Yesterday, we celebrated Mother’s Day. Pope Leo XIV said that “one of the most wonderful expressions of the love of God is the love that is poured out by mothers, especially to their children and grandchildren.” There are so many reasons why mothers are so amazing. Their kisses heal our “booboo”. Their hugs make us feel safe and secure. Most of all, they listen with a loving heart to everything their children have to say. Saint Theresa of Lisieux wrote that “the loveliest masterpiece of the heart of God is the heart of a mother.” It is no wonder that when children hear their mother’s voice, they listen and they follow.
In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus say: “. . .the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.” Now, you may recall from yesterday’s Gospel that Jesus said: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish” (John 10:27-30). In the same way that we, as a child, recognized our mother’s voice, we too can hear and recognize the voice of God speaking to our hearts in prayer, his love for us, his desire for us, and what he is calling us to in life - our vocation.
In reflecting on the Gospel for Good Shepherd Sunday, Pope Leo XIV encouraged us to search for our vocations together, saying: “All of us must search together. First and foremost, by giving [a] good example in our lives, with joy, living the joy of the Gospel, not discouraging others, but rather looking for ways to encourage young people to hear the voice of the Lord and to follow it and to serve in the Church.” The Holy Father continued, saying: “Listening is what allows us to enter into true dialogue. . . We have to know how to listen - not to judge, not to shut doors as if we hold all the truth and no one else has anything to offer. . .”
My sisters and brothers in Christ, whether it is during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass or in our personal prayer time or in our day-to-day activities or in the beauty of his Creation around us, God is always speaking to our hearts and calling us to Himself. Our only response to God when He speaks to us is for us to open our ears in faith to hear God’s voice and listen to Him. However, this can be a challenge for us because we live in a very loud world that is continuously bombarding us with noise, noise that drowns out the voice of God and makes us deaf to Him. And so, it is important for us to spend time in sacred silence with God (whether it is during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass or in Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament) to hear his voice and have the courage to follow him. After all, we are the sheep of his flock and he is the Good Shepherd who came so that we “might have life and have it more abundantly.”
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