In our reading from 1 Kings today, Elijah had just slain the prophets of Baal by the sword. To get revenge for this act, Queen Jezebel threatens to kill him, so the prophet Elijah flees to save his life. Exhausted and dejected, in the midst of his journey, he prays to God that death may take him. An angel provides him food on his arduous 40 day journey. Elijah comes across a cave, where he takes shelter. Then the Lord says to Elijah: Go out and stand on the mountain and the Lord will pass by. But God's message is not heard in the strong violent wind, or in the earthquake, or in the fire. God's voice came in “a light silent sound,” according to the translation of the reading we have at Mass today. Other translations have it as a “tiny whispering sound” or ““still, small voice.” In response, in his humility and in his respect for God, Elijah hides his face in his cloak, knowing that he is truly in God’s presence.
As a priest, I have had people tell me many times that they are praying to hear an answer from God, but that they just don’t hear anything. They are desperately waiting for God to tell them what to do in their lives, but they don’t hear God’s voice. We might have in our minds that God is going to speak to us in a certain way. Elijah probably thought that God’s voice would be heard in those mighty powerful forces of nature, in the earthquake, the fire, and the wind. But God’s voice was not heard in those things. In the powerful or dramatic or violent events of our life, we may be searching for the voice of God in those things, but we do not hear him.
In my homily a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned how apologetics can help us as a part of our study of our faith, as we learn what the Church teaches, and then learn to explain those teachings and defend the faith to those who don’t understand it. I know that some of our youth and their parents have been studying a book on apologetics this summer, which is wonderful, and I look forward to hearing from them what they have learned.
So, if someone asks us, how do we hear God’s voice in a world that has so many different voices calling out to us in Hinds County, Mississippi, a place that does not have a lot of Catholics compared to the population as a whole, how would we respond to that? There is not just one way to experience God or to hear his voice. We can experience God and hear his voice in different ways. I want to highlight four of these ways.
One way we experience God is through Scripture. I always spend a lot of time with the readings for the day. The daily readings for Mass can be found in a daily devotional book like the Word Among Us or on the USCCB website. Those readings are a great way to hear God’s word and to reflect on the way it interacts with our own reality. Other Catholics follow the popular Bible in a Year program with Father Mike Schmitz or Father Josh Johnson. The more we make it a habit to read and reflect upon God’s word, the more we will hear him speak to us in his word.
We can also experience God and hear his voice through the sacraments of the Church, through the Mass, and through the Eucharist. Just last weekend, I celebrated the sacrament of the anointing of the sick at Mass at the Carmelite monastery, with two groups of men in rehab, and with two individuals: one woman who was going to have surgery and a man in the last stages of stomach cancer. The prayers and the sacrament of the anointing of the sick can be experienced on so many different levels and can open us up to God’s healing power. I have had several inmates that were not Catholic tell me that they have experienced God’s presence in the anointing of the sick in such a profound way that it motivated them to become Catholic. I think we can sometimes take God’s voice and God’s presence in the sacrament for granted and to make the sacraments seem commonplace. But God’s presence can be felt in the sacraments in a profound way.
God can also be present in our trials, tribulations, and sorrows. St Francis of Assisi was called to a vocation of faith after a terrible illness and incarceration as a prisoner of war. St Ignatius of Loyola, had a profound conversion while being confined to bed in his ancestral home after his leg was shattered by a cannonball in battle. Both of these men experienced the depths of sorrow and pain so profoundly that at times they would have welcomed death as a relief. Yet, they found God in their sorrows and their trials, and a faith that they had never known before. Our painful and challenging moments in life can either draw us closer to God or draw us away from God. We are called to find God accompanying us in those difficult moments.
Finally, we can find God and hear his voice in our good works done in faith and in the way we collaborate with God in our lives. I must see everything I do as a priest as a collaborative effort with God, impelled by the Holy Spirit working within me. None of it is done alone by my own efforts. In his first letter to the Corinthians, St Paul states that we are God’s co-workers. The farmer’s harvest depends upon the care with which he plows the ground, with which he sows the seed and digs and cultivates and cleans. The farmers' harvest depends on the weather and all these efforts working together. In the asme way, the outcome of our efforts depends on God. We can hear God and experience him in the way we work in his vineyard with him according to his vocation and according to his will.
I remember a friend who was filled with so much remorse and sadness in his life was wanting God to speak to him in a dream, to speak words of forgiveness in a dream. But sometimes we are so intently looking for him in a dramatic act that we might miss the way he is there already speaking to us. May we open our hearts to the many ways God is there for us. May we open our eyes and ears to God’s presence in our lives and the many ways that he speaks to us.
No comments:
Post a Comment