WEBVTT 00:00:01.919 --> 00:00:06.559 Not every voice in your life wants what's good for you. 00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:09.199 It's not easy to hear. 00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:13.039 Some of those voices are lying to you. 00:00:13.679 --> 00:00:15.919 Some of them are using you. 00:00:16.559 --> 00:00:21.359 Some of them are slowly destroying you, and you do not even realize it. 00:00:22.719 --> 00:00:25.679 Jesus Christ says it plainly today. 00:00:26.399 --> 00:00:31.359 A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy. 00:00:32.479 --> 00:00:34.880 This is not dramatic language. 00:00:35.119 --> 00:00:36.399 This is reality. 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:40.240 And then he says something even more unsettling. 00:00:41.200 --> 00:00:44.320 Those voices do not sound dangerous. 00:00:44.799 --> 00:00:46.719 They sound familiar. 00:00:47.679 --> 00:00:51.280 Because if they sounded dangerous, you would run. 00:00:52.240 --> 00:00:56.399 If they sounded like destruction, you would reject it right out. 00:00:58.000 --> 00:00:59.280 But they do not. 00:01:00.479 --> 00:01:02.880 They sound like your own thoughts. 00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:06.799 They sound like the culture that you engage in. 00:01:07.599 --> 00:01:13.040 They sound like the voice you've been listening for so long that you stop questioning it. 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:16.239 And that's how it happens. 00:01:16.959 --> 00:01:30.079 Not all at once, not in one catastrophic decision, but slowly, quietly, almost unrecognizable. 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:36.560 You begin to follow a voice that is taking you somewhere you never intended to go. 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:43.040 And into that confusion, Jesus speaks with absolute clarity. 00:01:43.439 --> 00:01:45.359 I am the gate. 00:01:46.719 --> 00:01:52.319 Not one voice among many, not one option among many. 00:01:52.799 --> 00:01:54.239 I am the gate. 00:01:55.200 --> 00:02:02.319 Which means there's a way that leads to life, and there's a way, and there are ways that do not. 00:02:03.359 --> 00:02:04.959 And we resist that. 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:08.240 Because we love options. 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:11.199 We want flexibility. 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:15.199 We want spirituality on our terms. 00:02:15.919 --> 00:02:18.560 We like to adapt it to us. 00:02:20.479 --> 00:02:23.199 But Jesus does not adapt himself to us. 00:02:23.439 --> 00:02:25.439 He invites us to trust him. 00:02:26.719 --> 00:02:30.879 Because every other voice eventually takes something from you. 00:02:31.439 --> 00:02:35.840 Your peace, your clarity, your freedom, your identity. 00:02:37.280 --> 00:02:42.319 Jesus says, a thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy. 00:02:44.560 --> 00:02:46.879 That is not somewhere out there. 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:49.360 It is something within us. 00:02:50.159 --> 00:02:51.759 Something personal. 00:02:53.039 --> 00:02:59.360 But then he says, this I came so that you might have life and have it more abundantly. 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:09.759 Not barely surviving, not just functioning, not just one day leads into the next day, not always searching and never arriving. 00:03:09.919 --> 00:03:14.000 No, he says, I came to give you abundance of life. 00:03:14.560 --> 00:03:22.960 A life that is whole, a life that is ordered, a life that is not pulled apart by competing voices. 00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:26.400 And here's the truth we do not like. 00:03:27.439 --> 00:03:30.879 That life only comes if you actually follow him. 00:03:32.159 --> 00:03:37.599 Because right now, every single person here is being led by some voice. 00:03:40.719 --> 00:03:43.199 Some of us are being led by fear. 00:03:43.919 --> 00:03:52.639 Every decision, every transaction, the way we live our lives, everything is dependent on fear. 00:03:53.439 --> 00:03:55.759 And it's shrinking your life. 00:03:56.719 --> 00:04:02.000 Some of us are being led by your past, and it keeps you stuck. 