John 10:1-10 4-30-2023 (As built, Amite #541)
- Voice… as in the voice…
- My Brothers and sisters in Christ it’s probably I don’t know nineteen sixties and he goes by the name pack… now that’s not his name… he lives in Sacramento California and to a certain extent a California guy… he will tell you though that he had great parents… he said his dad was a forest ranger… he said he loved the quiet and he loved the woods.. he loved the peace and the tranquility… and he said I’m kind of a chip of the old block… he said my mom was a therapist… now they didn’t do great but they did okay… and he said you know I didn’t do too much in grammar school… probably not much more in high school… he said but I did get to go to Clark college… and it was kind of a good thing for me… he said when I get there I decide that somehow or another I want to be on this theater called Guys and Dolls… and I get involved and I loved it… he said the problem is that man I just needed to tell my dad… I just needed to speak to that… that voice… and just see… and so he calls his dad and says look I’m in college but actually I think I’m going to be an actor… he said there was this no voice… there was a pause… and the answer was well when you’re tired of being broke come back home and I’ll show you how to make a living… so he understood… he said man I pack up and I go to California and he said let’s be honest I mean I couldn’t even rub pencils together man I couldn’t even sell apples I’m In trouble… he said so I get bit parts in things yeah like Gunsmoke… and Hawaii five-O… and then I kind of get a break he said I get involved in a movie with Cher called The Mask… and then I get involved in the movie Tombstone… he plays Wyatt Earp’s brother… and then next thing you know my brothers and sisters in Christ he starts finding out that man… he’s probably a little more popular than people think… as a matter of fact he’s become so popular he was in the movie Roadhouse in case you missed that one… he actually does the Coors light commercial and the Ram commercial they use his voice… his name is Sam Elliot brothers and sisters in Christ… you know I’ve got to tell you it’s a miserable death when you’re up here and nobody has no idea what you’re doing… okay I’ll tell you what I’m going to make it easy for you… he does the voice for the Arby’s commercial… we have the meats… the problem is see you think it’s James Earl Jones… but it’s not… it’s a guy by the name of Ving Rhames… so y’all say you don’t learn in the Catholic Church…
- My brothers and sisters in Christ that is what it’s all about… that is about his voice… unrecognizable… distinctive… authoritative… true… my brothers and sisters in Christ stop… make sure you understand you are a first century Jew… so therefore if you live in their day this is why it’s so profound… why… first when you deal with sheep everybody understands the economics of sheep… it provides you food… milk… it provides you with wool… it’s a commodity of exchange… and if you and I are not a people of means… you and I are struggling… and you and I have some sheep the way it works is if you don’t life near other people you will bring the sheep into your house… you and I will live up in a loft… that way we can protect our sheep because it’s out income… it’s our food supply… my brothers and sisters in Christ now here is the reason why people knock on your door at night according to the parable… and the reason you won’t come down at night is because you’ve got to walk through stuff… good you caught on… okay so therefore if you and I had neighbors we would build a sheep gate a sheepfold… it would be about two foot or three foot high… it would be nothing but like stone wall… with a little opening… we’d all bring our sheep… we’d build a little gate to go in the front and then you and I would rotate at night and then the next morning all of us would go to our respective fields the gatekeeper would open it and then you and I would take turns calling out… and then they would call out and then they would go to where their pastures are… my brothers and sisters in Christ why… because they recognized the voice…
- Now look go back in scripture think about what I’m telling you… everybody recognizes God’s voice… let me explain… John the Baptist is baptizing… all of a sudden the heavens open up a dove descends and we hear God the Father say this is my Son who I am well pleased… everybody knows God’s voice it’s unmistakable… it’s distinctive… it’s authoritative… it’s true… then all of a sudden they get to the transfiguration… you don’t think Peter, James and John recognize God’s voice… when the cloud descends they see Moses and Elijah and then he said this is my son listen to Him… they are so scared they drop on the ground… and the good Lord has to pick them back up… my brothers in Christ people recognize God’s voice… you know what’s amazing even then demons recognize Jesus’s voice… if I were to ask you what is one person outside of Mary… one person that every time they saw Christ recognized him for who he is… they never paused… they never said let me get back to you… I’m not real sure let me convene a council… every time they saw him… they said the exact same thing… I know who you are… you’re the son of the living God… my brothers and sisters in Christ… then what do you have to do with me… they recognize Christ as the Messiah… they recognize the voice they recognize the truth… my brothers and sisters in Christ think about it… my brothers in Christ all of the people… Mary Magdalene… here she is looking for Christ on the resurrection… she sees him and thinks he’s a gardener…but when he says Mary she recognizes his voice… she says Rabboni… and then she grabs onto him… and as great and powerful as the Great I Am is… and he is… he recognizes his mothers voice… son they are without wine… what does this have to do with me my hour has not yet come… do whatever he tells you… he recognizes the voice of authority… why… because when he responded what does this have to do with me… it is a sign of endearment and respect to the Jewish people… this is why the demon said to the Lord what do you want of me… what do you come to do to me… what would you have me do… it’s a sign of reverence and respect…
