Blindfolds, sheep, and shepherds

There is a youth ministry activity that I used to do with teens that focused on trying to hear God's voice amidst the clamour of the world. This is how it worked: One person was "it". This person would be blindfolded and placed in the center of a room. Lots of other people would be around that person. The blindfolded person simply had to listen to my voice ( which represented the voice of God ) and walk over to me. Sounds simple, yes? Not really because the job of all the other people in the room was to talk and yell and call the blindfolded person's name. The blindfolded person had to listen carefully for the sound of my voice over the voices of the others. My voice was of normal volume and I repeatedly and gently called the persons' name. Ex: "John, come here. I'm calling you. Come to me." What was going around the blindfolded person was lots of loud voices yelling " John !! Hey John ! Come over here!". These people could also move closer to the blindfolded person and I was near a wall. After doing the activity, which could take as much as 15 minutes or so to complete, we would have a discussion. The blindfolded person always shared how hard it was to stay focused on my voice and how hard it was to purposely ignore the other voices. We would then relate the activity to our faith walk and how sometimes it is very hard to focus on God's voice when our culture can be so much louder and makes it harder to focus.

I share that because that is how I feel lately - like the blindfolded person trying to listen to God's voice. I'm finding that I need more time in quiet prayer to get away from the culture and even then, listening is difficult because the noise in my mind can overshadow the still small voice that is God's. My thoughts are loud and insistant and it sometimes takes quite a long time to be able to hear His voice.

That little weasel, the devil himself, is very good at causing distractions, especially in this day and age. We have to be vigilant and disciplined as we walk through the world today. There are so many false prophets and arrogant people in our midst today. We can easily become desensitized to the dangers of the culture and given enough time and sloth on our part, soon we are tuned in only to the voices of the culture instead of the voice of God.

So, if there is anyone out there reading this, I urge you to be vigilant in your faith. Try your best to walk away from temptation and pray, pray, pray. Go to Mass. Read Scripture. Read other spiritual reading ( good, solid stuff ). Use discernment - even, and especially, within the Church. Just because someone is associated with the Church doesn't always mean you can believe everything they say, or that they live out their faith once they walk out of the church doors, or that we can believe that they are a credible witness of Christ. Remember, the fox is in the henhouse, so we have to be prayerful and discerning. We have to pray for our priests to be holy and to have the courage to stand up to those who are not holy - whether they are in the pulpit or in the pews.

It is my feeling that with the fox in the henhouse (the wolf in the sheepfold...whatever terminology you want to us) that the sheep are scattering in confusion and they are looking for the shepherds God has sent to watch over them. They are trying to catch up to the shepherds who are walking to fast, to find the shepherds who are hiding, to talk to their shepherds for encouragement and direction, and some also are trying to challenge the shepherds to live up to their calling.

All sheep are like the blindfolded person in the youth ministry activity: we are trying to follow His voice amidst the noise of the day. Shepherds are supposed to help us hear His voice. Jesus please let the sheep and shepherd walk together in peace and community and don't let the wolf get any of us. Amen.