Trusted voices

 When I was very young, I remember hearing for the first time that everyone dies at some point.  It frightened me a lot.  I remember crying to my mom and asking, “Does everybody die?”  She told me the truth—that is everybody dies, but nobody knows when, except God, so I didn’t need to worry about it, other than to be a good boy.  Then she taught me how to pray the Rosary.  The last line of the Hail Mary prayer is "Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death."   Of course, to my naive mind, this meant two things:  I had been a bad kid and death was imminent.  But as I have “advanced in wisdom and age” [Luke 2:52], I now know and love our Blessed Mother and the prayer she gave us as much, I think, as my own mother did.  On that day those many years ago, Mom answered my most troubling question in the most comforting way.  Her simple assurance has helped me through countless times of worry and grief.

There’s nothing like the sound of the voice of someone we know and trust.  A familiar voice assures us of a familiar presence, someone who’s within reach and who can share in our joy or console us in our sorrow.  Writing about the mystery of our Lord’s descent into hell and His victory over death, Pope Benedict XVI once drew a comparison to the common experience of being afraid of the dark: “If a child had to venture out alone through the woods on a dark night, he would be afraid even if he were to be shown a hundred times that there was nothing to fear. He is not afraid of anything specific, to which he could put a name, but in the dark, he feels insecure, an orphan, he feels the sinister character of inner existence. Only a human voice could console him; only the hand of a person he loves could banish the anguish, like a bad dream.” [Remarks during the Angelus Prayer, June 22, 2008]

How appropriate it is that Mother’s Day this year falls on Good Shepherd Sunday!  Jesus compares Himself to a shepherd, guiding and protecting us.  He promises the sheep of His flock that He will forever hold them securely in His hand [John 10: 27-30].  How fortunate we are who have had mothers who have guided us, protected us, loved us, and held us, who have treated us with the tender loving care of the Good Shepherd!  Christ’s own passage through death frees us from the fear that we will be abandoned in death.

During the Easter season we rejoice in the certainty that Christ’s voice reaches the dead, calling them to life. “The hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” [John 5:25-28].  On this Good Shepherd Sunday, we take heart and are encouraged by our Lord’s words.  When we feel lonely or far from God, we can turn to Him in confidence; He will never abandon us. “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow.” [John 10:27]