HEARING THE WORD

A MESSAGE FOR PASSION SUNDAY

Christ delivers today a stinging rebuke to the multitude of the Jews who are following him around.  “He that is of God heareth God's words,” he tells them, following up with this stern reprimand, “Ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.”

We cannot hear these words without two questions coming to mind.  First of all, do we believe that God speaks to us?  Or do we agree with other so-called Catholics like Joy Behar of ABC’s The View, who believe that hearing the voice of God is actually evidence of mental illness?  And then secondly, if we do believe that God speaks to us, do we hear him?

These are questions we must answer honestly, at least to ourselves.  The Scriptures and Lives of the Saints are filled with examples of God speaking to his children, and to doubt that this happens would be an admission on our part that we have lost our faith in God, if we ever had it in the first place.  God most certainly speaks to us, not necessarily by voices in our ear (although there are plenty of examples of this), but more usually through signs.  And if we have faith in God, if we are on the lookout for such signs, we may know what God is saying to us.

Alas, we do not always see or hear the signs that God sends us.  We are too preoccupied by the distractions of this life, by idle gossip, world events, sports results, whatever may be your own private interests and obsessions.  Such distractions not only prevent us from hearing the “still small voice” of God, but actually keep us from ever growing close to him.  They stifle prayer, and when we do pray, they keep us from being immersed in our conversation with God, by forever taking our minds to places they think they would rather be.  We should take the advice of the fourth Psalm, “Commune with your own heart, and in your chamber, and be still.”

A worse crime than giving in to distraction is when we do hear God’s voice, or when we do see the signs he gives us, and yet choose deliberately to ignore them or reject them.  Then we are truly “not of God,” as our Lord tells the Jews today.  Sometimes we need courage to take the path God signals, it may take a change of lifestyle, a loss of comforts or money or human love.  So many hear the truth, but reject it because of the necessary consequences of accepting it.  This is not the response God asks for when he speaks to us.

If we hear the voice of God, then for God’s sake, let us heed it.