God is calling – listen, trust, follow

Q: Archbishop J, why is May so special? (Part 2)

As I wrote last week, this month embraces three major celebrations: the Resurrection of Jesus—always in May; Good Shepherd Sunday, when we pray for vocations; and it is the month of Mary. This week I will focus on ‘Good Shepherd Sunday’ and vocations.

The fourth Sunday of Easter is known as Good Shepherd Sunday which points us to the relationship between Jesus the shepherd and we, His sheep. The biblical text is beautiful and direct: “The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (Jn 10:27).

This is a meditation that is worth the time. Spoken by the human Jesus, the text is profound. But when we hear it from the perspective of the Resurrection, it becomes an explosion of energy, love, and vitality.

How do we belong to Jesus? Through Baptism, we become members of God’s household, parts of the Body of Christ and set aside for sacred mission. Through our Baptism, we belong to Jesus. We become His sheep and He, our shepherd.

There is a deeper sense to the text; the external act of Baptism requires an internal act: “‘The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice.”

Our Baptism has brought us into an essential relationship with the Shepherd, but we still need to fulfil the next part, to listen to His voice. This is done through our prayer and devotion, through our full, active and conscious participation in the Eucharist, through our growth in relationship, through our discipleship.

To belong to Jesus is to be a disciple of Jesus; it is to listen to His voice and follow Him. Remember Jesus taught us: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 7:21).

The hinge of discipleship is not simply the sacramental entry into the Kingdom, it is the active participation in the life of grace that Jesus offers us as His disciple.

Vocation

To love Jesus is to follow Jesus no matter where He leads us: “The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (Jn 10:27). This is the inner core of living the Christian faith.

Discipleship is about having a loving, trusting relationship with Jesus in which we listen to Him, learn to trust Him, and ultimately follow Him.

Vocation comes from the Latin word, vocare, to call out from or to call to. This is the fundamental relationship with the Good Shepherd. We are called out from the world and called to His special purpose for our life.

Pope Francis, in his message for the 59th World Day of Prayer for Vocations says:

The word “vocation” should not be understood restrictively, as referring simply to those who follow the Lord through a life of special consecration. All of us are called to share in Christ’s mission to reunite a fragmented humanity and to reconcile it with God. Each man and woman, even before encountering Christ and embracing the Christian faith, receives with the gift of life a fundamental calling: each of us is a creature willed and loved by God; each of us has a unique and special place in the mind of God. At every moment of our lives, we are called to foster this divine spark, present in the heart of every man and woman, and thus contribute to the growth of a humanity inspired by love and mutual acceptance.

There is a fundamental truth that the Holy Father is expressing to all of us. Each of us, whether baptised or not, has a vocation, a purpose for which each one was created.

Only the individual can achieve this purpose and when he or she does, that life is brought into alignment with what God desires and becomes the best possible life that person can ever live.

In another place, in the Vocations Sunday message, Pope Francis says:

Michelangelo Buonarroti is said to have maintained that every block of stone contains a statue within it, and it is up to the sculptor to uncover it. If that is true of an artist, how much more is it true of God! In the young woman of Nazareth, he saw the Mother of God. In Simon the fisherman, he saw Peter, the rock, on which he would build his Church. In the publican Levi he recognised the apostle and evangelist Matthew, and in Saul, a harsh persecutor of Christians, he saw Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles. God’s loving gaze always meets us, touches us, sets us free and transforms us, making us into new persons.

We have often resisted God’s will and call in our lives, as though it were an imposition and a burden or a limitation of our freedom. The truth is, only by actively seeking and living God’s will—our vocation—can we become the best version of ourselves. Every other way will be a cheap, unfulfilled, and unsatisfied version.

St Augustine put it best: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

At the heart of the Christian mystery is this simple fact: you were called by God uniquely for His sacred purpose. Until every Catholic contemplates this deeply and moves his/her life to follow the Good Shepherd, we will not be the Church God called us to be.

Key Message:

We are uniquely called by God to a special purpose. By living this purpose, we become the best version of ourselves.

Action Step:

Spend some time considering God’s purpose for your life. Do not be afraid of it. Ask God for the grace to discover your vocation and the courage to live it fully. Read the message of Pope Francis for Good Shepherd Sunday 2022. If you feel a call to priesthood, lay consecrated or religious life, please email us at called@catholictt.org

Scripture Reading:

John 10:27–30