This weekend is known as Good Shepherd Weekend, and all priests have been encouraged to speak about vocations and share their own vocational story. I have already shared with you my story of settling a restlessness in my heart as I discerned whether to marry the girl of my dreams, whom I had been dating for three years, or to enter the seminary.
Whether it was marriage or the priesthood, I knew that my primary vocation, just like yours, is holiness.
We can be married or single, a priest or religious, and God always calls us to be sacramental. In other words, we are called to be signs and symbols of God’s creative, growth-producing and redeeming love.
I rejoice and thank God that we are part of one another’s sacraments. We are privileged to be living signs and miraculous symbols of the everlasting love of Jesus through our love for each other.
The Sacrament of Marriage is holy, important and beautiful just as the Sacrament of Priesthood is holy, important and beautiful. One is not more important than the other. Both are essential.
All of us are called to give our lives to Christ.
What voice does today’s gospel encourage us to follow? It is the voice of the shepherd.
And who is the shepherd in John’s Gospel? Jesus Christ. A clear description of Christ is found in our second reading:
“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth. When He was insulted, He returned no insult; when He suffered, He did not threaten; instead, He handed himself over to the One who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in His body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness.”
The voice that we are asked to follow is that of Christ, the Good Shepherd.
Remember, in the time of Christ, shepherds named their sheep and called them by name. The sheep would hear his voice and follow him.
In ancient Palestine, towns and villages had common sheep corrals, called sheepfolds. Shepherds would bring their sheep at dusk to the sheepfold for protection from two-legged thieves and four-legged animals. The shepherds would take turns standing watch over all the sheep. In the morning, each shepherd would call his sheep by name.
The sheep would follow only the voice they recognized, the voice of their shepherd, because it meant food, protection and safety.
Following His voice, the voice of Christ, is increasingly difficult in the current environment of our daily lives.
The amount of time that the average American spends on screens is increasing each year and it is the advertisements and videos that shout the loudest. We are told our hair is dull, we are eating the wrong food, our body odor is offensive, we are driving the wrong car, we need this new drug and on and on. These messages can have a subconscious effect on all of us.
We are constantly being manipulated and channeled into what advertisers say we need to wear, buy or possess. Billions of dollars are spent on voices and images clamoring for our attention and allegiance. This consumerist propaganda and our resulting obsession with more, bigger and better things often drowns out the voice of Christ.
It is astonishing how the quality of our lives would improve if we tuned out these voices and followed the voice of the Good Shepherd.
Listening to the voice of Christ in a consumer-oriented society is difficult, but it is not impossible. It requires taking time each day to pray.
Too busy to pray? I don’t think so. Too lazy to pray? Maybe.
I am willing to bet that if you take just five minutes each day this week to pray Psalm 23, your attitude and your behavior will change for the better.
When you pray, be silent and listen to the voice of Christ. You’re cheating yourself when you don’t. Let us take a minute of silence now to pray in thanksgiving for our vocation or, if you are in a period of transition, pray for the grace to discern your vocation.
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