Fourth Sunday of Easter
Fr. Ben Riley
Not too long ago, I had a conversation with someone trying to sort out their life. A good person, sincere, but overwhelmed. And they said something that stuck with me. They said, “Father, I just don’t know what God wants from me. There are too many voices.”
And that’s it, isn’t it?
So many voices.
Voices telling us what success looks like.
Voices telling us what happiness is.
Voices telling us who we should be, what we should want, how we should live.
And if we’re honest, it gets noisy. Confusing. Even paralyzing.
And yet… something interesting is happening right now.
People are getting tired of the noise.
I meet with people every week who are curious about the Catholic faith—people who have tried everything else, and they’re still hungry. Hungry for something deeper. Hungry for something ancient. Something solid. They want a challenge.
And I think that same hunger is why we’re seeing more and more young people seriously discerning a call to the priesthood and religious life.
Our Diocese has 28 seminarians. 28 young men discerning the priesthood. For the size of our diocese, that’s amazing.
And I think it’s because, when everything around you feels shallow…
the voice of the Shepherd starts to stand out.
And we’re actually seeing this in a concrete way.
A recent survey of men being ordained priests this year asked what shaped their vocation. And the answer wasn’t complicated. Before they entered seminary.
Eighty-one percent said they went regularly to Eucharistic adoration.
Seventy-nine percent prayed the Rosary.
More than half were part of a Bible study or prayer group.
In other words—they made space to listen.
And almost all of them—over ninety percent—said that someone in their life encouraged them to consider the priesthood. A priest, a friend, a parent, a fellow parishioner.
Which means they didn’t just hear the voice of the Shepherd— they had people around them who helped them recognize it.
And into all of this, Jesus says something very simple:
“My sheep hear my voice… and they follow me.”
It’s Not “my sheep figure everything out.”
Not “my sheep have perfect clarity.” But rather, “My sheep hear my voice.”
That’s the heart of the Christian life.
Unfortunately, there’s a problem.
Most people aren’t rejecting God—they just don’t recognize His voice. Because, they’ve been listening to so many other voices for so long.
Recognition takes familiarity.
You don’t recognize a voice you’ve never heard before.
Which is why those future priests didn’t stumble into their vocation by accident. They learned to pray. They made space. They listened.
And that’s where vocations come from.
Today, on Good Shepherd Sunday, we pray especially for vocations to the priesthood and religious life—and we should. We need men and women who know the voice of the Shepherd well enough to leave everything and follow Him.
I’m not saying every young person needs to be a religious priest, sister, or brother. Most people are called to the beauty of a conventional marriage. And that’s powerful, and sacred, but young
Catholics should at least be open to the idea of a religious vocation.
Because, here’s the deeper truth:
Before anyone can say yes to a specific vocation…
they must to learn to recognize the voice of the Shepherd.
Because every vocation begins there.
And that brings the message home to every single one of us.
You may not be called to be a priest.
You may not be called to religious life.
But you are called.
You already have a vocation.
We all have a universal vocation.
The universal call to holiness.
To know His voice.
To trust His voice.
To follow His voice.
To be a saint.
And Jesus makes a promise we can’t miss:
It’s his deepest desire for us, his beloved children. “I came so that they might have life… and have it more abundantly.”
Not a restricted life.
Not a diminished life.
An abundant life.
A life of peace, joy, and consolation.
And that life is found in one place:
Through the narrow gate. And the gate is not an idea. It’s not a program.
It’s Him.
It’s Jesus Christ.
He said, “I am the gate.”
So maybe the question this week isn’t:
“What is God calling me to do?”
That comes later.
Maybe the real question is:
“Whose voice am I listening to?”
Because if we learn to recognize His voice— in prayer, in Scripture, in silence—
then when He calls…
whether to priesthood, marriage, religious life, or deeper conversion…
we’ll know it. We’ll recognize it, and we’ll follow.
Because when you know the voice of the Shepherd, you stop wandering through the wilderness— and you start following Him.