My sheep hear my voice

We must visibly manifest our invisible beliefs

In my last post I talked about what it means to see and believe in Jesus.

Seeing Jesus is contemplating him in prayer, worship and devotion. Believing in Jesus is acting out our faith in the world. In both cases, our actions express what is contained in our heart, making invisible beliefs visible actions. Seeing and believing in Jesus is not passive, but active.

Today, we contemplate what hearing Jesus means.

Hearing Jesus is active

My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one. (Jn 10:27-30)

Jesus links hearing his voice to following him, like sheep do with their shepherd. Those who hear Jesus listen to him and do what he does, they follow him. Therefore, hearing Jesus, like seeing and believing, is also not passive, but active. We must act to hear Jesus.

Seeing, believing and hearing all require our cooperation and action in the physical world. We must visibly manifest our invisible beliefs (this is consistent with the Incarnation, making the invisible God visible to Creation, and with Sacraments which make invisible realties visible).

A failure of leadership and of discipleship

As you may have heard, a draft United States Supreme Court opinion striking down Roe v. Wade was leaked last week, probably by a law clerk for one of the left-leaning justices. The Vatican, the USCCB, and most other major Christian leaders have said nothing about this, to my knowledge. These, men of God claim to believe in and follow Christ, but whatever may be in their hearts, we cannot know because they have said and done nothing to manifest their beliefs to the world on this issue. Theirs is not only a failure of leadership, failing us, but a failure of discipleship, failing Christ, as well.

Rebels against Christ express what they believe

In Acts 13:14, 43–52, when certain Jews rebel against the Gospel, Paul says,

“It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first, but since you reject it and condemn yourselves as unworthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, I have made you a light to the Gentiles, that you may be an instrument of salvation to the ends of the earth.”

When these rebels turned away from the Gospel, they acted to express what was in their hearts, and then Paul left them to focus on the Gentiles, but they continued their rebellion against Christ by persecuting Christians further, rather than leave them alone.

The Jews, however, incited the women of prominence who were worshipers and the leading men of the city, stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their territory. So they shook the dust from their feet in protest against them, and went to Iconium.

I find it interesting that this passage refers to “women of prominence” because it is rare and what we see happening today is the same: a lot of present day “women of prominence,” like Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris, expressing their unconditional support for abortion at all stages of pregnancy, even up to birth. In addition, many of the women attending these pro-abortion “protests” behave despicably and say some pretty disgraceful things. The pro-abortionists frequently turn violent against pro-life individuals and spit on them, here is just one example. And when the political leadership is questioned about intimidating Supreme Court justices, another woman speaks on the behalf of the White House, supposedly occupied by a “Catholic” in good standing, implicitly condoning their behavior.

A persistent, obstinate and demonic movement

The pro-abortion movement is persistent, obstinate and demonic. If you do enough research, you will find video of them engaging in evil chants, praising Satan, spitting, cursing and acting like wild animals. Some of the movement’s supporters even publicly acknowledge that abortion is a religious belief, a ritual in their satanic church.

What is in the heart of these rebels against Christ is being manifested to the world today and every day. You will see it if you pay attention. If you ignore it, then you ignore the truth. God is giving us an opportunity to understand this evil. We must not only see, believe and hear Jesus with our own actions, but we also need to pay attention to the rebels’ actions to understand who they are and what they believe, and then we must accept it for what it is, as hard as it may be to accept that their choices may eternally damn them. These rebels against Christ say and do what is in their hearts for all to see. However, in the case of most of our Christian shepherds, they have said and done nothing on this issue, especially this past week, because they are cowards, or liars, or ravenous wolves disguised as sheep.¹

The behavior of the pro-abortionist matches the behavior of the rebels against Christ who Paul abandoned when he shook the dust from his feet in protest against them. We must do the same. The time for intelligent discussion is over. We have our religion, Christianity, and they have theirs, abortion. They do not want conversion. Seeing, believing and hearing Jesus are activities that we engage in to express what is in our heart. Therefore, vote against abortion. Speak against abortion. Pray against abortion. Use your money in ways that promote life, including by withholding it from those who support abortion. Pray for all victims of abortion, including mothers and fathers of the unborn. Always.

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Jesus loves children

If you are wondering what Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the LIFE, believes about abortion, he tells us in the following passages (and he teaches about the sanctity of life consistently throughout the Gospels).²

Mt 18:1-5: At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”

Mt 18:10: “Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven.”

Mt 19:13-15: “Then little children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them; but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.” And he laid his hands on them and went on his way.”

Mk 9:36-37: Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

Mk 10:13-16: People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

Lk 18:15-17: People were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they sternly ordered them not to do it. But Jesus called for them and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”

1. “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” (Mt 7:15)

“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” (Mt 10:16)

“Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.” (Lk 10:3)

“I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;” (Acts 20:29)

2. At the very beginning, one of God’s first commands to humanity was, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it….” (Gn 1:28)