1. The Jews were discussing.
‘Are you the Messiah?’ They were asking Christ. And Christ gave two answers. He said; ‘I have told you many times I am the Messiah but you do not want to believe.’ ‘And I have not only told you but I have worked signs and wonders that only God can perform to prove to you that I am the Messiah. But you have refused to believe.’
Christ had given them ample proofs both in words and deeds that He was the Messiah; but they still refused to believe. What’s wrong? Well, if a person has no Faith, no matter how much proof you give they will never believe. The defect is not on the proofs; it is in the absence of Faith. This is the reason St. Augustine says that discussions in all these ecumenism meetings are useless just like the discussion between Christ and the Pharisees. The issue here is Faith. And most of the time the meetings are futile because discussions cannot solve problems of Faith.
2. Faith is the matter.
Then Christ, Himself, gave the answer to the problem. The problem was not the insufficiency proofs like words or works; the problem was the Jews had no Faith.
See the problem in meetings of groups without Faith? Everything!
This situation is similar to the problem the missionaries of mercy are facing. They are going to all the peripheries to preach. Preach what? They would probably give proofs in words and works of whatever they will preach. Both the missionaries and the people they are going to have no Faith. Proof of which is that they do not have the four visible signs of the true Church mentioned in the Nicene Creed.
So Christ, Himself, gives the answer to the question; ‘how come the Jews could not see that Jesus is the Messiah inspite of proofs both in words and works were given by Christ, Himself.’ Christ’s answer was; ‘because they do not believe.’ Without Faith problem cannot be solved, like all the problem of the U.N.
But Christ have given them answers, how come they still did not believe? What if they have studied at the Gregorianum, the school of Bologna, at Catholic U., at Loyola, at St. John’s Abbey. They, still, will not believe because Faith is a gift from God. It is not part of a diploma that can be given by any school.
So how come they have no Faith even if they have studied in the best Catholic schools? And Christ answered; ‘they have no Faith because they are not My sheep. Only Christ’s sheep have Faith.
3. Who are My Sheep?
The Gospel of the 4th Sunday of Easter clearly described who are the Sheep of Christ. First; ‘they hear My voice.’ The Sheep of Christ have heard the voice of Christ from Divine Revelation. They have heard that voice. When someone speaks and his voice is identical with the voice of Christ as He spoke in Divine Revelation, then he is a Sheep Christ.
If the voice says, you should love your wife as Christ love the Church……you are certainly hearing the voice of the Shepherd and he said exactly the same thing in the letter of St. Paul.
But if a voice says that you may divorce your wife and marry your new live-in-partner, that is not the voice of the Shepherd. That is the voice of a thief or a murderer says the parable.
Secondly; ‘My Sheep’ follow Me. That is, ‘My sheep know and obey My commandments.’ To be able to say this you must know the more than 80 commands of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. And not only that. You must have obeyed all those commandments. That is what it means ‘to follow Christ.’ If you know and obey all the commands of Christ in the New Testament, then you will always be sure that the voice you hear is Christ.
On the other hand if the voice tells you to disobey the commandments of Christ as listed in Divine Revelation then you can be sure it is not the voice of the Shepherd; it is the voice of thieves and murderers. Like for example; it the voice tells you to practice family planning when there is danger of virus infection, then keep your distance from such persons. If the voice tells you you can continue in your unbelief, go far from him. The parable of the good shepherd warns us that these voices are from murderers and thieves.
4. The Gospel tells us to assure ourselves that we are Christ’s Sheep. Because if we are His Sheep, we would believe, we would know the commands of Christ, we would obey the commands of Christ…..and no one can snatch us from the hands of Christ and the Father.
5, The Jews were worried; in fact they were in despair when Christ said this because they did not know whether they were sheep or not And we should, also, be worried because Christ did not explain that time who were sheep and who were not.
When does one become sheep? From all eternity even before one is created, God had decided if one is a sheep. They call it predestination. In the first reading of the 4th Sunday of Easter the Acts states the reason why some had Faith; ”All who were destined for life everlasting believed in it.’ So those who were predestined to go to heaven from the day of their creation are the ones who have Faith and declared SHEEP by God Himself.
They were sheep, that is why they were able to know the commands of Chris, to obey the commands of Christ and to believe. It is not the other way; we do not say that this person is doing great things for the Church so he is destined to go to heaven. It is the other way around; it is because he is predestined to be a sheep that is why he can do great things for the Church.
So we do not say, ‘he believes that is why he is a sheep.’ We should say, ‘he is a sheep that is why he believes.’ That is exactly what Christ said. ‘You do not believe because you are not My sheep. If you were My sheep, you will believe.’ It is by being a sheep that a person becomes worthy to receive the gift of Faith.
6. So how can we know if we are sheep?
Christ gave the answer; first, if you know My voice. And secondly, if you follow Me. In other words, if you know My commandments ( this is knowing His voice) and you obey My commandments, (which is following Him), then you are a sheep.
If you want to know if you are a sheep predestined for everlasting life or one on the way to hell, just study the commands of Christ and obey them……that immediately excludes you from those going to hell…..and you can be sure you are a sheep destined for eternal life.
On the other hand if you find yourself completely uninterested in being a sheep, uninterested in studying the commands of Chris and do not care obeying any commands of Christ,……you better be worried. Especially when these signs are confirmed by the fact that your interest is more in being a boss rather than a sheep; if your interest is knowing the desires of the U.N. rather than the Will of God; if your desires are to do your own will rather than God’s Will…..then these confirms that you are not a sheep. You will not have eternal life because any devil can easily snatch you because you do not belong to God.
7. The present situation is that we cannot find any sheep using the description given by the Gospel. A big number of the Bishops during the Synod showed they were no sheep due to their ignorance and disobedience to the commands of God in the Old Testament. And there were even led by Pope Francis who made into an Apostolic Exhortation all the decrees disapproved by the majority of the Bishops because they were in violation of God’s commands. And this group continues in their little way to continue to do their own will instead of the Will of the Shepherd thus erasing every little similarity with the voice of the Shepherd. And this un-sheepy tendency is carried down to the level of the parish priests and to the laymen. The world and the Catholic Church are filled with goats. not with sheep.
Everybody is following their own voices, not the shepherd’s. everybody is following their erroneous consciences based on a fallen nature, instead of following the Shepherd’s. Everybody does not recognise the voice of the Shepherd due to the thousand cacophony of voices from the U.N., the E.U. and from the bottomless pit. Thus everybody is going to eternal punishment.
8. The New Covenant.
As the Gospel describes it and commented by St. Thomas of Aquinas; this is a contract between man and God. Man promises to hear the commands of Christ and follow Christ by obeying those commands. And God on his part promises ‘no one will snatch such a soul from Him. And He will grant such soul eternal life.’ The teaching of the Catholic Church given to us by Christ cannot be more simple. Then how come many bishops in the Synod do not believe that the 6th and 9th commandments are commands of God that cannot be violated even by the Pope. In fact it is Pope Francis himself who is leading the bishops in their disobedience. Because they do not believe. And the reason they do not believe is because they are sheep chosen by God from all eternity to be so.
By definition they are not sheep; if so they cannot be shepherds,