That “voice” is still “crying out in the wilderness” to this very day…Can you hear it?…”My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me”

Today the Universal Church honors the Feast Day of St Andrew…Andrew was the first of the apostles to encounter Jesus and once he did, he immediately went to find his brother Peter and tell him about the man….Andrew was a regular guy, a fisherman…In his business I am sure he met countless people…What was it about Jesus that made him as Scripture tells us….”At once they left their nets and followed him”?….There is something about the Truth…When it is heard it stops traffic…But why do some people not care when they encounter it or ignore it?……The Truth resonates in the hearts of men…When a heart is pure, it yearns for the Truth…..”My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me”…….This is why Andrew left everything to follow Jesus…His heart was pure…It was not “caught up” in the fleeting things of this world……So how does one purify their hearts to “hear” Jesus's voice?…..That is the question we need to address…….How can as St John the Baptist put it……”A voice crying out in the wilderness” break through to us?

“Their voice has gone forth to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world”

The world believes what it sees…..”Nice words” are just that “nice” but they do not change people…..Catholics go to Mass and many times hear a great homily from a priest…They may even talk about the homily in the car as they drive home…But when does that person do what St Andrew did today? - After Andrew met Jesus he “dropped everything” and followed him….Mere words no matter how perfectly articulated can not produce such an outcome…..Only a witness, a person fully converted to the will of God can cause someone to react as Andrew did….When you encounter a holy person, a person fully alive, TRUST ME, you know it…Such an encounter with a person like that “leaves a mark” that is not easily removed or forgotten……Such an encounter causes one to question themself - Why can’t I be like that?…What is missing in my life?…….Words do not make a person question their very existence, only a witness can do that………Years ago when I would travel to India to volunteer with Mother Teresa’s sisters I met a French volunteer…At the time Erik was studying to get his Masters Degree in Business…He came from a well-to-do family in Southern France, he had a pretty girlfriend at the time and was on his way to living a very prosperous life…While in India Erik spent many months serving the poor and developing his relationship with Christ through prayer…..Erik had everything going for him….After graduation he got a job trading currencies for the Bank of Hong Kong, he was living in London, making good money…But something was “missing”….He told me that he would go to Mass everyday and still volunteer with the Missionaries of Charity on the weekend in London….He said he was living a “schizophrenic life”…On his free time he would serve the poor and at work he was making tons of money….At daily Mass in London he would always see this one nun…They never spoke but each day he would see her…..Soon there after Erik made a decision to leave his lucrative job as a Currency Trader and become a Dominican Priest….And after he was ordained by chance he ran into that nun he would see at daily Mass in London…The sister saw that Erik was now a priest and approached him and said…”I would see you everyday at Mass and I would pray that you would one day become a priest”…….Erik, now goes by the name Fr Jourdain Marie and is currently living in Rome getting an advanced degree at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum)…..Erik had “everything” a person would want in this world and “everything” did not satisfy him…….”My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me”

“Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life. They are more precious than gold, than a heap of purest gold; Sweeter also than syrup or honey from the comb”

In the Gospel of St Matthew today at Mass we are told how St Andrew left everything to follow Jesus…I also told you about my friend Erik from France, who also left everything to follow Jesus…What made them do it?……And why would someone “give up” so much to follow Christ?….The answer comes down to the heart…...”Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God”…..A pure heart can hear the voice of God…..Therefore we must strive to purify our hearts…..One Sacramental Confession with a Priest will do the trick - Just one!…..Mother Teresa used the analogy of electricity: “The wire is you and me; the current is God,” she said. “We have the power to let the current pass through us, use us, and produce the light of the world—Jesus"...…But before that happens, we have to “clear away” all the “obstacles”, which get in the way of the Holy Spirit - Then the “electricity” can pass through us…Then not only will we see the “light” but we will also “hear” the voice of God…..That “voice” is still “crying out in the wilderness” to this very day…Can you hear it?…”My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me”