11th Sunday after Pentecost 8.8.10 Hearing the word
At present we are having an election campaign, which is hard to miss! The air is full of words with promises, denials, accusations, counter-accusations.
And apart from elections at any time we are saturated with gadgets, phones, ipods... There is a concern now that people are dying on the roads because of too much distraction from these devices.
It may be hard to discern the truth out of so many words and so much sound. One could question whether there is any truth to be found, and some would say no indeed, there is not.
We Catholics believe that there is a word worth listening to; so much worth listening to that it is imperative it must be followed. This is the word of God. This is the one true word in the midst of so much falsehood. And this word of God says: Don’t listen to the other words, the babble of voices.
Don’t fall for the false philosophies that you will hear of – the ones that say that the human race is just one species among many, that there is no God, no order to this world, no purpose for being here. The ones that say that we have a right to determine our own way in this world and are answerable to no system of truth. The words which propose things we know to be immoral or against the will of God.
Hear the word of God – the ancient cry of the prophets. Thus says the Lord....
Hear and obey. It is an old formula and it still works. But as of olden times there are many who refuse to listen; who would rather kill the prophet than do what the prophet says.
In the Gospel today Our Lord heals the deaf man. We have always understood this action to be symbolic. He takes away our deafness; opens our ears - so that we can take in the life-saving word of God.
For the word to take root in us we must develop a certain discipline. We must prepare the ground to give the seed a chance to grow.
This is why the noise of the world is dangerous for us: it can stifle any chance we have to think, to find out the real truth.
The word of God is not always obvious; it cannot always be grasped immediately. To take in His word fully requires more than just something going in our ears. There has to be an engagement of the whole person.
We can keep Him at arm’s length; hear but not hear (as Our Lord said of the Jews). We can adopt a defensive attitude. ‘Whatever I hear or read I am not going to change what I am doing.’
We must be fully engaged. Like Our Lady – see how she was able to respond so quickly at the Annunciation. It was because she was already predisposed to hear the word of God.
So with St Joseph, who responded so readily to the messages he received in dreams.
We can be like that if we prepare the ground for the seed to fall. We can be willing listeners, ready co-operators.
Part of the overall balance is to avoid the harmful words, the wrong messages.
Not taking in too much media, dangerous ideas, false entertainment, or conversation etc.
We can reflect that the great saints of our Church history did not have radios, televisions, phones, computers etc. It must have given them more peace, and more time to think.
The less error we take in the more room for truth. We just need to make room for His word; let Him come among us; become familiar with Him. This is why we need to pray, to reflect on our faith.
We let His word determine the way we look at life. We then see that from all the words spoken there is indeed one that is true. We can find peace amidst the babble of voices; direction amidst the chaos.
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