A Cycle – 4^4th Sunday of Easter 26

John 10:1-10

My sheep hear my voice and follow me.  How many of us have heard the voice of God speaking to our hearts.  Yet, it is my belief that God is constantly speaking to us, but we are not aware or our instincts are not sensitive enough to recognize it as God. My first realization of that was while I was reading the story of Cinderella to two of my young daughters.  Yes, Cinderella is the gospel story of restoration, forgiveness and what awaits us if only we trust in things we do not yet understand. 

God does come to us constantly in ordinary ways through nature, books, songs, the voice of a child, circumstantial signs and through people who love us and by those who seek to destroy us.  We just need to pay attention but that is a problem for us. We are too wrapped up in the moment, and our response is to what we see, hear and feel is to interpret it according to how it affects us.  God is constantly revealing something to us in the ordinary and in the extra ordinary.    

One way is by our participation and worship during this Sunday’s mass.  We are faithful in attending and we hope to take something away from the homily we hear, the prayers we say, the songs we sing and the Eucharist we receive.  But many of us do not join in the songs or truly listen to the prayers being said and pay attention to the readings and the homily being given.  In fact, statists show most Catholics minutes after the mass ends cannot recall the gospel or the main point of the homily.  We can change that by preparing ourselves prior to entering the church or during those moments before mass begins. As you reference the presence of Christ in the tabernacle say a silent prayer inviting Jesus to open your ears to hear Him today.  Invite Him to penetrate your heart so it feels forgiveness wash over it during mas.

What you would be doing is asking Jesus to change you from a rigid pharisaical approach to living your faith to a freer spontaneous response to Christ.      

Have you ever wondered why the Pharisees with all their knowledge of the scriptures could not acknowledge Jesus was the promised Messiah?  They rejected His teaching and His miracles.  His very presence was such an abomination because it did not fit their concept of what the Messiah would do and how He would act. In fact, John plainly states the Pharisees did not understand what He was saying to tell them. Because they did not understand, they were unable to worship in spirit and in truth.  

It is easy to criticize the Pharisees because everything, He did challenge their concept of what God desires from a people He called and set apart.  Not only did they misunderstand the “sacrificial lamb who would be sacrifices for the sins of all.”  They misunderstood all His parable, all His teachings and all His miracles which went against the law.  In today’s gospel Jesus compares himself to a shepherd. It was not the first time He did, but a Shepard does not fit the image of a warrior King who would set them free.  What kind of shepherd would leave ninety nine sheep just to rescue one sheep who had wandered away from the herd? If they missed every point of His parables and His teachings what makes us so certain we are responding as we should?   

If they could not grasp the concept of Jesus being the only way to the Father, perhaps we need to spend some time reflecting on that one point.  Perhaps all our training has not prepared us any more than it did them. How did all their belief, and dependance on rituals and the law make it impossible to consider God’s plan would be fulfilled by Jesus. They could not embrace such a departure from what they were comfortable with.  If you have not noticed it, Jesus never allowed the disciples to get comfortable with anything He was asking them to believe.  That is the challenge of our faith. We must be constantly walking by faith and less dependent on what we believe we must do. 

Belief is a gift that frees us from trying to please God and impels us to surrender to His will.  We can begin that journey by being like the Pharisee Nicodemus who at least was curious about the teachings of Jesus.  Curious enough to go to Him at night trying to understand the meaning of being born again.  Being born again is something Jesus says we all must experience to enter the kingdom of heaven. In His teachings, Jesus tells us that He is the one who will send us the Holy Spirit baptizing us in water and fire transforming us into new creations – born again.  

We must learn the lesson of Elijah hiding, fearful for his life when an earthquake shook the mountain, fire and winds roared by his hiding place. The scriptures tell us to ignore all those loud visible signs and pay attention to something softer and gentler: a small whispering voice.  We like Elijah must respond to God’s question: “what are you doing here, go on your way” (1Ki.19:15). Brothers and sisters, it is time we learn the lessons of Jesus and begin to pay attention to that small whispering voice of God and become bold believers who know God is with us.

There is only one way to respond to the voice of God that is to go to Jesus and embrace the salvation He death won for us. Listen to that whispering voice which nudges us to leave our comfortable place of safety. Get out of the boat and begin to walk on water.  Listen to that voice that is the Holy Spirit nudging us to open ourselves to receive all we need to become as bold as all the great figures of salvation history. All the great saints who were anointed to stand firm in our belief that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. 

In fact, if you are paying attention to all those things we are doing. Novenas, adoration, daily mass, morning, and evening prayers prepared us for this moment.  We do want to be pleasing to God, but we are too dependent on what we know because we like the Pharisees were taught that is what God wants.  Jesus on the other hand, reminds us how all we have done was building a faith that one day would demand mor e from us.  It is time to acknowledge “the Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”  Time to depend on God and enter the sheepgate and become disciples who seek to do God’s will and begin a journey of discipleship.  

Time for us to forth and proclaim the gospel of salvation.