“… And the Sheep Follow Him Because They Recognize His Voice.”
 
(Today’s gospel passage - Jn 10:22-30- is virtually identical in wording and meaning to another passage from this same chapter that I wrote a reflection for a year ago. So if the below sounds familiar, it is not your imagination! I have only 2 words to add: Karen’s attention/listening were focused and intentional. 2 ‘simple’ words for us to keep in the forefront of our minds re the Gospel?)
 
In Jesus’ time it was common for shepherds to share a common corral for their flocks of sheep. Each morning each would lead his flock out to
pasture, calling out to them. Only his sheep would recognize his particular voice and follow him out of the corral.
 
This passage always brings to mind an experience I had one afternoon in a Brooklyn apartment sometime in the 80’s. I was visiting a young couple I had met through the Ignatian Volunteer Corps. They were relatively
recently married and they now had their first child, who was about 6 months old.
 
Karen and I were chatting at the kitchen table. Behind her was a hallway off of which was a bedroom where the baby was sleeping. As I was
speaking, Karen suddenly stood up without saying anything and turned to leave the room. When she saw the puzzled look on my face, she chuckled and said simply, “The baby is crying.”
 
I had not heard a sound from the baby. She heard her crying despite the sound of my words. And, of course, she immediately responded to the “voice” of her child. I have always found this moment to be a paradigm of what Jesus is talking about in today’s gospel.
 
We acknowledge that Jesus speaks the Living Word of God, and what He has to say is of utmost importance. His words show us the Way, they speak to us of the Truth, and they lead us to Eternal Life. Words don’t get more important than that.
 
But how well are we listening?
 
Jesus’ voice clearly is not the only voice speaking to us, literally and
figuratively. There are countless ‘voices’ (and accompanying values and attitudes) competing for our attention and action via the media. And there are countless ‘voices’ playing in our minds via the “tapes” in our memories from past conversations and messages received.
 
We hear Jesus’ voice ‘speaking’ to us through His words as we find them in the gospels. We also find it through the promptings, movements, and ‘whispers’ of His Spirit ‘speaking” to us daily. And these voices are often very out of step with, if not contrary to, those which surround us.
 
To WHICH voices are we giving the majority of our attention?