Fr. John Langlois, OP, Master of Students at the Dominican House of Studies preached the following homily for the 4th Sunday of Easter known as “Good Shepherd Sunday”.  

His message about listening to the voice of Jesus is the necessary ingredient in discerning one’s vocation, espsecially a vocation to priesthood and/or religious life.

In our Gospel today, Jesus makes a very interesting point about sheep and their relationship to the shepherd.  He says that the sheep follow the shepherd because “they recognize his voice.”  On the contrary, they will not follow a stranger, and in fact will run away from him, because “they do not recognize the voice of strangers.”  The implication here is that sheep become habituated to the presence of a particular shepherd and the sound of his voice, and so come to trust him.  They easily follow the shepherd because he is familiar to them and gives them a sense of security.

Of all the voices in our lives, the one that should be most familiar to us is precisely the voice of the Good Shepherd.  After all, it is God who first spoke a word of love to us when he called us into existence.  It is he who once again spoke a word of love to our souls when he redeemed us in the waters of baptism and filled us with his life-giving Spirit.  And he is continually speaking to us in the depths of our hearts where he makes his home when we are in the state of grace.

Unfortunately, there are many obstacles that prevent us from hearing the gentle voice of the Good Shepherd and following him where he would lead us.  First of all, our lives can be filled with a tremendous amount of noise.  By noise here, I mean frenetic activity, a preoccupation with work that leaves no room for restful silence and meditation.  The noise that blocks out the voice of the Good Shepherd can also be quite literal—an addiction to television, music, talk radio, internet surfing—the constant bombardment of sense data upon our minds from a variety of sources.  It is very difficult for us to perceive the voice of the Good Shepherd in the midst of such noise.  Learning to turn off media, to create pockets of time each day simply to be quiet and listen is essential to hearing the voice that is speaking to us in the depths of our hearts.

In addition to the obstacle of noise, there are other voices in our lives that compete with the voice of the Good Shepherd for our attention, and often lead us astray.  Now since sheep run away from strangers because they do not recognize their voice, the fact that we often listen to other voices must mean that they are not that strange to us.  We have become habituated to them.  They are familiar.  What are some of these other voices?

The most familiar because it is the closest to us is the voice of self, you know, the one that says, “I know what is best for me and so I’m going to do what I want.”  Let’s be honest, have we ever been led to greener pastures by following this voice?  Yet we seem to fall for it over and over again.  Ultimately, we don’t know what is best for us or what will bring us the true happiness we long for.  The voice of self, though it seems most familiar and trustworthy, is really the voice of a thief who wishes to steal from us the peace that comes from abandoning ourselves to the guidance of the Good Shepherd, who alone has our best interests in mind.

Another voice that we can become accustomed to is the voice of popular opinion—wanting other people’s approval or being afraid of incurring their scorn.  This voice also leads us astray from the path of inner peace because we’re trying to find security in the shakiest of foundations—the ever-changing opinion of the moment.  The voice of “what other people think” can prevent us from doing something we should or encourage us to do something we shouldn’t, all for the sake of fleeting approval.  The end result is always the same—anxiety and the loss of true self-identity.  Only the voice of the Good Shepherd reveals to us our true selves and frees us from the vagaries of public opinion.

Finally, perhaps the most pernicious of all the voices that compete for our attention is the voice of Satan, who is the ultimate thief who seeks to steal, slaughter and destroy.  It is the most pernicious because as Fulton Sheen pointed out, in the moment of temptation, Satan pretends to be our friend.  “Go on, it’s not that bad, and besides you can always go to confession afterwards.”  But once we have fallen into the snare, he turns from advocate to prosecutor.  “Look what you’ve done, you worthless, miserable wretch!  You’re not worthy of God’s love.  Don’t you think you’ve used up God’s patience and mercy by now?”  And in this way, Satan tries to drive us even further away from the saving embrace of the Good Shepherd.  This pernicious voice leading us to despair is the voice we must run away from at all costs because it is the most deadly.  It cuts us off from God, our only hope of salvation.  

So how do we prevent these other voices from having sway over us?  The answer lies in re-habituating ourselves to the clear, gentle and assuring voice of the Good Shepherd who speaks to us in manifold ways.  His voice is heard through his living word in the Scriptures.  His voice is heard in the guidance offered by the Magisterium, and for those of us in vows, through the decisions of our superiors.  His voice is heard in the sacraments which communicate his life to us, particularly the Holy Eucharist and penance.  His voice is heard in the silence of our hearts when we make time to hear it and put away all that might distract us.  The more attentive we are to this voice, the more familiar it becomes to us, the more these other voices will be shown for what they are—the voice of strangers.  Automatically, we will reject them, run away from them, for we will recognize that they lead to death, not life.  The voice of the Good Shepherd, and his alone, can guide us to the life and happiness we so desire.

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