4th Sunday of Easter, A April 26, 2026
Fr. Alexander Albert St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville
There’s an interesting trend on social media where parents test which one gets the first response from their child. The child is placed evenly. Both then either look at or call to the child. Whoever gets the first response “wins.” Children often have favorites and they are usually not ashamed to make it obvious who their favorite is.
Jesus tells us “the sheep follow him because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger… because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.” It’s not that one parent or the other is a stranger, but the truth is that human beings have a natural instinct to respond more strongly to the voice of someone we love. The stronger the love, the more likely we are to respond well. Children, however, are still learning to think and make choices; so much of what they do is really based on instinct rather than genuine love. You might be able to convince a child to like you more by constantly giving them candy, so they might pick you. And I’d bet children would act differently on different days. In the end, it’s funny, but not actually a good test of love.
What about us, though? If you were to put us in the middle between Jesus and our favorite politician or celebrity or friend or spouse and have them both call to us, who would we choose? You all know the right answer, but have really considered whether that’s the true answer?
Since we can’t actually do that, what we can do is reflect on how we respond to suffering, especially when we suffer for doing what is good. Peter’s letter – our second reading – reminds us that “If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace before God… because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.”
How do you know you are responding to the voice of Jesus? By following “in his footsteps,” as Peter put it. You show that you hear his voice when you imitate him by patiently putting up with suffering for making the right choice, when you suffer for doing what is good.
Peter knows this by experience. He knows what it means to fail because he denied Jesus to avoid suffering. By the time he writes this letter, though, he has been imprisoned and beaten because he refused to stop doing the right thing; he refused to stop preaching about Jesus Christ as the Messiah. He also personally witnessed the difference between people who listen to Jesus’ voice and those who don’t.
In our first reading, Peter is preaching to a huge crowd on Pentecost. This crowd knows the story of Jesus’ death and many of them participated in the trial. Peter knows it could cost him his life when he challenges this crowd by accusing them of murder. But he has learned to listen to the voice of Jesus; he is willing to suffer for teaching the truth.
The crowd, however was “cut to the heart.” They heard the voice of Jesus, their shepherd in and through the voice of Peter. Three thousand people heard this voice so clearly that they were willing to be baptized on the spot and to join this bizarre group of outsiders despite knowing that both the Roman government and the Jewish high priests wanted to hurt these apostles. They knew those same authorities would probably try to hurt them for joining the group.
I’m thrilled that I’ve done a dozen baptisms in the past month – 3000 would be incredible. And yet… for all that, there were between 50 and 100 thousand people in Jerusalem at that time, a high percentage of which were faithful Jews who read scripture and prayed often. In proportion, that means only six percent of people were actually able and willing to listen to the voice of Jesus the good shepherd.
To be brutally honest, even among self-proclaimed Catholics, only a small percentage consistently listen to the voice of Jesus. Because Jesus is using an example of sheep, we might be tempted to think of following Jesus as instinctive. Sheep are dumb animals. Despite this parable, most shepherds don’t actually name every single one. Even good shepherds know that simply calling for sheep is not enough. You have to use dogs and fences to keep them together and going the right direction. You don’t typically lead them from the front, you herd them from behind. Why? Because sheep are irrational animals.
We are not. Jesus is not giving advice on being a literal shepherd of sheep. What he’s describing only works if the sheep are intelligent, attentive, and willing to choose to follow. To herd sheep, you need to use fear. But Jesus is talking about love. That’s the point! He doesn’t want sheep, but human beings. So, he doesn’t want to force us to do anything. He wants us to choose to follow him. He wants us to recognize how much he loves us, to learn to hear his voice, and to willingly choose to obey that voice. He invites. Six percent is what he gets because what he’s inviting us to involves suffering. He invites us anyway.
I know how I could probably get more people inside this church. I could avoid certain topics. I could focus on the politics people like or I could avoid challenging political ideas that contradict Church teaching. I could water down the requirements of the liturgy, ignore the rules and focus more on what’s entertaining than on what I’m supposed to do for Mass or in other things.
I could, but God help me, I won’t. I am going to ask you to suffer. Sometimes that suffering is from me telling you truths you don’t want to hear. Sometimes that suffering is from me obeying the Church in the way I celebrate Mass. If you and I are honestly trying to recognize and follow the voice of Jesus, however, many of those things will also bring joy. They will stir our hope and feed our faith and teach us how to love in a more genuine way, something deeper than a fleeting comfort.
True, some of the suffering I cause you comes from my own faults and failings and that I will try to improve. Even that, however, is what Christ asks you to endure with patience and love. If you listen to his voice, even my failures are opportunities for you to grow in grace and have life “more abundantly” in the way Jesus promises. Jesus Christ is the good shepherd but I… I am also your pastor, which is literally just Latin for “shepherd.” St. Peter who speaks in two readings today was also a shepherd, the first pope, the first pastor of the universal church. He died millennia ago, but his role as pastor lives on in the man we call Leo XIV. Just as the crowd on Pentecost was converted by hearing the voice of Jesus in and through Peter, so Jesus Christ is your shepherd in and through the shepherds… the pastors of the Catholic Church today.
It does not mean everything we say is the voice of Jesus, but be very, very, extremely cautious about making yourself the judge of whether or not Jesus Christ is speaking through your pastors. There are many, many voices out there who will offer you a cheaper, easier version of life and love… or even a more appealing version of Christianity. But they are thieves and robbers using you for their own gain. Like the children in those videos, be willing to test just how quickly you respond to voices other than Christ’s. Are you too eager to defer to friends or family or likes on social media or politicians or celebrities? Too quick to dismiss the voices of your pastors, to disregard the voice of Christ in scripture or the catechism?
Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation; his voice can command life and death. His voice continues to speak to us in scripture, in the Church, and from the cross. He calls us to eternal life, but he always calls us to that destination by way of the cross, by way of a willingness to suffer patiently for what is doing right. Hear his voice, then, so that you too may have life and have it more abundantly.