One of the first lessons parents teach their children is “don’t talk to strangers”, right? Well, I saw a pretty alarming video this week, that proves the importance of that lesson. A gentleman was conducting a sort of social experiment. He would introduce himself to a parent sitting on a bench watching their child play on a playground. He’d point out the camera and tell the parent he was performing this social experiment. He’d ask them “have you taught your children not yyto talk to strangers” and the parent would always say, “of course”. And he would then ask, “so, if I go over to your child, do you think they’d talk to me or run away?” And the parent, very assuredly, would say something like, “I’m pretty sure they’d run away”
The man would then ask the parent’s permission to go and test out the assumption. He’d walk up to the child, welcome them to play with his pet puppy, and then he’d then say something like, “I have more puppies, back at my house, do you want to go see them?” And the parents would be stunned when their children walked off with a complete stranger.
Very frightening. It certainly causes us to make sure that our children know, really know, what it means, don’t talk to strangers.
And this video shows that sometimes kids don’t heed their parents lesson. Sometimes the stranger looks nice, sometimes he offers candy or puppies. Most kids are pretty wary of strangers who are mean-looking scary in some way. But some strangers go out of their way to look friendly and safe to children. And these are very dangerous.
Jesus uses this image of following strangers in the Gospel today. He says, there will be thieves, there will be robbers who try to take you away from me. And the result of being separated from Jesus has eternal consequences.
Spiritual thieves and robbers will offer the equivalent of candy and puppies: things that look good, that look like they’ll bring us pleasure or make us feel good. Passing on the juicy piece of gossip—it feels good when people notices us, when we’re the ones to appear “in-the-know”. Or of course, sins of the flesh: looking at pornography, over-indulging in alcohol or using drugs, fornication outside of marriage. If these things didn’t feel good, people wouldn’t do them. Stealing, offers a thrill. Snapping back with an insult when someone insult you. These things feel good, but that doesn’t mean they are good. To follow these temptations—the voices of strangers—is to be led away from the Good Shepherd.
There are also thieves and robbers who look friendly, who smile, who make us feel welcome, who claim to know Jesus and claim to be passing on his Gospel. But, who are wolves in sheep’s clothing. The false shepherds who teach false doctrine and heresy about Jesus and his Church. They tell us the Catholic church is outdated, that we don’t need to follow the moral teachings of the Church, we don’t need to make use of the sacrament of confession if we commit serious sin, we don’t need to pray or read the scriptures. To follow the voices of these strangers, again, is to be led away from the Good Shepherd.
How do we ensure that we are not following the voices of strangers? Jesus says in the Gospel that those who follow Him recognize his voice. So how do we accustom our ears, our souls, our wills to the voice of Jesus?
The four pillars of Catholicism keep us united to our Good Shepherd. Do you know the four pillars of Catholicism?
The first is the Creed. We need to know our Creed, know our Catechism, know what the Shepherd teaches us about God, about his Church, so we can distinguish the Shepherd's words of truth from the world's words of error.
The second pillar is the Sacramental system. We follow the Shepherd by being baptized as he taught us, by confessing our sins, as he taught us, by eating his flesh and blood as he taught us, to call for the priests when we are sick and near death, as he taught us.
The third pillar is obeying the commandments. Our culture doesn’t like that word, “obey”. We’re told that obedience makes us into some sort of mindless robot. But the Christian virtue of obedience isn't mindless and irrational. It's the obedience of an elite athlete to an expert coach. It's the obedience of a docile student to a wise teacher. It's the obedience of a sick patient to an experienced and good doctor. It's the obedience of a healthy child to his loving parents.
Christ doesn't want us to be blind robots, but he deoes want obedient sheep. In fact, the word “obedience” comes from the Latin word, to hear, to listen. And if we aren’t obeying the commandments of the bible and the moral teachings of the Church, we aren’t listening to the Shepherd.
Finally, the fourth pillar is prayer. I’m not just talking about rattling off an Our Father once a day if we remember, but following the Lord’s own example of prayer. Jesus himself would withdraw in seclusion, and become absorbed in prayer to His Father. So, if Jesus as the Son of God, engages in that level of communication with His Father, how much more do we need it!
Prayer is coming before God in a position of humble trust. Speaking to Him as we would speak to our most beloved and trusted friend—entrusting our concerns, our hopes, our desires to Him. But like a good conversation, we must not only speak, but listen. God will address our concerns if we become quiet enough to listen; we can hear him telling us not be afraid and to trust Him more deeply.
Again, I encourage praying with Scriptures. Sitting down for 10 minutes a day, with a single passage, reading it, re-reading, thinking about what it means, how God’s word addresses the challenges of life.
The four pillars of Catholicism are like the four legs of a table: remove one, and your faith will topple.
We must accustom our ears to the voice of the Shepherd, so that we can hear him calling us deeper into our faith, and so that we can distinguish his voice from the voice of robbers and thieves who seek to take us away from Him.
Hear Him calling you today to trust Him, to follow Him, to obey Him, to love Him more deeply for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
In the first reading, Samuel is in the temple, but he was not accustomed to listening and identifying the voice of God. It takes an elder, Eli, to help Samuel discern whose voice he was hearing. And that’s wonderful—our prayer veterans should assist the young in developing an ear for God. But it takes Samuel a few attempts to finally hear God clearly.
