Homily | April 26, 2026 | The Voices You Follow| (Episode 103)

Not every voice in your life wants what's good for you.

It's not easy to hear.

Some of those voices are lying to you.

Some of them are using you.

Some of them are slowly destroying you, and you do not even realize it.

Jesus Christ says it plainly today.

A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy.

This is not dramatic language.

This is reality.

And then he says something even more unsettling.

Those voices do not sound dangerous.

They sound familiar.

Because if they sounded dangerous, you would run.

If they sounded like destruction, you would reject it right out.

But they do not.

They sound like your own thoughts.

They sound like the culture that you engage in.

They sound like the voice you've been listening for so long that you stop questioning it.

And that's how it happens.

Not all at once, not in one catastrophic decision, but slowly, quietly, almost unrecognizable.

You begin to follow a voice that is taking you somewhere you never intended to go.

And into that confusion, Jesus speaks with absolute clarity.

I am the gate.

Not one voice among many, not one option among many.

I am the gate.

Which means there's a way that leads to life, and there's a way, and there are ways that do not.

And we resist that.

Because we love options.

We want flexibility.

We want spirituality on our terms.

We like to adapt it to us.

But Jesus does not adapt himself to us.

He invites us to trust him.

Because every other voice eventually takes something from you.

Your peace, your clarity, your freedom, your identity.

Jesus says, a thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy.

That is not somewhere out there.

It is something within us.

Something personal.

But then he says, this I came so that you might have life and have it more abundantly.

Not barely surviving, not just functioning, not just one day leads into the next day, not always searching and never arriving.

No, he says, I came to give you abundance of life.

A life that is whole, a life that is ordered, a life that is not pulled apart by competing voices.

And here's the truth we do not like.

That life only comes if you actually follow him.

Because right now, every single person here is being led by some voice.

Some of us are being led by fear.

Every decision, every transaction, the way we live our lives, everything is dependent on fear.

And it's shrinking your life.

Some of us are being led by your past, and it keeps you stuck.

Some of you are being led by success, by comfort, and it's draining your soul while everything looks fine on the outside, trying to keep up with the Joneses.

Some of you being led by sin, and you know what that sin is, and it's costing you, but it feels too familiar to let it go.

And here's the line you need to remember.

If you do not intentionally follow Christ, you will unintentionally follow something else.

There's no neutral ground.

But here's the gospel.

The shepherd does not give up his sheep.

He calls them by name.

And that means this is not abstract.

He knows exactly where you are.

He knows exactly what voices you've been listening to, and he knows exactly where it's leading you.

And he's calling you right now.

This very moment.

Are you listening?

Not to shame you, but to lead you.

And this is where everything turns because once you hear his voice, you have to respond.

So how do we do this?

Well, first, we need to claim him.

In prayer, in silence, at this altar, at the moment of the Eucharist, not as an idea, but as a reality.

You say it until it becomes true in your life.

The Lord is my shepherd.

The Lord is the one that guides me.

I follow the shepherd.

He is the voice that I listen to.

You need to claim it.

You need to let him into the places that you've been controlling.

You let him lead you through the valleys that you've been avoiding.

You let him feed you not with noise, but with himself.

Because until he becomes your shepherd, his voice always will remain one voice among the many.

The second thing is you need to stay with your flock.

Because no sheep survives alone.

And yes, the church is imperfect.

It has its wounds, its sinners, it has had its moments in history that are painful.

But this is still his flock.

And he does not save us as isolated individuals.

He saves us as a people, a people bound together, not by perfection, but by his mercy.

And the temptation is to walk away when it gets hard.

But the shepherd does not call you to run, he calls you to remain.

Because even with all its imperfections, this is still where his voice is heard and his life is giving out and poured out for you.

Right here at this altar.

And third, you learn to lead by following.

Because every single one of you, in some way, is shepherding someone in your home, in your family, in your work, in your parish.

And the only way to lead well is to first be led.

To let your heart be shaped by his.

Amen.