The Voice of the Good Shepherd

Dear Friends,

Each weekend since Easter, our Gospel stories have been about His disciples recognizing the Risen Christ – readings which also encourage us and instruct us to do the same.

On the Sunday after Easter, Thomas recognized Jesus, despite his professed doubt. Last weekend, the disciples on the road to Emmaus found Him to be a stranger who accompanied them, finally recognizing Him in the breaking of the bread. And this weekend we hear about the Good Shepherd, whose voice the flock recognizes, and they follow Him.

In today’s society, many cultural, political, religious voices clamor for our attention and attempt to seduce us by their appeal – voices that tell us what really is important and what we should pursue: having lots of money to buy state of the art toys, looking beautiful or handsome, driving a powerful, expensive car, being surrounded by the right people, being number one in school or business, living in the right neighborhood or belonging to the correct political party. A long list of enticements.

In the noise made by all these voices, can we still hear and recognize the voice of the Risen Christ and what His call is?

He certainly does not call us to the rejection of this life with all we love most deeply.

The Risen Christ’s voice calls us to:

faithful love and service,

justice when needed,

compassion daily,

delight in the earth,

fullness of life.

All these things cause us to stretch, strive, reach, weigh the options of the present moment, but we know we can never achieve them fully in this life. Think of the ways we or others suffer from pain, conflict, misunderstanding, the temptation to hopelessness. We are called to the more, but the more is unachievable in this life. Is it ever achievable?

Christians have always and everywhere believed that Christ’s ultimate gift is to bring us all home to heaven. The Easter season is just the right time for us to linger over thoughts of our ultimate destiny.

Heaven is the name for the fullness of life Christ promised. It is the fruit that never becomes overripe, the face and the voice that never cease to appeal to us. Heaven is the conviction that never fades, the music that always stirs us, the love that glows and is never diminished.

Yet heaven is not some far distant planet beyond the galaxies. It is already in process in the very people and places and situations we love. When you and I pay attention to this life which we live so ardently, we are really paying attention to intimations of heaven.

By what we become and what we do, day to day, we can either enlarge our capacity for life with God in heaven or we can be satisfied with our present capacity. What’s worse, we can diminish our capacity, by living distracted lives, inattentive to what really matters.

I invite us – you and me – to take the voice of the Good Shepherd seriously and become more open to His call.

~Sister Joan Sobala