Sermon Cloud

It seems that 'Mother Nature' is playing tricks with us this year.  Thanks to the changing dates for the celebration of Easter, we find ourselves at the earliest possible time for its observance, and perhaps as a consequence, while we usually signal Easter as the greeting of Spring (in the Northern Hemisphere), the weather outside makes us wonder whether it's not still winter.  The appearance of winter stillness and snow though may not be such a bad thing, for the scriptures today call us to an inward reflection, which may only be possible for some if the outward part of us is still enough to permit us such a luxury.

In the gospel passage today, Jesus uses the image of a shepherd who guides his sheep.  He says that although sheep will not follow the voice of a stranger, they will indeed hear the voice of their own shepherd (Jn 10:2-3).  The image of a shepherd was very well known to the people of Jesus' day, but perhaps for some who hear these words today, this image leaves us wondering.

Perhaps in our culture, it might be easier to think in terms of hearing the voice of our mothers, or the cry of our children.  It's almost uncanny how even in a crowded room or surrounded by a group of people, the voice of one we know well will be recognized.  How often do parents recognize the cry of their own child over the din of even a fairly large group of children?  Some people have even worked out signals, such as a particular whistle or hand gesture to identify themselves to others they know in a crowd.

In today's world of cutting edge technology, such things as coded entry systems, card keys and fingerprint recognition are no strangers, but I wonder whether we sometimes forget that voiceprint technology has been in use for many years.  In the same way as we hear and recognize the voice of one we know well, the voice of Jesus is spoken of today as one his disciples can recognize, one we must obey.

Everyone who has ever heard this voice and responded to it, has indeed responded to a very special call (1 Peter 2:21).  Jesus never promised that responding to his voice would make life easy, but he did promise that he would never leave us alone.  In fact, he promised that even if we should go astray from time to time, he would always bring us back (1 Peter 2:25) to himself.

In the language of the Church, we refer to this call and response as a vocation.  Every one of us, by virtue of our baptism, has a vocation to listen to the voice of the shepherd who invites us to know him, to love him and to make him known to others.  Every now and then, when we consider life through the eyes of faith, we can be amazed to find that although it seems that human beings are in charge of things, God tends to through us the odd curveball, just to remind us that he's the one who is ultimately guiding the course of events.

The excerpt from the Acts of the Apostles which we heard today speaks of Peter's testimony about Jesus who was put to death, but who was raised to life again (Acts 2:36).  This promise of life which was realized in Christ is the living sign of God's promise made to each of us.  He continues to call out to us, inviting us to accept our own proper vocation in life.  He invites us to take an active part in listening for his voice, inviting others to recognize it, and proclaiming the good news that He is risen. Alleluia!