We all have
multiple decisions that we have to make each day: whether it is deciding what
we are going to wear, what are we going to eat for dinner, or what am I going
to do today on my day off? If you are at
all like me, however, you may have had to face some times where it is
difficult, if not nearly impossible to make a decision. Have you ever had one of those times when
you're hungry, but you can not for the life of you figure out what you are
hungry for? Drives you nuts doesn't
it? Now obviously I haven't missed too
many meals worrying about this sort of thing, but I do get frustrated with my
indecision at times.
In order to
be accepted into the seminary, potential seminarians are required to take
psychological exams to determine if there are areas in our lives we need to
work on while in seminary. Once in
seminary, I also had to take a personality exam that looks at how I interact
with other people. One question that
often comes up in these sorts of exams is, “Do you have trouble making decisions?” The first time I saw this question, I
literally spent several minutes thinking about it and trying to decide whether
I had trouble making decisions! Because
I could think of plenty of times when I had no trouble deciding things like
what to eat or what I wanted to do. But
for whatever reason I didn't want to admit that I had trouble making
decisions. Finally, I realized I needed
to stop fighting it and just admit, yes, I'm indecisive.
Even if you
are the type of person who generally doesn't have trouble making decisions, I
think we can all relate to those times in our lives when important decisions
have to be made. I'm talking about
choosing what to major in at college, or whether or not to buy that new house,
or taking on that new job. These are the
big decisions in our lives. We don't
want to jump into things without thinking them through first. Whether you are decisive or indecisive,
giving it some thought is probably a good thing.
One thing
that SHOULD be pretty obvious in our lives as Christians, and SHOULD be an easy
decision, is realizing where God ranks in our lives. Notice that I said, “should”. God should be first in our lives in all
things. He should be the first we talk
to in the morning and the last we talk to at night. Sadly, sometimes we make decisions that push
God out of the way for other things.
That is what we call sin. As St.
Peter mentions at the end of his letter today, we go astray like sheep, but the
shepherd calls us back. Why is
that? Many Christian writers of many
different denominations have loved to talk about how we all have a “God-shaped
hole” in our hearts and it is only God who can fill it again. This is a very simple image, but a very
profound one as well. We all need God in
our lives, but when we wonder away, there is still a longing in our hearts for
God to be a part of it.
We see a
great example of this longing in our first reading today. The reading from the Acts of the Apostles is
taken from St. Peter's speech at Pentecost.
He tells them, “Let the whole house of Israel
We long to
be with our shepherd. That is what St.
Peter is getting at in his letter.
Christ died for us. By His wounds
we have been healed we are told. Though
we have gone astray like sheep, we have returned to the shepherd, the guardian
of our souls. We are like the sheep,
wondering on our own. We are happy and
content to find our own food and water.
But yet we still wonder back to the shepherd, because we long to be with
Him.
St. Peter
obviously had today's Gospel passage in mind when he wrote about that image of
the shepherd. Today we only heard the
first half of the apply named “Good Shepherd” passage from John. We heard today about the image of Jesus as
the sheep gate; the way to salvation. If
we were to keep reading we would then hear Jesus call Himself, “The Good
Shepherd” and that He knows His sheep and His sheep know Him. So there is more to the passage than what we
heard proclaimed.
The point
is, there are a lot of images going on here: the sheep, the gates, the shepherds,
the voice of the shepherd, the thieves, and the strangers. The overall message that Jesus is giving us
is that He will not lead us astray.
Others (symbolized by the thieves and robbers who steal from the
shepherds) may try to lead us astray.
These may be leaders who have made bad choices, but also refers to our
own bad decisions that we make because of our sinful habits. But Jesus doesn't intend on stealing from us
or trying to seek His own selfish gain.
He is the gate that will lead to good pastures. He will lead us as a good and loving shepherd
to what we need the most.
It is also
important that we remember the voice of the shepherd. Jesus makes sure to point out that it is only
the shepherd's voice that the sheep will listen to and follow. They do not recognize a stranger's voice; in
fact they run away from the stranger. So
while we may very well make bad decisions from time to time or listen to bad
advice from others who we thought we
could trust, there will still be the shepherd's voice who will call us a remind
us of who and what we truly need.
So, when we
have a big decision to make, or maybe we are unsure of what we should do next,
remember that it is the Good Shepherd who is leading us and still calling out
to us. Let us quiet ourselves, enter
into prayer and listen for His voice. He
will lead to life so that we may have it more abundantly.
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