Opening the gates

Jesus, help me remember that when something feels right, it might be a call from you, the "gatekeeper," telling me so! Amen.

"Anyone who sneaks into a sheep pen is a robber," Jesus said; "but when the gatekeeper walks through the gate and calls his sheep, they know his voice and follow him. You're like sheep, and I'm the gate -- only people who come to you through me are safe to follow."

Pope John Paul II died last week. A lot of grownups talk about someone dying as God's "calling" them to come to heaven -- usually when they're old and have lived a long life. (The Pope was 84 years old!)

There are other kinds of being "called," too. People who become priests or sisters, work for the Church in other jobs, or have careers that are really important to them often say they got the feeling they were choosing the right job, and they believe that feeling was like a call from God.

This week's Gospel (John 10:1-10) is about being called by God. Jesus compares God and us to a gatekeeper and the sheep he guards. The gatekeeper watches the gate of the pen where the sheep live, making sure no one hurts them, and calls them to come to him when he wants to be closer to them.

That's like God calling people to do a certain job -- or, at the end of their lives, calling them to come to heaven. God is the gatekeeper who gives us the feeling in our hearts that something is right for us, and only God can do that.

Sometimes, that feeling is that we're supposed to do a certain job or help a certain person. Last week, for the Pope, that call from God was that it was time to finish living on Earth and go live in heaven. Like a gatekeeper, God opened the gate and let Pope John Paul into heaven.