Today, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, called “Good Shepherd Sunday”, the subject of today’s Gospel. It is also known as “Vocations Sunday”, a day when our Church prays for new shepherds and pastors to lead our Christian communities.
In some parts of the world, especially in hotter and drier climates, sheep are a rarity. Some people have never seen a sheep or a shepherd, except perhaps on television, in a zoo or as lamb on the dinner plate! We city-dwellers might occasionally see sheep brought in to control overgrown vegetation along our streams.
The shepherd of the Middle East and in scripture are different from the sheep ranchers of the American west, New Zealand, or the Australian outback, where people on horseback round up sheep by the thousands at a time. There, if one goes missing, it is hardly noticed.
The shepherd of the biblical Middle East had a much more intimate relationship with their much smaller flock. Where many of us come from, the shepherd walks behind the sheep, driving them, often with a dog to help. In the Middle East, the shepherd walks in front of his sheep and they follow him – and only him. They know his voice.
In the world of technology, voice recognition software is on the cutting edge. Our television remote controls and Alexa™ devices utilize voice recognition technology. The computer (or remote, or Alexa™ device) is “trained” to recognize voice as an input device. It remembers the way you say each word, in spite of, and because of, accents and inflections that everyone uses. It uses the grammatical context and frequency of use to predict the word you wish to input. The computer learns to recognize when you give it a command.
We all are familiar with a different form of voice recognition, a much more intimate version. The brain of a newborn baby does not immediately understand what his eyes are seeing, so it seems that he cannot focus on faces or objects. But watch as the mother leans over her son’s bed, nuzzles her face into his while saying his name softly. The baby turns its head and his face lights up. He recognizes his mother’s voice as one who feeds him, cares for him, snuggles him and loves him.
The gospel today continues Jesus’ dissertation on the Good Shepherd (John 10:1-30). His words today give us an illustration of the beauty and wonder of voice recognition. Jesus gives His listeners an allegory as He identifies Himself as the shepherd and his followers as the sheep. This is an illustration that His listeners would recognize and understand as it was so much a part of their life in pastoral Palestine. Biblical shepherds would keep their flocks in an enclosure in the evening, and he would sleep in front of the gate to keep them protected. The shepherd would know his flock well, from hours spent with them and he would name them individually. To the eye of anyone else, all the sheep would look alike, but the shepherd would know them from subtle physical and behavioral distinctions. He would call them by name, and they would respond to him because they knew him as the one who would care for them and keep them safe. If flocks somehow became mixed, the shepherd would gather his sheep by simply standing and calling them. The sheep would know it was him by “voice recognition” and his flock would rapidly gather around him. They knew it was with him that they belonged. If a stranger would call for the sheep, they would scatter because they did not recognize the voice and they respond with fear and confusion.
We also have a Shepherd who knows our name and offers us love and security in the midst of uncertainty and chaos. He continually calls us, but unless we become familiar with His voice, His calls get lost in the cacophony of sounds that fill our life. In the story that Jesus shared, the sheep knew His voice because of the time they spent with Him, the number of times that they heard His voice, and in the trust they developed by connecting the sound of His voice with the peace and security that He provided.
This is true not only in the relationship of sheep and shepherd, but of Christians to Christ. Recognizing the voice of our Shepherd comes from time spent, familiarity developed, the ability to predict phrases, and the connection with the peace and security that He provides. This is a voice that brings life, creates delight, provides refreshment, and surrounds us with peace and comfort. Responding to His voice is the key to abundant living—living that is full of peace, security, and hope that contrasts with the chaos and noise that sometimes pervades our existence. It is a life more than we could ever hope for—both now and in the future.
Today also is Vocations Sunday, when we pray particularly for priestly and religious vocations. We are invited also to ask, what is God calling me to be? What are my particular gifts? How can I offer these gifts to my Christian community, and the greater community surrounding us? Our Christian communities can grow and thrive only when every member makes his or her contribution to the well-being of the whole. When all are giving, all will be receiving in abundance, the abundance that Jesus speaks about in today’s Gospel.
Today we are asked to pray for priestly and religious vocations. There is a danger that, although many will fervently do so, they are praying for other people’s vocations and not their own. To say this prayer with sincerity involves my reflecting on how God is asking me to make a meaningful contribution of myself (not just money) to the building up of our community, our parish.So today ask yourself: How familiar am I with the voice of my Shepherd? Have I spent enough time with Him to be able to recognize His voice? How can I reduce the noise of my life, so that His voice can begin to be heard? Have I tried following Him to see where He might lead me? What kind of abundant life could be mine if I responded to His voice?
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!