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Sts. Joseph & Paul Catholic Church |
Homily Archives: 2007-2008 | |
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Fourth Sunday of
Easter - A
These words with this tone were familiar to me as a youth, “Let’s go, come on, come on, let’s go. Let’s go, come on, come on, let’s go.” This was the call that we used on the dairy farm. About 20 minutes before milking time, this call rang out across the farm as one of us would go into the main cow lot and call the cows in for milking. “Let’s go, come on, come on, let’s go.” No matter where the cows were in the fields, they would hear the sound of our voices and come in for milking.
The image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd
is familiar to us. Many of us have seen the painting of Jesus,
standing in the midst of the sheep with one of the sheep cast across
his shoulder. Many times, we have prayed the words of the Good
Shepherd Psalm, Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd; there is nothing I
shall want.” Jesus said his disciples, “And the sheep follow the shepherd because they recognize his voice.” Jesus made this claim of shepherd for himself. He was the Shepherd, and those who heard Jesus make this claim would have found great comfort in this because they all knew what shepherds did. They knew that a shepherd spent time with his sheep. The sheep would have learned the shepherd’s voice and would have followed him. This voice would lead them to food and water. This voice would lead them out of the elements of wind, rain and cold. This voice would protect them from deadly predators. This voice was a source of life for them as they followed Him. Jesus is the voice of life for us as well and can lead us through this life to Eternal Life. As Christians, we want to hear Jesus. We try to listen to him and come to know him as best we can. But it is hard in our world to hear his voice. We live in a culture of noise. Cell phones ring, pagers beep, and answering systems demand that we listen to their messages. We hear music in the car, music playing overhead as we shop, and music on our Ipods. We hear the sounds of planes flying overhead, cars rumbling down the streets, sirens screaming, and news 24/7. And we talk; we talk a lot. In our culture, it is hard to escape from all the noise, and we are uncomfortable with the silence. But we need times of silence to hear the voice of Jesus our Shepherd speaking to us. The season of Easter is a time for Christians to renew themselves in the promises made at baptism – a time to remember what we believe and why we say “I do” to our faith. Part of this baptismal renewal may mean that we need to find time in silence so that we can hear the voice of Jesus the Shepherd speaking to us. The voice of Jesus is there; we only need to quiet ourselves and listen. In times of joy and sorrow, we can hear his voice if we listen. Even in a crowd of people, or at a moment when we are trying to make a serious decision and there is lots of chatter going through our heads, we can hear his voice if we listen. As we renew our baptismal promises this Sunday, let us also renew our commitment to listen for the voice of Jesus. If we listen, His voice will comfort, protect and lead us to the food and drink of salvation that we call Eucharist. And this Eucharist will help us to enter the gates of Eternal Life. So, “Let’s go, let’s go.” Let’s go together to the table of salvation and eat his Body and drink His blood.
sdrose@bellsouth.net |
