"The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life; they will never be lost."
It is possible to hear sound, without listening to it. It is possible to hear the sound-waves made by a person speaking, and yet afterwards but unable to say the meaning or words the person was trying to communicate. Listening - really taking in the meaning of words - requires effort.
The analogy that Jesus uses today relates to the pastoral - that is shepherding - context, with which his audience were presumably familiar; otherwise he would have used another analogy. In Jesus' day the shepherd would have been, quite frankly, rather intimate with his flock. There were not stable divisions of secure fields where shepherds left their sheep contained overnight, safe. The shepherd stayed with them pretty much all the time - think, Whilst Shepherds Watch Their Flock By Night. Not infrequently, of course, shepherds would come together, to trade, or simply for company and security in numbers and then the flocks would become somewhat mixed up. But they could not always stay like this, for there would not be enough pasture. The shepherds would often need to separate to find enough food for their own flock without competing with others. At this point, it seems, the sheep would - generally, at least - simply follow after the voice of their own shepherd. Such was the familiarity between them.
This is the analogy that Jesus uses for the calling of His faithful - for calling to Him those He will give eternal life.
In today's modern society, it can increasingly feel like we live in a great swarm of different flocks coming together. Different religions, different political ideologies, different social identities. And, in quite a similar way, from that body, Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd calls to His own, knowing that His own will listen to His voice, recognise and follow as He leads them to pasture.
There are so many voices today in our society, calling out for followers, calling out for sheep. Our culture invites us to treat all the voices as equal, and go after the one that takes our fancy. However, for the authentic Christian there can be no choice, no mistake - he or she must follow after the voice of the Good Shepherd. And yet... those other voices can be tempting.
How often do we hear Catholics today say things like - 'I'm Catholic but... I don't believe XYZ' or 'I'm Catholic... but I think the Church should take the teaching about...'? It is hard to escape the reality that even within the Church, some have begun to see Christian teaching as simply one voice among many in the public square, from which they can choose their favourite.
And, yet, in doing so they are missing the voice of the Lord.
When He was establishing His Church, Jesus told those He was commissioning to go out in His name "he who hears you, hears me" (Luke 10.16; cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 87). When the Church, drawing on the accumulated wisdom of the People of God down through the millennia, teaches authoritatively, it is not the Church we hear, but Jesus Christ, teaching anew in our day. And, as His voice rings out, He is drawing those who really belong to Him to follow Him to the pasture, which is eternal life.
I know it can be really hard, at times, to listen to teachings from priests and Bishops - even Popes - when their lives do not model what they are teaching. "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; so practise and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice." It is a sad and shocking thing that ministers of the Church are anything less than holy; but this is a Church made up of sinners - like you and me. And God has chosen to work with it, to make His truth known.
In the end, brothers and sisters, I wonder how many of those Catholics who struggle and compromise in following the voice of Christ as He teaches through the Church have actually really tuned in to listen to that teaching? How many Catholics in Western Europe who have chosen to live together before marriage, have actually sought to understand the beauty of the Church's teaching on chastity? How many Catholics in Africa, living in polygamous marriages, have really interiorised the profound image of Christ's love for the Church that true Christian marriage embodies? How many American Catholics, who may have embraced the death penalty, have really examined their consciences to see if they believe in Christian forgiveness? How many married couples embracing artificial birth control stopped to consider why the Church teaches what She teaches?
When I treat the accumulated wisdom of Judeo-Christian tradition as simply one voice among many in the background of my life to choose from, then I am not hearing it for what it is - the voice of the Good Shepherd. And I am allowing the voice of the Good Shepherd to be something which I hear, but to which I do not listen, or listen deeply.
Let that not be us, brothers and sisters. Let us rather be like sheep who hear the familiar voice, and listen to it attentively - and listening, even if it challenges us, follow His voice; for His is the only one that leads us to the pasture of eternal life.
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