John 10: 1-10
Jesus said: "Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers." Although Jesus used this figure of speech, they did not realize what he was trying to tell them.
So Jesus said again, "Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly."
Dawg's thought:
Today's prayer intention is for the repose of the soul of Alfonso Castillo Sr.
As I reflected on today's reading, I thought about the human heart and thought of two things: it desires truth and it desires to be led.
When I think of the human heart desiring truth, I am puzzled by what I hear in so many people who desire to live in the lies. After all, Jesus says that "the sheep did not listen to them." Yet, as a society, we have.
The lies that are fed to us has enough elements of truth that we take the whole as truth. We can see this throughout our society, from the hot button issues of abortion, gay marriage, euthenasia, to day to day issues such as contraception.
Yet, the human heart was made by God, and I would imagine that it knows the voice of its master. Are not enough people quieting themselves in order to hear the Master's voice? Are people like me making themselves so busy that they tune out the Master's voice?
Over the past few days, I have been going through a lot of spiritual battles trying to give me a distaste for the truth offered by The Master. A lot of it started out with small items: you can pray later ... you're too busy to sit down and do any spiritual reading ... etc.
All this brings me to my second thought: our hearts desire to be led. I am realizing that led to act on our own, it's easy to be distracted. We are dealing with an advesary so cunning that he tempted David to commit adultery and murder, and he convinced Peter to deny Jesus 3 times. We desire to be led, and we the free will to choose Whom we shall follow.
Will you listen to Master's voice? Take care and God Bless.
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