- So here we sit two thousand years later… the question for you and I isn’t whether or not we recognize God’s voice… which the only way to recognize him by the way… is to sit quietly by yourself… to turn off the radio… don’t even bother with your cellphone… stay away from the Tv… and sit in front of him at mass or adoration… you will come to know him in the quiet… you want to recognize his voice Elijah told you… it’s not in the rumbling of the rocks… it’s not in the storm outside… it’s in the calm of the breeze… that’s how you recognize God’s voice… but the question today isn’t whether you recognize his voice… the question is would he recognize our voice… well would he… well let’s see… if we were to ask the good Lord… Lord tell me do you recognize our voice when we pray… oh I recognize your voice… you’re voice… because when you pray I hear it distinctly… let us begin in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit… you don’t seem to mumble… you don’t seem to short-circuit… you seem pretty clear and pretty humble… is that how you and I would be recognized in front of him… when they go to pray I recognize my children because when somebody asked him to pray they stand up and they proclaim it… Father Son and Holy Spirit let us pray… they’re so powerful and they are so authoritative… and they’re so true they’ll actually pray with my mother in front of Protestant people… I recognize that voice as a true disciple… my brothers and sisters in Christ… would he recognize our voice… if we were to walk through the day… and all they did was record our language… throughout the day… what would the good Lord say after he has heard all our language… would he say huh I didn’t know he was a sailor… there you got it… would he say man are the only words out of that man’s mouth GD or MF… I thought there was forty thousand words in the language he knows only two… would he say man they complain about everything… they are incessant in judging others… they seem to have the judgment of the almighty God they seem to slander anyone and everyone… is that what he says when he hears our voice… my brothers and sisters in Christ would he come to understand our voice… as being somebody every time I listen to my children’s voice I know it’s them because they’ve always got a kind ear… they’re always listening… they rarely offer advice… they’re always so humble they’re always so guarded… somebody could say something ugly to them and the only thing they say is God bless you in return… how would I know you’re my children if you don’t respond in the way that I am… how will people come to know that you are my children… are you not my hands, my feet, my ears and my mouth… my brothers and sisters in Christ how will people know that we are followers of Jesus Christ if it’s not by our voice… my brothers in Christ do you offer your voice when it comes time to vote… or are you just not even worried about it anymore… that’s why I gave you a voice… my brothers and sisters in Christ will you stand up and protect my children… for they do not have a voice… so therefore let the children come to me… so if I came to you and I asked you did you defend my children… and tell them that abortion is wrong… and there are no exceptions to that rule… I didn’t give you any nor is it for you to make them up… so therefore when you protect my children will you… or will you lose your voice… when I say where are my children Father Mark… what am I to say… well he’s got a heck of an economic policy… he has no policy I’m economics I’m supply and demand.. well he’s a heck of a diplomat… how can that be… he’s alienated everybody but most importantly me… what is my answer to him… man Lord I’m sorry I just… you’re sorry but what you lost your voice… why is it Father Mark that when you speak in public outside of speaking about me… you stutter and stammer… and the only time you don’t… is when you’re on my Alter… and now you’re going to have selective amnesia… on what you should defend and what you should not… my brothers and sisters in Christ do you know when he hears our voice the most… the most he hears our voice is when we go to confession… but yet you and I don’t want to go… why… because I go directly to the big guy… do you know when you go to a confession I’m just the conduit… he hears your voice… so when you go to confession… he would probably say oh I recognize that voice they see me often… and rightfully so… so I can clean their slate… make them all things new… but yet you do not come because you think you can go directly to me… but yet I heard not confessions and I baptized no one… my brothers and sisters in Christ will he recognize your voice… on the way you go about your day… even though you may text message… and let’s be honest… would he tell you and I you know I don’t know their voice because they’re always texting… I don’t know their voice at the dinner table…because they’re texting… I don’t know their voice at the dinner table because they don’t eat together as a family… I don’t know their voice at dinner or lunch or breakfast… because they don’t even bother praying to me… I don’t recognize their voice because they’re face is in the computer… I don’t recognize their voice because they’re too caught up I pornography… I don’t recognize their voice because they’re too busy drinking…I don’t recognize their voice because they’re caught up in things that they shouldn’t be… because we don’t go to confession so I can recognize your voice and you can recognize mine…
- My brothers and sisters in Christ I’m leaving you with this.. one of two things is going to happen on our judgment day… when you and I stand before him… he’s either going to say… welcome to the table of all of my children… I waited for you… well done… God I loved watching how you proclaimed… I loved the voices that you used and the actions that portrayed it… man I was so proud of you welcome… I loved your voice you spoke on my behalf… you took your hits and you persevered… please… come… join me and my children… or simply he’s going to turn to you and say I do not know you… I never heard your voice… depart from me… to the gnashing and grinding of teeth… he’s got to hear your voice… you need to respond at mass… you’ve got to let him know where you sit… and if the reason you don’t sing at mass is because it’s not good… then I suggest you remind him of that gift he gave you…
- Amen…
