Fourth Sunday of Easter<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May 12, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jn 10:27-30<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. (Jn.\n10:27)\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only f The sheep in Judea are raised both for wool and for sacrifice. Especially\nthose intended for wool production, the shepherd shall live together with his\nflock for years. No wonder if he knows well each sheep, its characters, and\neven its unique physical features. He will call them by name like \u2018small-feet\u2019\nor \u2018large-ears.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n Modern men and women, especially the Millennials, are heavily\nvisual creatures. Thanks to smartphones, TV, and computers, our span of\nattention becomes shorter and shorter. One scientist even says that our span of\nattention is one second shorter than of the goldfish! The teachers or speakers\nmust use all the visual aids to catch the attention of young listeners.\nPowerPoint presentation is a minimum requirement nowadays, and the teachers\nneed to move all their body\u2019s parts, to crack a joke, to sing, to dance, even\nto summersault! Simply listening to a plain talk is tedious, and to read a bare\nand long text like this reflection is boring. This is also one of the reasons\nwhy young people are leaving the Church because they experience the Church,\nespecially her preachers, as boring and dry. After five minutes listening to\nthe preacher, we begin to be restless, checking our watch, scratching our\nheads, and dozing off!<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, hearing remains fundamental because hearing is the key to\nfollowing Jesus. We call ourselves, Christians, the follower of Christ, and how\ncan we follow Christ if we do not recognize His voice? While the sense of sight\nattracts us, sense of hearing remains signs of intimacy and love. Like a sheep\nthat identifies the shepherd\u2019s voice because the shepherd takes care of it, so\nwe recognize the voice of someone we love. I have been hearing the voice of my\nmother since I was inside her womb, and even when I close my eyes, I can still\nacknowledge her voice. I can even identify whether she is happy, sad, or angry\nwhen she calls my name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One time, a young man asked me, \u201cBrother, how do we know God\u2019s\nwill?\u201d I replied, \u201cDo you hear His voice?\u201d He immediately said, \u201cI pray, but I\nnever heard a voice.\u201d I said in reply, \u201cAh, how are you going to hear His voice\nif you talk all the time? And how are you going to know His voice, if you\nseldom give your time with Him?\u201d To follow Jesus means that we are able to hear\nJesus, and to recognize His voice presupposes we have a loving and strong\nrelationship with Him<\/p>\n\n\n\n Deacon Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fourth Sunday of Easter May 12, 2019 Jn 10:27-30 \u201cMy sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. (Jn. 10:27)\u201d Only few of us have a direct encounter with a sheep, let alone shepherding sheep. When Jesus says, \u201cMy sheep hear my voice.\u201d I thought it was a kind exaggeration. After all the sheep is not that intelligent compared to the Golden Retriever or Labrador who would listen to their owners. However, one time, I watched a…<\/p>\n