Once when I was in Israel for a summer, I noticed 2 shepherds separating their flocks after their sheep had shared the same pen for the night. The first shepherd called “manah”. At once, his sheep came to him. The second did the same with the same results. I asked the shepherd will your flock ever follow someone other than you? The shepherd said yes, sometimes a sheep gets sick and will follow anyone! Sometimes a sheep will get sick and follow anyone – How true, for sometimes we humans get sick from things we do, say, or see, and instead of following the Good Shepherd, we follow another down wrong paths. Marriages are crumbling. Children are growing up without a father. Hyper-eroticized images of the human body have become our cultural wallpaper. People are not valued for who they are. Innocent human life is still threatened. Governments institutionalize gender confusion. Sometimes a sheep gets sick and will follow anyone. So, how carefully do we listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd and follow him faithfully in all situations? For the Gospel is very clear – Jesus very definitely invites us, his people, to be in tune to His voice (text). Unless we have some familiarity with His voice, unless we pick it up in our prayers, unless we make some effort to find His voice – we could miss it. Especially with the thousands of voices in our world trying to grab our lives and our attention and have us follow them.
No, don’t be like the sick sheep and follow anyone. Listen and follow the one who alone has the words of eternal life.