Gospel Reflection on John 10:27-30

May 11, 2025

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

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Happy Easter. As we continue to walk through these fifty Easter days, we're invited today to in examine our listening skills. In the Gospel, we're told that sheep hear the voice of the good shepherd and follow him. The story of the human drama is the tug of war between following the voice of the Lord or following our own path. When we emphasize our own independence, suffering, dictatorship, tyranny are close behind.

Teachers often discover that those who are self taught never rise above mediocrity. Our desire for autonomy often leads to solitude, loneliness, because it causes rivalry with others and fixating on ourselves. Easter frees us from the grip of our own ego and from the weight of this tendency that we prefer everything to ourselves for approval or disapproval, freed from making ourselves the adjudicator of what's important. We're free to enter into an intimate communion with God. Intimacy with the Lamb is fundamental.

We're tempted to think people need to hear a moral lecture or a list of the norms they're called to observe that we could frighten them into submission, warning them about the dangers of failing to follow. All too often our preaching has been this kind. But in the Gospel, Jesus outlines a completely different way. He tells us his sheep hear his voice. We follow him not because he's dominant or forceful, but because he knows us, loves us.

It is his voice that leads us away from our self deception. Isn't it a curious thing to be led by a Lamb? Because a Lamb is a meek creature. You think we're led by dominant forces, not by one who has lost the battles of this world. On the cross, Jesus shows us there is in God no need to show, no need to convince, no need to overpower.

There is no imposition here or blind obedience. The Hebrew word for obey means to listen. Jesus speaks his word to us. If we're receptive, then that word penetrates us, and we begin to feel that we're known and understood, and that is what prompts us to follow. Of all the five senses, listening is the most important when it comes to receiving faith.

Listening leads us to be known by the Lord. The key to being led by this Lamb is the fact that we know and trust him. Jesus says, 'my sheep hear my voice. I know them.' To know someone means to have a profound knowledge of them.

The first thing Jesus said to his disciples was follow me, and we have every day thousands of opportunities to trust and to follow the Lord. May these Easter days lead us to that tent of intimacy with the Father and to the voice of the good Shepherd, which guides us interiorly, instructs us, and saves us, freeing us from all our deceptions.