This week and next week we hear from the Letter of James in our first readings at Daily Mass, a wonderful letter that give us so much profound advice and instruction, especially in how we are to live out our faith in our daily lives. Today, we hear about one of the main points of the letter of James, about putting our faith into action. Father Nick mentioned in his homily yesterday the psalm refrain from yesterday’s Daily Mass: “Blessed the man you instruct, O Lord.” Today, some of the instruction that comes from James tells us to "be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger.” I am sure that has been good advice in any era, but it seems so relevant to us today. Think of how in social media, we see a post made out of anger, where others are attacked or called out.
Think of how in an email or a text, words can see so impersonal and harsh, they can seem much more angry and attacking than we can intend them to be. However, we all know, it is so easy to send out that email or text without even thinking of how it will be received. We priests can even get caught up in all of this. It is not just the laity. And we don’t think of the harm, destruction, and violence our words and anger can inflict. In a term that Father Jim has used, we don’t realize how we have weaponized our words, our emails, and our texts. In our presentation yesterday and today, Father Jim has talked a lot about listening and dialogue. We live in a world today where we don’t want to listen. Many don’t even know what dialogue is anymore. Some many in society think that they are right and that they don’t have to listen and don’t have to dialogue. How can we change and influence that aspect of our culture?
What we are doing in the synod in our Diocese says a lot. I recently saw a post on the internet from a Diocese of Scotland about their synodal process. A young adult from that Diocese wrote that he was concerned about how the comments from the synodal sessions are going to be compiled. He stated that they realized that compilation of the responses was necessary, but he worried about the responses reaching someone in the Church who could do something about them. Yes, the people want their voices heard. However, this young adult stated that he saw it as important to attend the synodal sessions, as he hoped that these synod sessions could have an impact on the Church in general and on the local level, too.
As I mentioned, James is such a wonderful practical letter. As we hear from James these next two weeks in our daily Mass, it will give us a lot of God advice upon which we can reflect.
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