Joke: A four-year-old and a six-year-old presented their mom with a houseplant. They had used their own money to buy it and she was thrilled. The older of them said with a sad face, "There was a bouquet at the flower shop that we wanted to give you. It was really pretty but it was too expensive. It had a ribbon on it that said ‘Rest in Peace,’ and we thought it would be just perfect since you are always asking for a little peace so that you can rest.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus said, “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.” Jesus promised us that if we hear his voice and follow him, he will give us eternal life and no one can take us away from his hands. How many of you believe that? Many of us believe that, or at least, we want to believe that. But how do we hear his voice? Does it come in a sound wave calling us by name during the daytime and not in our sleep, during our sobriety, and not during our drunkenness? To be able to listen to his voice requires silence and prayer. The next question then, what is prayer? We adults might know a lot of prayers throughout our lifetime, but young people might not. Our young people might not know a lot of prayers, but I hope that our young people know at least the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory.

We know the prayers, but what does it mean silence? There are many voices in our lives that we are invited to silence to listen to or to hear God’s voice. The voice of media on television, radio, internet, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube. There are also voices of school, workplace, sports, friends, advertisements, and complaining. There are voices of angry moments, frustrated moments, resentful moments, sad moments, joy moments, confused moments, etc. These are just a few voices available in our lives we are reminded to silence ourselves away from these voices to learn to listen to God’s voice.

What is God’s voice? God’s voice is through our nature that he created us. It is through our needs, our wants, and our desires. So, how is God’s voice through our needs? To be a human is to need. God’s voice speaks to us in our basic human needs. We all need to eat, breathe, and sleep to survive, don’t we? God, when he created us, wired into our physical bodies with all these needs to survive. Saint Paul said to Athenians, as reported in the Acts of the Apostles, “In him, [God], we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). That is only in God that we live, and move, and have our being. The need to eat, breathe, and sleep is revealed through our physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual well-being, and God gives them to us as a map to happiness and so much more. God speaks to us through our physical well-being as regular physical exercise, a balanced diet, and regular sleep are our simplest basic needs and contribute massively to the well-being of the whole being. Are we able to listen to God’s voice through our physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual beings? What does God want us to do with our physical needs, our emotional needs, our intellectual needs, or our spiritual needs?

I had a good friend who studied for a priest together many years ago. He loved fishing, and he would wake me up early in the morning to go fishing on weekends. He knew that I wouldn’t be able to stay up early, so he always made a pot of good coffee ready. He always had a headache when he picked up a philosophy book to read. He finally had to give up his call to study for a priest because he couldn’t handle schoolwork. He married and had children. When people saw us, they always said that he looked more like a future priest than me.

How does God’s voice speak to us through our wants? Don’t we often ask questions like, “What do you want to be when you grow up? What do you want to study when you are in college? What do you want to do when you graduate from school? What do you want to do when you retire? What do you want to do when you get married? What do you want to do when you have children? Interestingly, life is not all about what we want to do. These questions of want should be redirected in a different way to give a meaningful purpose in life. For instance, what do you think God is calling you to be when you grow up? What do you think that God wants you to study in college? What is God inviting you to do after you retire? What do you think God is calling you to live a marriage life, religious life, priestly life, or a single life? When we redirect our wants to God’s wants, we might be able to listen to his voice. Are we able to listen to God’s voice through our wants?

God’s voice is through our desire. God created us in his image and likeness, and he wires into our being with a desire for good. When we desire what is good, true, right, just, and noble, it is because God wires into our beings this desire. When we desire what is not good, true, right, just, and noble, it is because our true desire is influenced by worldly desires. When a young man came and asked me what do you think I should do with my life? I often directed him to ask or address God in prayer saying, “What does God want me to do with my life?” Then say one Our Father or one Hail Mary and spend quiet time to listen. After some quiet time, take out a piece of paper to write down whatever comes to your mind and come back and talk to me.

Jesus is our shepherd, Saint John reminds us in today’s Gospel, and we are the sheep that he knows us and we are invited to follow him. He knows us and speaks to us often through our needs, wants, and desires, but we need to focus our needs, wants, and desires on God to hear his voice in our lives. Instead of looking and working hard for what we need, what we want, and what we desire, we should direct our human needs, wants, and desires to God to avoid the influences of worldly needs, wants, and desires. After addressing our human needs, wants, and desires, say one Our Father or one Hail Mary then spend some quiet time to listen if we cannot listen to his voice through our daily needs, wants, and desires.

Paul and Barnabas, reported in today’s second reading, preach in Antioch despite strong opposition from the Jewish community. True courage is not the absence of fear, but the willingness to proceed despite it if we direct our needs, our wants, and our desires to God. Saint Paul was utterly convinced of his call to direct his needs, his wants, and his desires to God to bring the Gospel to Gentiles, and despite hardship, “was filled with joy.” From the outside, a vocation to the priesthood or religious life may seem to involve too many sacrifices, but our true happiness lies in following God’s will for our lives by directing our needs, our wants, and our desires to God. The decision is always yours.