Hearing the Voice of Jesus

Today’s gospel (Jn 10:27-30) is so short that I have to put it here in this space. 

Jesus said:
“My sheep hear my voice;
I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
No one can take them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all,
and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.
The Father and I are one.”

Allow me to reflect on this theme: hearing the voice of Jesus. 

In our life we hear many voices; it is a marketplace of voices.  If you want to hear something, you should ask first: to whom or for what?  Usually the “to whom” follows the “for what.”  So if your concern is about legal matters, you go to a lawyer.  If it is about some illness or sickness, you go to a medical doctor.  If your illness is in the heart, you don’t have to consult an opthalmologist but a cardiologist.  If your concern is about buildings, you go to an engineer or an architect.  If it is about money, maybe you go to an accountant or to a banker or to an economist.  In a word, you go to an expert and hear from him/her.  But if your concern is about eternal life (and this should be the main concern of every human being), there is only one expert for you to go: Jesus Christ.

Remember one time when Jesus was talking about the Bread of life, some of his followers were confused.  It was for them difficult to understand and some were even offended (Jn 6:60-65).  With this, many of his disciples left him (Jn 6:66).  This prompted Jesus to ask the Twelve: ”Do you also want to go away?” (Jn 6:67).  Peter replied: “To whom shall we go?” (Jn 6:68a). 

To whom shall we go Lord, you have the words of eternal life; and it is you alone my Lord.  No one else.  The world around us with all its voices cannot give us eternal life.  And this makes the church significant.  The church established by Christ resides in the Catholic Church: ”And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Mt 16:18).  And Jesus before going back to heaven assures us: “I am with you always, until the end of the world” (Mt. 28:20).

The Catholic Church is the voice of Christ on earth.  The Pope is his Vicar.  Hence it follows that the world should listen to the Church.  Of course, as the Church admits, she has no ”technical solutions” to the many problems of mankind.  The Church is not an expert in politics.  You don’t have to go to the Church when you need to know about economics.  She is not an expert in medicine or any other science.  But every politician, legislator, lawyer, economist, doctor, engineer or scientist should never dismiss the Church, for she is an “expert in humanity.”  Meaning, the church is an expert when it comes to what it means to be human.  Never forget that there can be no sound politics, economics, engineering, medicine, or science without first touching the question of what it means to be human.  That is why the Church, specifically the Catholic Church, is very important.  The world should come to listen to what she has to say.  Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Caritas in Veritate is telling something to the world.  Though it offers no technical solutions to our present economic, political, social, and ecological problems, it puts forward what is often neglected in many of our worldly discourses - the human person as the center of authentic development.  This is a wake up call to the world - we should listen to the Church or else we would be leading towards self-destruction.

We listen to the Church, for as I have said earlier, she is the voice of Jesus on earth.  And why do we have to listen to Jesus?  In today’s gospel, Jesus says: “I know them and they follow me.”  Jesus knows who we are and what we are.  Take note that at the end of the reading, he says: “The Father and I are one.”  The Father our creator and Jesus Christ our Lord are one.  Since Jesus is God and he created us then he knows who we are and what we are and where we are going to.  So if we don’t hear his voice, then we perish.  If the world dismisses the Catholic Church, then it leads towards self-destruction.  But if we listen to Church, to the voice of Jesus, then we will have eternal life and we will never perish.