The Voice That Leads Us Home
At the time of Jesus, shepherding looked very different from the tidy images we place on holy cards. Shepherds didn’t each have their own fenced-in pastures. Their flocks grazed in the same open fields, mingling and mixing as they searched for food. From a distance, one flock looked like every other. The only way a sheep knew where to go was by recognizing its own shepherd’s voice. When the shepherd called, the sheep lifted their heads, listened, and followed. They didn’t follow every voice. They followed the one they trusted – the one who had led them before, the one who had kept them safe.
It’s much the same for us.
We live in a world crowded with noise. Voices come at us from every direction—news cycles, social media, political rhetoric, advertising, opinion, pressure, fear, anger, and distraction. Some of those voices are loud. Some are persuasive. Some appeal to our anxieties or our pride. Some promise quick comfort or easy answers. And if we’re honest, some of those voices are attractive. We may even want to follow them.
We might also try to manage life’s noise by putting God in a box – a Sunday-morning box, a prayer-time box, a “when I have a quiet moment” box. We tell ourselves that as long as we keep that box intact, the other voices we follow won’t matter. But the truth is, the voices we listen to shape us. They form our hearts, choices, relationships, hopes, and fears. They influence the direction of our lives far more than we care to admit.
The feast of the Good Shepherd confronts us with a simple yet demanding truth: we cannot follow more than one shepherd. There are many false shepherds in our world—voices that lead us away from compassion, mercy, truth, and God. But there is only one voice that leads us to life. Only one voice that leads us to hope, to love, and to the future God desires for us. Only one voice that knows us completely and calls us by name.
Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice.” Not just on Sunday. Not just when it’s convenient. Not just when the world is quiet. The Shepherd’s voice is meant to guide every part of our lives – our social, political, emotional, and interpersonal lives. There is no corner of our hearts or our decisions where His voice does not belong. The Good Shepherd doesn’t call us part-time. He always calls us.
And that means we have a choice to make every day: Whose voice will I follow? When I look at situations in the world and in my community, among family and friends, whose voice will I respond to? We can respond to only one voice, one Shepherd. Who will be my Shepherd?
Learning the Shepherd’s voice takes practice. It takes time. It takes honesty. It takes the willingness to admit that some of the voices we’ve been following are not leading us toward God. It takes courage to turn away from the noise that promises comfort but delivers emptiness, and the noise that promises power or success but only makes us bullies. It takes humility to let the Shepherd lead us where we would not choose to go on our own.
But the promise is worth everything: the Good Shepherd leads us to life. He leads us to belonging. He leads us to peace that the world cannot give. He leads us home.
On this feast, we are invited to listen again—really listen—for the voice that has been calling us since the beginning. The voice that speaks the truth without shouting. The voice that guides without forcing. The voice that loves without conditions. The voice that knows the way.
Together, we pray to become people who recognize the Good Shepherd’s voice amid the world’s noise. May we have the courage to follow it. And may our lives bear witness to the One who never stops calling us by name.
In God’s Unending Love,
Gwen Coté,
Pastoral Associate
