HEAR THE VOICE OF SALVATION
Today is Vocation Sunday. True listening requires an act of the heart over the mind. In today’s Gospel (Jn 10:27-30), Jesus says, ‘My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life’. To understand how to achieve eternal life, we must listen to Jesus, we must place the Mass as the source and summit of our lives. He speaks to all of us directly in the Gospels. The secret in gaining eternal life is to believe that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist. Once we believe this, then He gives us the promise of eternal life, here on earth. If we listen attentively at the consecration of the Mass, He clearly tells us that the consecrated Bread is His Body given up for us with the instruction to eat it. If we are listening to His voice through the Priest, He tells us that the Chalice contains His Blood, which enters us into a new and eternal covenant, like a marriage. Jesus pours Himself out for us, for the forgiveness of sins. The pouring out of His precious Blood and the Holy Spirit, wipes away all our sins in the sacrament of confession. Do we hear Him calling us to live our lives, through Him, and with Him and in Him when the Body and Blood of Jesus is raised up to heaven? If we believe then we have eternal life already.
HEAVEN IS FULL OF HOLINESS
We are easily distracted and not always attentive to the voice of the Good Shepherd. We need to be disciplined with a faithful prayer life. His Word is like a double edged sword piercing our souls with divine wisdom. Heaven is a place full of holiness, peace and prayer. Our time on earth is a sacred time, given to us to prayerfully prepare for the Second Coming of Christ, as our Judge. It will be a day of disaster for those who are not prepared, because they refused to listen to Jesus. There is nothing to fear for those who listen to His voice and obey His commandments, because an eternal reward awaits the faithful in heaven. A punishment awaits the unfaithful in hell. It is important that we pray for the conversion of the unfaithful and unbelievers every day, for them to hear the voice of salvation. Through prayer, we begin to recognise His voice which is leading us to springs of living water (heaven) where God, our Father, will wipe away all tears from our eyes (Apoc 7:9,14-17).
A VOCATION IS A SUMMONS FROM GOD TO LISTEN
Jesus speaks to us through the Gospels, especially in every Mass. To miss Mass is to miss that opportunity to hear Him. Our future security as the sheep is in the power of the Shepherd. No one will snatch us from His hand. We must trust in Him to lead us on the path of righteousness, in order to prevent Satan from snatching us away from our eternal inheritance. Jesus and the Father are One. This means that the invisible God, becomes fully visible, in the Person of Jesus. He is divine and when we see Jesus, we are looking at God. He is calling us all to be disciples of His Word. We are to serve Him through Jesus, by surrendering our own freewill in place of His divine Will. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is called a vocation and everyone has one. People who purposely ignore the voice of Jesus are captured by the voice of Satan and follow him. They are captured and imprisoned by sin. They gamble with eternal life. If they continue a lifestyle swamped in mortal sin, then they have already chosen their own destiny which does not include living in the holiness of heaven someday. To qualify to enter heaven, we must repent of our sins now in confession and hear His voice saying: ‘I absolve you from all your sins’. The very first homily Jesus ever preached, He said: Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. In Luke’s Gospel (13:3) He said: I tell you, unless you repent, you will all perish. He later tells us: I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents (Lk 15:10). Are we listening to Him? So many people foolishly think that they will find own their way to heaven without listening to Jesus. These people make gods of themselves and are sadly get lost in the dark. A true vocation faithfully listens to the voice of Jesus, by following Him and not letting ourselves be lost or stolen by sin. Pray for the spiritual deaf that the ears of their hearts will be open to the voice of eternal life and follow Him to heaven someday. God bless, Fr. Brendan.