Fourth Sunday of Easter (C); May 11, 2025

Acts 13:14,43-52.  Ps 100.  Rv 7:9,14b-17.  Jn 10:27-30

Deacon Jim McFadden

            In today’s Gospel from John, our Lord Jesus is presented to us as the true shepherd of the People of God.  As such, the relationship that binds Jesus to us, the sheep of his flock, is truly unique.  To begin with the relationship is one of mutual recognition.  We hear, “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they never perish.  No one can take them out of my hand” (Jn 10:27-28).  As we ponder this very rich passage, it reveals how our Lord relates to us.

            First of all, the sheep hear the voice of the shepherd.  Notice the sequence: the initiative always comes from the Lord.  Everything starts with his grace; it is he who calls us into intimate relationship.  But this communion only comes about if we open ourselves to him and listen.  If we’re deaf, if we’re absorbed by the white noise of our frenetic society, then he cannot give us this communion.  So, we have to intentionally open ourselves to listening because the latter means being available.  God is always available to us, which Moses underscored to the Israelites when they were wandering in the wilderness when he reminded them: “For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the Lord, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him?” (Dt 4:7).  The question arises: are we available to God?  Do we dedicate time to regularly dialogue with him?  Today we are so bombarded by a tsunami of words through television, the internet that it’s really hard to dialogue.  Often when two people are talking, one cuts the other off mid-sentence, and responds.  But if we don’t allow the other person to speak, there’s no listening.  We’re so overwhelmed by words, that there is an urgency of what we want to say.  That’s why many of us are afraid of silence.  It’s hard to sit quietly, let the other person speak, listen to the other.  If we don’t listen to each other, we probably won’t listen to God either.  

            But if we’re going to be in genuine relationship with God, we have to be good listeners because Jesus is the Word of the Father, and a baptized Christian is a listening child of God and we’re called to live with the Word of God.  So, let’s ask ourselves: do I find time for the Word of God; do I know how to listen to him.  And, if we do, we will have this sense that God is actively listening to us when we pray, when we pour hearts out to him, when we call upon him.

            Listening to Jesus thus becomes a way that we discover the he knows us: the Lord knows his sheep.  Not in the informational sense, but in the biblical sense of knowing the other: of loving the other as a thou.  This means that the Lord, “while he reads our inner being,” he loves us.  Yes, we are sinners, but we are forgiven sinners and he loves us anyway because that is what love does.  If we listen to the Lord, we will know that we are being loved.  Thus our relationship with him will not be impersonal or abstract.  As the true shepherd, Jesus seeks a warm friendship that is characterized by trust, intimacy, and mutual self-giving.  Sometimes when the walls are starting to cave in and everything seems dark, I pause to reflect that right here, right now that I am being loved by the Good Shepherd and that he will never leave me alone.  Being in right relationship with him allows us to live and experience what Psalm 23 speaks about: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for thou  art with me” (Ps 23: 4).  No matter what we are going through in all our sufferings, difficulties, crises, and darkness, Jesus sustains us by going through them with us.  He’s not just observing what we’re undergoing from a heavenly distance, but he accompanies us as we slog through this life.  Thus, it is precisely during troubled times, that we can discover  just how much we are known and loved by the Lord.  So, let us ask ourselves: do I allow Jesus to know me?  Do I make room for him in my life?  Do I bring what I am experiencing to him?  If we do, then we will experience his closeness.  The Lord is near because he is the Good Shepherd.

            Finally, the sheep who hear and who discover that they are known, they will follow the Good Shepherd.  What does that mean?  Simply put, they go where he goes, along his Way, in the same direction which ultimately leads to our destination: Heaven.  And as we do, we will imitate our Lord: we will seek those who are lost;  we will take interest in those who have drifted away; we will take to heart those who are suffering; we will weep with those who are weeping; and we will reach out to our neighbors carrying them on our shoulders. 

            So, getting down to the nitty-gritty: do I let Jesus love me? And, if so,  do I begin to love him, to imitate him?

            May the Holy Virgin Mary help us to listen to her Son, to know him always more and follow him on the way of self-giving love.  Amen.

Reflection Questions:

1.  Do you regularly listen to the Lord in prayer.  Are you a good listener to others? 
2. Do you have a sense that Jesus knows you?  What impact does that have on how you live your life?
3. Are you docile to the Lord: i.e., you go where he goes, following his Way?