The Power of A Voice

On Mother’s Day, we celebrate the role of mother and the nurturing power in motherhood. Psychologists refer to the mother-child bond forged during infancy and early childhood as attachment. This deep affection is a critical psychological and emotional connection that helps form the child in his or her early human development, influencing their emotional regulation, social skills, and overall well-being. This connection is so strong that babies can recognize their mother's voice in the womb and can respond to it by the age of two months. Research suggests that by nine months, babies show significant responsiveness and exhibit excitement at the mother’s voice. A mother's voice also has the power to quell a frustratted baby's cries and bring calmness to his world.

If a mother's voice can influence a baby how much more can Christ's voice alter us?

Just as a child can instantly identify their mother’s voice, a faithful follower of Christ must do the same. Here, we come to Jesus’ short, yet blunt point today – “My sheep hear my voice; I know them and they follow me.” The more time we devote to prayer, reading Scripture, and the Eucharist, the more Jesus’ teaching, His utterances, and His voice become ingrained in us. This concept also applies in reverse. If instead of soaking ourselves in Scripture, we fixate more on Netflix, or any other modern apparatus, then we’ll have effectively muted Jesus’s voice, in turn, not recognizing Him from the cacophony of noise of other “voices” in the culture. In this dark setting, Jesus’s words and teaching won’t resonate in our psyche.

What Christ is alluding to – best to turn down the volume of the popular opinions embedded in the playbook of the world, and conversely turn up His voice more. As we instill ourselves in His voice, His mannerisms, then His teaching will become obvious to us, even as we are thrown many fake voices in our confusing times. To have a strong and unyielding voice directing us through the trials of life taps into the infinite longings of the human heart for God is our ultimate shepherd. Indeed, in the Old Testament, the prophet Ezekiel poetically described how God would come in the form of a righteous shepherd who would gather His scattered sheep back into the fold and continuously provide for them (Ezekiel 34:11-16). In today's readings, Jesus asserts that He is this shepherd.

It is also crucial to realize that just because Jesus is the great shepherd that directs us, we sheep will still be under attack, not because He fails in protecting us, but because our free will has us worry about the wolves and, in many instances, listen to the wolves lurking in the background. Indeed, the wolves looked as though they took down Christ, the shepherd, on the cross, but their attack proved futile. In a parallel fashion, just as the Lamb-Shepherd suffered persecution Himself, so His sheep will also “walk through the valley of death” and eat their meals “in the presence of their enemies.” The Lamb-Shepherd does not guide us around these experiences but through them. Therefore, the Eucharist is always a sacramental meal we eat with enemies looking on. In this life, the faithful will always face opposition, but with eyes and ears fixed on the Lamb-Shepherd, His voice will bellow into ours.

We've all experienced how a voice can alter our mood - be it for good of for bad. A voice can conjure up memories, emotions, and invoke a reaction. While you've likely never physically heard Jesus's audible voice, in today's readings He is asserting that His voice calls out to the sheep. May Christ’s persecuted and mocked sheep throughout the world find comfort in Christ’s promises in this Sunday’s liturgy. His voice continues to speak. Will you listen?