“My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
When I was growing up, our neighborhood was like a huge playground.
It was wonderful.
There were many young families with kids and the whole neighborhood was under watchful eye of stay at home moms. We thought they weren't watching but they were.
.
If someone fell off their bike a mom would be there.
If there was a fight or should I say when there was a fight, a mom or a couple of moms would appear and break it up.
The cool moms wouldn’t even tell your mom if you did something bad. My mom was a cool Mom
Until High School the rule on our street was when the first street light came on the game stopped and you went home.
All of the families enforced it equally.
The problem was getting us in for supper. There there was even a system for that in our neighborhood.
The Cheektowaga moms would simply go out and scream.
“Rob / Greg supper time,” and we were supposed be listening for her, hear her and go home.
Mrs Bashnagle got so sick of yelling for her son Joey that she went out and got herself a bell.
Half of Cheektowaga heard when Joey had to go home. We all hoped that our Mothers wouldn’t get a bell.
“My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
- Speaking frankly sometimes we heard our moms call and we didn’t go home.
- Sometimes we really didn't hear and one of the other moms would come out and say Robert Schlageter you go home right now your mother has been calling you for 15 minutes.
- Sometimes we heard and did what we were supposed to do.
It’s the same with our relationship with God.
- Sometimes we just don’t hear God’s word and we need someone to help us hear it.
- Sometimes we choose to ignore God’s word and refuse to follow.
- Sometimes we hear God’s word and we integrate it into our lives and we follow it.
My sheep hear my word I know them, and they follow me.”
Yes sometimes people need our help and encouragement to understand God’s will and God’s Word.
There are so many people in our world who don’t know God.
They don’t know God’s Word and they never have the opportunity to hear it.
They don’t go to Church.
They are not surrounded by people of faith.
It is very hard for them to change their hearts or the choices they make. It's very hard for them to come to faith.
We are called to help others hear God’s word and live it.
Just like Mrs. Griebner used to come out and tell me that my Mother was calling me and I didn’t go.
Face it someone shared God’s word with us, someone brought us to faith.
We are in this church right now because someone important to us proclaimed God’s word to us in a way which really motivated us.
Maybe it was what they said,
most probably it was their example, whatever the case we are here.
Certainly sharing God’s word has to be done gently, humbly, tactfully, and above all compassionately.
If we are going to be arrogant or prideful or self righteous when we try to share God’s word we are doomed to fail.
If we are angry or fed up or disappointed in someone sometimes It is better to keep our mouth shut until we calm down.
However, God’s will, and God’s word and God’s love must be share truthfully, and completely, without fear and without compromise.
If we see someone making a mistake which puts them or their spiritual lives at risk we have an obligation to reach out.
Catholics are not good at this.
We see the shipwreck coming but we simply choose not to do or say anything.
Once I heard a man talking about his best friend’s marriage which had just ended horribly.
He said all of his friends didn’t think it would last. “They just weren’t good for each other.
I asked him, “did you pray for them... or fast for them, did you say anything to help them?
Did you try and stop the wreak?” He looked at me with absolute sincerely and said “Who am I to say anything ?”
Sometimes not only do we fail to share God’s word but we also just don’t listen ourselves
All of us have ignored God’s call on occasion.
There is a word for that, we call it sin.
We sin when we place ourselves above God’s word and God’s will.
As strange as it sounds when we sin somehow we convince ourselves that we know better than God.
The world is filled with people who have been given every opportunity to know God’s will but refuse to listen to it..
Just like we heard used to hear our parents’ call but refused to go home for supper.
You know the first time you sin, you feel guilty, but the more compromises we make, and the more sins we commit the easier it becomes.
There are lots of us who know what is right and wrong but still choose wrong.
Experience has shown that only loneliness and sadness and bitterness, anger and even violence accompany us when we trust in ourselves rather than God.
Jesus said:
“My sheep hear my voice;
I know them, and they follow me.”
I am convinced
If we dare to hear God’s word and follow it,
if we chose to lovingly ,humbly, reach out to those going the wrong way
if we willingly follow in the footsteps of Christ and pick up our cross,
we might not be the richest,
or the most successful people in the eyes of world,
but we will have peace, and the world will be a better place
because we chose to follow the Good Shepherd.
For Jesus said, My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
Amen
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