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Lent Day 33 – The Shepherd’s Voice

by Fr. Robert Barron

A good shepherd who is really attentive to his sheep knows the distinctive voices of his charges. Just as a mother knows the voices of her children, so the shepherd can recognize the call of his sheep. And wonderfully, the sheep know the shepherd’s voice. When they hear it, they joyfully fall in line, for they know that the shepherd is the key to their flourishing.

Jesus Christ, as the Good Shepherd, says that he has come to gather the nations, and the nations, by implication, will recognize his voice when they hear it.

What is it that leads people to accept Jesus Christ? What is it that appeals to them when they read the Scripture or they approach the sacraments?

We could say that it is only custom or background or luck but I think that something much deeper is going on. There is a resonance when Christ’s voice is heard precisely because the whole world has been wired to hear it. The voice of Jesus is the voice of the gatherer. We lost sheep implicitly recognize it and respond.

Jesus is so much more than an inspiring moral example and much more than a saint whose dedication and love we admire. Jesus is someone who knows us personally. He is the one who can pick out our voices from the hubbub around us; who knows our names and distinctive needs and desires. We are known by him. When we pray in our distinctive way, we are heard.

And more to it, we hear his voice and recognize it as the key to our flourishing. We have been wired for the Word of God, and Jesus is the Word of God made flesh. We instinctively know that he has the words of everlasting life. And just as the sheep long to be commanded, so we long to be ordered by the Word of God.

Catholic Culture

Daily Readings for:March 22, 2015
(Readings on USCCB website)

Collect: By your help, we beseech you, Lord our God, may we walk eagerly in that same charity with which, out of love for the world, you Son handed himself over to death. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

RECIPES

o Classic Beans and Rice

ACTIVITIES

o Carling or Passion Sunday

PRAYERS

o Prayer for the Fifth Week of Lent

o Book of Blessings: Blessing Before and After Meals: Lent (2nd Plan)

o Book of Blessings: Blessing Before and After Meals: Lent (1st Plan)

· Lent: March 22nd

· Fifth Sunday of Lent

Old Calendar: Passion Sunday

Now there were some Greeks among those who had come up to worship at the feast. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, "Sir, we would like to see Jesus." Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus (John 12:20-22).

Previously called "Passion Sunday", this Sunday marks the beginning of Passiontide, a deeper time of Lent. This is the third Sunday of the scrutinies for the preparation of adult converts, and the final Sunday of Lent before the beginning of Holy Week. The Liturgy of the Word of this day speaks of re-creation, resurrection, and new life.

Click here for commentary on the readings in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

Stational Church

Sunday Readings
The first reading is taken from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 31:31-34. In today's extract, the prophet is foretelling the setting up of a New Covenant, to replace the Old Covenant made between God and his Chosen People on Mt. Sinai, a covenant which the Chosen People had not kept. The New Covenant would not be written on tablets of stone but on each individual's heart. It would be a covenant of love rather than one of obligation.

The second reading is from the Letter of St. Paul to the Hebrews 5:7-9. The purpose of this letter is to confirm the converts in the Christian faith which they have accepted.

The Gospel is from St. John 12:20-33. On the first Palm Sunday, as Christ entered Jerusalem not as a conquering king on a charger but "riding on an ass" to show that he was the humble servant of all men, he clearly foresaw the sufferings and torments that would be his in that city, before the week was out. Among those who waved palm branches to honor him and who sang aloud: "Hosanna to the son of David, Hosanna in the highest," there were perhaps some who, urged on by the leaders, would be shouting the following Friday, "away with him, crucify him," and "we have no king but Caesar." Such was the fickleness of human nature then. Unfortunately it has not changed much, if at all, in the two thousand years that have since elapsed. We are still fickle when it comes to choosing between Christ and the things of this world. Yet he knew all of this, and was still willing to carry the cross for us who are such unworthy mortals!

This very thought should put us all to shame, for what repayment does the very best of us make for the incredible love he has shown for us? We grumble and complain when some small cross is laid on our shoulders; we are full of laments if life is not running smoothly for us; we cannot understand why God should let certain things happen to us, his friends! But see for a moment what the lot of his beloved Son was on earth. Born and reared in extreme poverty; insulted and offended by those he wanted to teach; quickly forgotten by those he benefited by his miracles; hounded by his enemies and betrayed by one who had been his disciple for over two years and who had sat at table with him that same night; deserted in his moment of trial by those very ones who had sworn undying allegiance to him. Then followed the torments wished on him by his enemies—those he had come to save; the mock trial and illegal condemnation; the scourging at the pillar; the crowning with thorns; the carrying of the cross and finally the three hours of intense torture and agony while his body hung on the cross! The next time we are tempted to grumble and complain about our sad lot. Let us look thoughtfully at a crucifix for a few moments!

"He who loves his life loses it," this is a truth stated by Christ at the solemn moment when he was speaking of the purpose of his own painful death. He died so that we might live, not for sixty or even a hundred years on earth, but forever in heaven. We can, we know, lose the eternal life Christ won for us if we are too attached to our transitory, earthly life. If we love our own comforts, pleasures, temporal gains, our own worldly will, more than we love our unending, happy future, then we are loving our earthly lives wrongly, and we are gravely risking the loss of the future, true life.

If, on the other hand, we do our best to be faithful servants of Christ, we shall always judge all our actions with eternity in view. We can use the things of this life which God gives us, and still be close followers of Christ. The lawful possession of the goods of this world, the enjoyment of the licit pleasures of life, are allowed to the fervent Christian. If these possessions and pleasures are accepted with Christian gratitude, they will become stepping-stones that will help us across the river of life to our everlasting home beyond.

Each one of us should look fervently and devoutly on the crucifix today, and try to compare our willingness to suffer those crosses sent to us by God, with the crushing cross and passion our Savior Jesus Christ gladly accepted for us and not for his own sake. Do not let the conclusion you draw stun you into inactivity, but rather let it shock you into a new outlook on life; a new resolve to serve, follow and imitate our loving Christ more closely in future. So may it be for all of us.

Excerpted from The Sunday Readings by Fr. Kevin O'Sullivan, O.F.M.

At Rome, the Station is in the basilica of St. Peter. The importance of this Sunday, which never yields to any feast no matter what its solemnity may be, requires that the place for the assembly of the faithful should be in one of the chief sanctuaries of the holy city.