Fourth Sunday of Easter

Fr Dominic’s Homily

Today we hear that Jesus compares himself to a shepherd and the church to sheep. The sheep hear him and know his voice. They follow him. This of course is a familiar scene in the ancient world and so would have created a clear image for his listeners. Perhaps not so familiar now with our more sophisticated lifestyles...

God is someone who knows us and calls us out of love. We are born to hear the voice of God and this is actually what ultimately defines us. We are the sheep born to recognise the voice of the shepherd. This is why our hearts burn within us when we hear his voice. Deep inside we recognise truth and beauty.

If you pluck a guitar string and hold it next to another one it begins to vibrate sympathetically with it. So, it is with us when we hear God's voice it makes our hearts resonate. We were born for it.

There are a million voices competing for our attention every day. The voice of social media, pleasure, money, the good life, materialism and fame all calling us out to follow them. They may be fine in themselves but they are not the voice that will bring us freedom and peace.

God's voice is actually the most important voice that we should be listening to though it may take our whole lives to realise this. But you may think this is all very well but how do we hear the voice of God in our lives today? Well, we hear it in: the scriptures, the teaching of church, the lives of saints and the liturgy. And of course we hear it in our conscience.

Our conscience - is so often dulled by today's society. Or we are told to dismiss it as being too neurotic or having Catholic guilt. But we all know it. We hear Christ through it. We must listen to our hearts.

So, Jesus calling himself the Good Shepherd is a strong statement of his divinity. He is the good shepherd who lays down his life for us. A shepherd walks ahead and the sheep follow. The shepherd of our souls is not distant and abstract. As it says in the psalm: with the Lord as our Shepherd there is nothing we shall want.

He has walked our walk. He has faced our struggles and walked our dark paths. He has died our death. That's the sign of a true shepherd that we can follow and a real voice that we can listen to.