“Back when I was in seminary at Saint John’s, I spent my semester in the Holy Land. We visited a valley. It’s called the Valley of Schism. Now, if you took Gordon Peck’s class, you’d know all about it, because you would know that that’s where Joshua put the Ten Commandments. They built a little temple there, and that’s where the temple was.
Well, we visited that valley, and I will never, ever forget it because of the smell. Right now, that valley is the Garlic Capital of Israel. And whoa, man! Well, you’re safe from vampires anyway. What a smell! I’ll never forget that.
Well, I went down to the remains of the temple, and, of course, it’s built on a water source. Everything in the Middle East is built on a source for fresh water. There was a spring there, and today there’s piping there; A modern pump and a huge water trough about twice the size is one of our pews.
While we were there, two shepherds came down with their flocks, one from the hills on one side, one from the hills on the other, and the sheep intermingled. They turned on the pump and put water in the trough, and the sheep were drinking. Now, Father, Castelow, our Scripture professor, was with us on this trip. He said to the guy, ‘Let’s wait a bit. I want the seminarians to see how the shepherds separate the sheep, because the sheep are now all intermingled around there.’
How do they do this?
Well, when they got done watering, one shepherd went out to one side and the other shepherd to the other, and they used their voice and they sang like a song. The sheep recognized the voice of their shepherd.
How do the sheep know the voice of the shepherd?
Well, the shepherd had to be there at lambing time; When the lambs are born. When the lamb is born, the shepherd picks up the lamb and talks very loudly into the ear of the lamb so that the lamb never forgets their voice. And that sheep will follow two voices the rest of its life: the voice of its mother and the voice of the shepherd.
That’s how the shepherd controls the flock through his voice. The sheep follow the shepherd so the shepherd can take them to fresh water, take them to green pastures, and protect them. And if a sheep gets lost, it’s presumed that the sheep forgot the voice of the shepherd. The shepherd goes and finds it.
Now, you’ve often seen that beautiful picture of the lamb on the shoulders of the shepherd, and it looks really nice. It’s not. The shepherd is not carrying the sheep because the sheep is hurt. He’s carrying the sheep so he can push the sheep’s head up against his mouth and yell real loud all the way back home. It’s almost as if listening to your parrot yell at you if you forgot to do a chore or something.
It’s all about the voice.
Well, we are the flock of the Lord. We are the Lord’s flock. So we have to listen and follow the voice of our Shepherd. So to be good sheep, we have to concentrate on that voice. Now, we hear His voice in the Scriptures. We come to His house. We hear His voice proclaim. We hear the Scriptures. We, at St. Malachy, offer you the Gospel.
In our series, Extraordinary Ordinary Time, I’ll read you the daily Gospel and give you an explanation so you can hear God’s voice through the Gospel every day. It’s on our website. Or you can sit in a quiet place in your own home, turn off the TV, turn off the radio, and quietly read some Scripture or just pray. Just quietly pray.
The more we spend time listening to the voice of the good Shepherd, we follow the good Shepherd. He will lead us not only into green pastures, He will lead us to the eternal pasture. We will be with Him, the Father and the Holy Spirit for all time.”
~Fr. Joe Gembala