00:04:03.360 --> 00:04:14.560 Some of you are being led by success, by comfort, and it's draining your soul while everything looks fine on the outside, trying to keep up with the Joneses. 00:04:15.680 --> 00:04:25.360 Some of you being led by sin, and you know what that sin is, and it's costing you, but it feels too familiar to let it go. 00:04:27.040 --> 00:04:29.519 And here's the line you need to remember. 00:04:30.560 --> 00:04:37.040 If you do not intentionally follow Christ, you will unintentionally follow something else. 00:04:37.279 --> 00:04:39.439 There's no neutral ground. 00:04:41.279 --> 00:04:42.959 But here's the gospel. 00:04:44.720 --> 00:04:47.279 The shepherd does not give up his sheep. 00:04:47.759 --> 00:04:49.920 He calls them by name. 00:04:50.399 --> 00:04:53.439 And that means this is not abstract. 00:04:53.920 --> 00:04:56.240 He knows exactly where you are. 00:04:56.560 --> 00:05:03.519 He knows exactly what voices you've been listening to, and he knows exactly where it's leading you. 00:05:04.480 --> 00:05:06.560 And he's calling you right now. 00:05:07.199 --> 00:05:08.480 This very moment. 00:05:09.759 --> 00:05:11.279 Are you listening? 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:15.120 Not to shame you, but to lead you. 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:21.600 And this is where everything turns because once you hear his voice, you have to respond. 00:05:23.120 --> 00:05:24.879 So how do we do this? 00:05:25.680 --> 00:05:28.560 Well, first, we need to claim him. 00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:38.800 In prayer, in silence, at this altar, at the moment of the Eucharist, not as an idea, but as a reality. 00:05:40.160 --> 00:05:43.360 You say it until it becomes true in your life. 00:05:43.519 --> 00:05:45.120 The Lord is my shepherd. 00:05:45.360 --> 00:05:47.199 The Lord is the one that guides me. 00:05:47.519 --> 00:05:49.120 I follow the shepherd. 00:05:49.360 --> 00:05:51.279 He is the voice that I listen to. 00:05:51.360 --> 00:05:52.560 You need to claim it. 00:05:52.720 --> 00:05:57.360 You need to let him into the places that you've been controlling. 00:05:58.399 --> 00:06:02.560 You let him lead you through the valleys that you've been avoiding. 00:06:03.519 --> 00:06:08.079 You let him feed you not with noise, but with himself. 00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:16.079 Because until he becomes your shepherd, his voice always will remain one voice among the many. 00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:21.920 The second thing is you need to stay with your flock. 00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:25.759 Because no sheep survives alone. 00:06:26.319 --> 00:06:28.879 And yes, the church is imperfect. 00:06:29.120 --> 00:06:35.360 It has its wounds, its sinners, it has had its moments in history that are painful. 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:38.079 But this is still his flock. 00:06:39.120 --> 00:06:43.439 And he does not save us as isolated individuals. 00:06:43.920 --> 00:06:50.560 He saves us as a people, a people bound together, not by perfection, but by his mercy. 00:06:51.519 --> 00:06:55.040 And the temptation is to walk away when it gets hard. 00:06:55.759 --> 00:07:00.079 But the shepherd does not call you to run, he calls you to remain. 00:07:00.560 --> 00:07:10.480 Because even with all its imperfections, this is still where his voice is heard and his life is giving out and poured out for you. 00:07:11.040 --> 00:07:13.360 Right here at this altar. 00:07:15.199 --> 00:07:20.480 And third, you learn to lead by following. 00:07:21.839 --> 00:07:32.240 Because every single one of you, in some way, is shepherding someone in your home, in your family, in your work, in your parish. 00:07:33.360 --> 00:07:37.920 And the only way to lead well is to first be led. 00:07:39.360 --> 00:07:41.839 To let your heart be shaped by his. 00:09:41.759 --> 00:09:42.399 Amen.