Dear brothers and sisters, buongiorno! The Gospel for today’s Liturgy speaks to us about the bond that exists between the Lord and each one of us (cf. Jn 10:27-30). To do so, Jesus uses a tender image, a beautiful image of the shepherd who stays with the sheep. And he explains it with three verbs: “My sheep”, Jesus says, “hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (v. 27). Three verbs: to hear, to know, to follow. Let us take a look at these three verbs. First of all, the sheep hear the voice of the shepherd. The initiative always comes from the Lord. Everything comes from his grace: it is he who calls us to communion with him. But this communion comes about if we open ourselves to listen. If we are deaf, he cannot grant us this communion. Opening ourselves to listening, because listening means being available, it means docility, it means time dedicated to dialogue. Today, we are overwhelmed by words and by the urgency to always have something to say or do. Indeed, how often when two people are talking, one does not wait for the other to finish his or her thought, but cuts the other off mid-sentence, and responds…. But if we do not allow another to speak, there is no listening. This is an ailment of our time. Today, we are overwhelmed by words, by the urgency to always have something to say or do. We are afraid of silence. How hard it is to listen to one other! To listen till the end, to let the other express him or herself, to listen to one another in our families, to listen to one another at school, to listen to one another at work, and even in the Church! But for the Lord, it is first of all necessary to listen. He is the Word of the Father, and the Christian is a listening child, called to live with the Word of God at hand. Let us ask ourselves today if we are listening children, if we find time for the Word of God, if we give space and attention to our brothers and sisters, if we know how to listen until the other has fully expressed them self, without cutting off what the other is saying. Those who listen to others also know how to listen to the Lord, and vice versa. And they experience something very beautiful, that is, that the Lord himself listens — he listens to us when we pray to him, when we confide in him, when we call on him. Listening to Jesus thus becomes the way for us to discover that he knows us. This is the Fourth Sunday of Easter Homily May 11, 2014
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