What noise does a sheep make?
Well quite!
How old where you when
you were taught
that sheep say baa
cows say moo
and chickens say cluck cluck cluck?
Incidentally,
there is condition
called bovilexia
which is that inexpressible urge
to shout, "Moo!"
whenever you see a cow.
Now we have established
these most important facts:
if sheep say baa
and cows say moo,
what does the shepherd say?
[PAUSE]
We can imagine such things as,
"Out to the grass you go"
or
"Sheep dip time"
or
"Come here, you woolly wotsit."
But, any one of us
could travel to
the next farm
and shout these things.
It wouldn't make us a shepherd.
We could learn all the dog calls
and whistles,
to round up sheep.
But it wouldn't make us
a shepherd.
To walk into a field and say
"Hello Flossy, I'm a shepherd"
isn't going to endear you
to the sheep.
They do not know you.
They do not know your voice.
They will know
that you are not a shepherd.
And that's crucial
for their survival.
Sheep are prey animals.
They are suspicious of anything
obviously strange
and will react whenever
something new enters their field.
Admittedly,
sheep are not very bright
and will follow the flock.
Doesn't that sound like us?
[PAUSE]
We might object
to Our Lord comparing us
to sheep,
but, to be honest
we behave like them.
We're suspicious
of whatever disrupts our routines.
If anyone offers us anything
immediately we think,
"what's in it for them?"
Our lives are driven
by routine and social convention,
even when that routine
and that social convention
lead us into dangerous territory.
We will follow the flock
unthinkingly
until it's too late.
We are prey
to sin, the world and the Devil,
however much we think of ourselves
as being above the lowly sheep.
If we are going
to be truly safe
we are going to need
to know the.voice
of the shepherd.
Have you ever heard
the voice of the shepherd?
[PAUSE]
There are people
who certainly have.
Aside from the Disciples
and the women
who surround Our Lord,
we know that
St Paul hears the Shepherd
speak to Him directly.
There's no mistaking it.
For us,
we can hear lots of voices.
Some come from those around us,
from the people we meet,
friend and family,
employers and co-workers,
from social media,
the television and radio,
from Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.
Indeed,
there are a lot of voices
telling us what to do,
telling us that eggs are bad
but steak is good
or that steak is bad
and eggs are good,
or that eggs and steak
are both as bad for each other
or blowed be steak and eggs
and bring on the cake.
There is just so much noise.
And there is so much noise
inside our heads
as different voices
criticise us,
confuse us,
misdirect us,
and make us unhappy.
How do we expect
to hear the voice of the Shepherd?
[PAUSE]
The fact is
that you have already heard Him.
What happens when the Gospel finishes?
"This is the Gospel of the Lord."
It isn't the Gospel of Trump
and Starmer,
nor the Gospel of the Left
or the Right.
It's the Gospel of the Lord.
If you want to know
if a priest is preaching the truth
it's there, in the Gospel.
[PAUSE]
And you will hear the Shepherd's voice again.
"Take and eat ye all of this,
for this is my body"
"Take and drink ye all of it
for this is the chalice of my blood..."
Those are the words of God
giving us of Himself
to eat and to drink.
These is the voice of
the Good Shepherd
and we know it.
We know it because
we've always heard it.
We should not expect Him
to speak to us
out of the blue,
but that's not to say he won't.
We should not expect
to hear anything,
at least not with our ears.
We hear the voice of the shepherd
whenever we gather in His Name.
We hear Him when His word is preached
or when we are given Godly advice
which tallies with the voice
we have come to know in the Church.
And when we are alone
in silence and in prayer
we might hear Him
not in words, but in that silence
when He puts His mouth
to the ear of our soul
and reminds us of the love
that He has for every single one
of us
[PAUSE]
The bleating of the sheep
may be loud,
but we can always listen out
for the voice of The Shepherd
