Scripture Scribbles: May 8, 2022

the Gospel

Jn 10:27-30

Jesus said:

“My sheep hear my voice;

I know them, and they follow me.

I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.

No one can take them out of my hand.

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all,

and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.

The Father and I are one.”

the devotion

Today is Good Shepherd Sunday.

I like the sound of this name for Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

He says “My sheep hear my voice; I know them and they follow me.”

It makes me think of how moved we are by someone's voice. Especially someone special. I think of our world today with all the technology. Our most common ways of communicating now are by texting our words to people. The downside of this is it eliminates our voice, the inflections and the tone. Sometimes this leads to misinterpretation and sometimes, hurt feelings. It’s quicker though, and sometimes it’s the actual conversation that we are trying to avoid.

But think of a voice, I heard it said once, “A voice can melt us.”

I’m thinking of the times we have pulled out the home movies and you hear your now grown child's voice from when they were two….. “puddle!!” The sweetness! We think we will never forget, then you hear it. Or the grandmother who is no longer with us. So familiar, so moving.

Those voices that we know so well: The ones that left messages on our phones, that we can not bear to ever erase. The tenderness of a mother reading bedtime stories, the way her voice sounds when her child's ear is pressed against her chest. How a mother in a room of screaming toddlers can suddenly hear HER toddler cry. The reaction is visceral. We can feel it with our whole self. Our child needs us and we know we need to get to them.

But Jesus’s voice…. What does it sound like? Am I listening for it? I think of some of the stories in the Bible and a lot of them explain how His disciples were sitting at his feet listening to Him.

Is this what I’m doing at adoration?

When I’m praying, am I listening?

Am I being quiet long enough to hear Him?

I think about the prayer that I have shared with my kids, “Let me see Christ in others, and let them see Christ in me.” Jesus can speak to us through others, but how do we know what voices to listen to? How do we distinguish His voice?

Are we listening to voices that move us to feel shame, regret, worry? Then this is not of God.

One of the messages we hear most in the Bible is “fear not”. God doesn’t want us to live in fear, He wants us to Trust Him. By our nature we are all attracted to the True, the Good, and the Beautiful, because they are of God, our Creator.

“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand.” We are His. We received the gift of the Holy Spirit at our baptism. The same gift the Apostles received in the upper room! So, if we are drawn to our own child's cries, if we feel this ache when our loved ones need us, what does God feel when He sees us in need?

He is always drawing us near, but whose voice are we listening to? We all know about that “voice inside our head” or “our conscience” it gives us those little nudges to do the right thing, or perhaps say something, even when it's a little out of our comfort zone. We know when we please someone, and we know when we offend them. I think we know when we offend God too. When we do He is there, waiting for us, He is there in the Sacraments with an ocean full of Mercy that never runs out.

We just need to turn towards Him, listen for His voice. Tell Him we are ready to hear Him.

Because He is the Good Shepherd. So. Very. Good!

Mother’s Day blessings to all of our Mothers in Heaven and on Earth xox

Today’s devotion is written by Beth Brennan.