4 Sunday of Easter Homily

What does fullness of life look like? Perhaps we recognise it when we see it in someone. For every person it will look different for we are, each of us, different, unique. Fullness of life for me will be different from fullness of life for you and from fullness of life for the person next to you. For all of us there will be love of God and neighbour for we cannot love God – whom we cannot see and who is the source of life – without loving our neighbour whom we can see. Fullness of life – in the words of Pope Francis – takes away none of our energy, vitality or joy. On the contrary, we will be faithful to our deepest self. God did not create us unique with the intention of turning us into something else.

Jesus, the Shepherd, the door, the way calls us to be in relationship with him, to hear his voice. He only wants to give us life. He always invites, he never compels – he is freedom and so he calls gently, lovingly, each of us by name.

How do we pick out his voice from the voice of the tempter, the voices of our and others’ brokenness which lead to dead ends? We learn to tune into the Shepherd’s voice in prayer, we pray with the Gospels to learn the texture, the timbre of his voice in our minds and hearts.

Pope Francis gives some further practical advice for hearing the voice of the Shepherd:

“The voice of God never forces us: God proposes himself, he does not impose himself.” This is important; if we feel compelled, pushed to do something, then it is not from God.

Temptation ‘seduces, assails, forces: it arouses dazzling illusions, tempting emotions that are fleeting. At first it flatters us…but then leaves us with emptiness inside and accuses us’.

God’s voice does correct us, but it also always encourages, gives us hope. If a thought or feeling leads us to a wall so that we are trapped then it is not God’s voice.

False voices ‘[distract] us from the present and [want] us to focus on the fears of the future or the sadness of the past’ – it keeps bringing up past pain, failures. The Good Shepherd’s voice speaks to the present, to what we can do now: ‘”Now you can do good, now you can exercise the creativity of love, now you can renounce the regrets and remorse that hold your heart captive.” It enlivens us, it brings us forward.’ The Good Shepherd speaks to us of the present, the now because he is with us in the present.

The Shepherd gently leads us to ask ‘what is good for me to do?’ The tempter asks, ‘what do I want?’ It gets us to focus on ourselves, our impulses, our needs, everything and immediately’. The Shepherd ‘invites us to go beyond our self to find the true good, peace. Let us remember: evil never gives us peace, it puts frenzy first and leaves bitterness after’.

Finally, the Holy Father teaches the voice of the Shepherd leads us outward, the voice of tempter keeps us in the dark. ‘The enemy will say to us: “Close yourself in on yourself, for no one understands you and listens to you, do not trust others!”. Good, on the other hand, invites us to open up, to be transparent and trusting in God and in others.’

All these suggestions for helping us work out which thoughts, feelings, impulses come from the Shepherd who wants us to have life and which do not are grounded in St Ignatius of Loyola’s experience of discerning what leads us to life and what does not.

The Shepherd does not seek to make it difficult for us to hear his voice, but he does not overpower or force us. He does not drown out all the other voices so that we are unfree. If we want to hear his voice calling us to life, he will get through to us. It is why he came after all – it is why he loved us even to laying down his life – so that we, everyone one of us, would have life and have it to the full.