Fourth Sunday of Easter Yr C 2025

Title

My Sheep Hear My Voice

Outline

The debate between divine providence and personal choice has been intense in Christendom

Is its God’s grace, God’s predestination alone that secures one’s eternal blessedness or is it one’s personal choice to follow Jesus as Lord? I shall not go into the details of the debate, but simply point out that the Church and the Scriptures, as is typical, say, “Both.”

God has chosen sheep among humanity

The Jews in Antioch of Pisidia thought that the chosen in their area began and ended with them. There were some of them who believed (“many Jews and converts to Judaism” according to Acts) but the majority rejected Jesus as Lord when they saw the “Gentiles were delighted when they heard . . . the word of the Lord, “ and tried to dissuade them, but “all who were destined for eternal life came to believe.” They continued believing even when the civic leaders expelled the apostles from their territory.

In Revelation a “great multitude” from all peoples stand before the Lamb wearing the signs of their victory over martyrdom. They were the chosen, but they acted on their being chosen and stayed faithful until death.

In John Jesus refers to these as “my sheep” and the Father as the one “who has given them to me.” And of course such a choosing is one with creation and one with their response, for with God all times are one.

Yet we know the true sheep by their response, their choice

In Antioch “the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit” for they responded with commitment to the “word of the Lord.” In Revelation we do not hear of the proximate response of the white-robed throng, but we do see their ultimate response, in that they washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, being faithful until death.

In John we learn that the true sheep “hear my voice” and “they follow me,” so “I give them eternal life” and “no one can take them out of my hand,” that is, no demonic attack or persecution or even execution - real life in Nigeria or Sudan - can separate them from their commitment to Jesus. And that hand that holds us is not “just Jesus’” but also the Father’s since “the Father and I are one.”

Now this has implications for us

First, we know who is who by their response to Jesus, not just their first response, but their life-long commitment, even if it is a short commitment starting on a cross beside their dying Lord.

Second, we proclaim the good news in word and deed, but in God’s providence may only be part of a process of a person’s coming to faith. We may never know the fruit of our labor, but God does. Think of the biographies of Dorthy Day or Sally Reid - many people, some of them unbelievers, were part of their roads to faith.

Third, God was active in calling you and me. Look back and thank him. We are here because we are his sheep. But realize that that does not absolve us from a “long obedience in the same direction.” We prove we are his sheep by our continued listening to his voice and following him.

Life is full of both-ands; we can rejoice in the security of knowing that we were both in the Father’s hand from creation to consummation and participate in that by our choice to listen to Jesus and follow him.