Today we celebrate the fourth Sunday of Easter, and as you can imagine from hearing todays Gospel, it is also rather appropriately called Good Shepherd Sunday. Our Lord uses the term shepherd to describe how He guides us, and cares for us. For our part, we are often lost and aimless in our lives, and we need to be guided. Even when we are not necessarily the one sheep that goes astray from the other ninety-nine, we still need to be guided, cared for, and shielded from the multitude of destructive influences that are present in our world, and which can try to lead us away from following the one whose voice we know and trust.
There is certainly no shortage these days of those who would seek to lead us away from Christ’s teachings and to replace them with their own agenda and ideas. We hear it all day every day in anything from the news to social media, in conversations we have with others, even the songs that we find pleasant to listen to are sometimes subtly (or perhaps not so subtly) trying to change the way we think and draw us away from what we know to be right. This is nothing new, it is something that every generation has to deal with, but I submit to you that the means of conveying this cacophony of false wisdom has reached new heights both in terms of its persistence and the sheer number of sources that it emanates from. Today more than ever, we need to understand how much we are subjected to influences that seek to draw us away from Christ – and do something about it.
The people that Saint Peter addressed in our first reading, likely had no idea just how badly they messed up, until Saint Peter called them out rather bluntly. It was only then that they realized the scope of what they had done, and their first question is actually a plea for help – “Brothers, what must we do?”. This same entreaty is one that we should be echoing today – what must we do to stay focused on Christ, on the only one whose unselfish love can save? We can’t completely blot out the sources of the distractions that seek to lead us astray – we would in the process also likely miss too many other pieces of information that we perhaps need to hear. We can though emulate the example that our Lord left us. We can be persistent in our prayer, and truly make it a continual part of our every day – think of it as a counterbalance to the weight of all the other junk that is being heaped our way. We can take the time to listen to his word either through our reading of the bible, or perhaps with some of the Apps that are oriented toward spreading God’s word. We can follow the example of taking some time to retreat to a quiet place and re-connect with our Lord just as he so often did when He was here among us. All of these things are achievable, we simply need to put forth a small amount of effort to get used to having them as a part of our daily lives. Think of them as a spiritual wellness exercises. We are only partially physical beings, we are also comprised of spirit, and that needs to be tended to just as much as our physical bodies.
Our Shepherd knows our needs, he still guides us to places of refreshment and peace if we will simply listen to His voice and then follow. Our souls innately recognize his voice, it is our intellect that must be channeled to pay more attention and to trust. We are meant to have mastery over ourselves, and this includes our minds. This is part of being a child of God, and it means allowing our spirits to have sway over our minds and bodies, as it should be. If we allow this to happen – the voice of the Shepherd will be clearly heard.
The Deacons Bench 