calls them; they will not follow the voice of a stranger or thief.  All the shepherd needs to keep his sheep in line is his voice, unlike the cowboy who needs a whip to keep the cattle in line.

Scripture and Theology

In the same way Jesus explains that his is the voice of the shepherd who cares for people by proclaiming God’s message to them.  They hear in his voice that he cares for them and that is why they follow him.  Whether he is teaching the Sermon on the Mount, or talking to Nicodemus at night, or teaching the small band of apostles around him, they hear the Word of God that he shares.

The sheep follow the shepherd’s voice because they know that he cares for them, encouraging the shy one, carrying the slow one and reining in the naughty one.  In the same way Jesus knows his followers and tailors his message to their needs.  To the sick he brings a message of healing and endurance; to the prostitutes and tax-collectors, a message of repentance and forgiveness; and to the Pharisees and scribes a message of God’s boundless love.

We heard that unfortunately the Pharisees failed to understand this image of the voice; and that is why Jesus tried another image, the gate.  Jesus describes himself saying, “I am the gate for the sheep.”  In the absence of the kind of security that we have today, the shepherd was the only defence for the sheep.  And so, when he was out in the pastures and could not return home, he kept the sheep in a cave for the night; and to protect them, he slept by the mouth of the cave, ensuring that no thief entered to steal the sheep and in turn, no mischievous sheep wandered off into the night to be eaten by wild animals.

And so Jesus declares himself to be the gate for Christians; the gate that stops them from wandering off in wrong directions and the gate the stops others from misdirecting them.  As the gate to heaven, Jesus shows us how we are to get there; he tells us how to trust in God, how we are to worship God in spirit and truth, how we are to behave towards one another, in love and compassion.

Christian Life

Jesus is still our Good Shepherd today; his is still the voice we should follow and gate through which we should enter.  Unfortunately for us, there is a cacophony of voices, all calling for the attention of our ears.

·        There are the ideological voices of the network and Cable News channels, as well as the sitcoms and dramas which are saturated with promiscuity.

·        There are the voices on the internet, newspapers, blogs, youtube, many of them peddling all kinds of philosophies and ways of life.

·        You also have the voices of our family, co-workers and friends, sometimes the source of gossip, slander and even hate.

How can we hear and listen to the voice of Jesus in such a crowded marketplace of voices and ideas?  I know a couple who fear to take their young children even to the supermarket, because while they are in the check-out line, one side is full of sweets and the other is full of quite sleazy magazines.

My friends, the voice of Jesus is still to be found, especially in the teaching of the Catholic Church.  The two-thousand year tradition of reading the Bible and reflecting on it under the guidance of the Holy Spirit continues today, in the words of our Pope and Bishops. This teaching provides lasting solutions to those fundamental problems of our lives.  There is no problem or situation in the world today to which Jesus has not spoken or given some guiding principle.  It is all there in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is a comprehensive synthesis of what Jesus teaches in the Bible and is nicely divided into four sections: Belief, Worship, Moral Life and Prayer.  The Catechism, in its complete form, or its youth formats, can be good gifts for Confirmation, birthdays etc.  If we want the truth, we have to turn to the horse’s mouth, as the saying goes.

·        Catholics can learn much about life, suffering and death from the teaching of the Church than from Oprah, soap operas and the movies.

·        Catholics can learn much about treating their enemy or perceived enemy, be it Muslims or criminals, from the teaching of Jesus in the Church, that upholds both justice and mercy, than from Cable TV or Talk Radio.

·        Catholics can learn much about business and labour from the teaching of the Church that upholds the rights of both the employer and the worker, than from either the Democratic or Republican Party.

As Catholics, the voice of Jesus should be the primary influence in our lives.  Yes, some of us struggle with Church teaching on one issue or another.  Sometimes we think that the Church’s interpretation of Jesus’ teaching is wrong; or we simply don’t think that the Church has any right to tell us what to do.

For me, one of the reasons I like being Catholic and not Protestant is that I don’t have to do all the heavy lifting by myself.  Yes, I have to personally accept the Lord Jesus as my Saviour; I have to read the Scriptures and meditate on them; I have to pray; I have to love my neighbour.  But I don’t have to work out every single detail of Jesus’ teaching from scratch.  I rely on the testimony and witness of all those Catholics who have gone before me in the past 2000 years.  I believe that the Spirit, which the Lord promised to send, has continued to inspire the Church of every generation until today, so that that message he left us, has been handed on faithfully and applied to each generation including ours today.

Conclusion

On this Good Shepherd Sunday, we Christians today need, not only the voice of Jesus that tells us where to do, but also the gate that his teaching provides for us, showing us where to come in and where to go out.  May we see the voice of Jesus not as a burden, but as an opportunity, showing us the boundaries within which we are free to exercise our freedom and love God and our neighbour to the fullest extent possible.  Let us follow his voice and it will lead us through the gate that leads to eternal life.