Monday of the Fourth Week of Easter
Have you ever spent time thinking about your voice? Each of us has a unique voice that is like no others, and with your speech not only do you communicate words, but you also communicate emotions and personality. Some people even refer to our voice as our “auditory face”, since others can recognize who we are by just be hearing us speak. Researchers have discovered that even a baby in the womb can distinguish his or her mother’s voice in preference to the voice of other people. This ability to recognize another person’s voice allow us the opportunity to establish a relationship with the individual, since each time we hear that individual talk, we are reminded of our past memories of that person and the mutual experiences we have shared.
In today’s gospel, Jesus uses this idea of voice recognition to help Him describe how He calls us to be His disciples. He explains that He is the shepherd and “the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice.”(John 10:4) He “calls each sheep by name.” (John 10:3) By listening to Jesus and following His voice, those who follow Him will “be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.” (John 10:9) With His voice, the shepherd (Jesus) expresses His love and concern for those that He leads. Unlike those who come to “steal and slaughter and destroy” He explains that He “came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10).
Not only does Jesus come to welcome the children of Israel, but the first reading today illustrates how God’s saving action is for all people. In a dream, Peter is instructed to eat food that he believed was unclean. He is told “What God has made clean you are not to call profane.”(Acts 11:9) He is led by the Spirit to the house of a Gentile man where as he begins to speak about Jesus, the Holy Spirit is poured upon the household. Peter realizes that God is giving the “same gift he gave to us when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Acts 11:17) By recognizing Jesus and his “voice” in the words of Peter, “God has granted life giving repentance to the Gentiles too.” (Acts 11:18)
So the question for us is: “Do we recognize the Voice of Jesus?” In our human experiences, the first time we hear someone’s voice we do not immediately know that person. It is through many encounters hearing that person speak that we begin to know that individual by their voice. I think this is true of our relationship with God. In order to hear God speak to us, we must first be given the gift of faith, so that we will have a heart ready to hear Him speak. The more we hear His voice, the easier it is to recognize Him speaking to us. Where can we hear God’s voice? I think that we hear Him speak in many places- in scripture, in our sacraments, in other people and in creation. Again the more we listen and hear His voice, the more readily we are able to discern His voice in so many aspects of our lives. Just as a baby recognizes his mother’s voice and comes to associate her love, protection, and caring with that sound, we also over time begin to understand God’s love for us as we hear Him speak to us. By listening for His voice and recognizing His call to follow, we are led to a life of imitating Christ in our thoughts, words and deeds.
Today let us pray that we may be given the grace to recognize the voice of God. May we hear Christ speak to us in words that direct us in our daily actions. And may the Holy Spirit give us the courage and wisdom to live our lives, so we in some way may be the “voice of God” for others by the way we love and serve them.