First question. Whose voice? Whose voice in your life do you turn to most frequently for advice, guidance, answers to your questions?
Second question. Whose voice in your life do you trust the most? Depend on, rely upon the most?
Third question, of all the voices in your life competing for your attention, which of those voices do you usually end up listening to? turning to and following? Which voice wins the competition for your allegiance?
And the last question. Regardless of where you turn for advice, whose voice in your life actually has the most impact on your thinking? on your choices and your decisions?
Well, there may be as many answers to those questions as there are people here at mass today. But it's also likely that a number of us may have the same responses.
Perhaps the most significant voice in your life is that of your spouse. Or your mother, or your father, or trusted family member. Or maybe it's the voice of a close friend, a neighbor, a coworker, a mentor from your school days.
Could be it's the voice of a favorite author, philosopher, a poet, someone in the media.
And for some of us, and at times for all of us, the most influential voice we listen to might be - our own.
Of course, there's another voice to consider here (and I'm sure you saw this coming) - the voice of God. The voice that speaks to us in our prayer and in the scriptures. The voice that speaks to us in the teachings of Christian tradition. The voice that speaks to us in our conscience.
And that leads us to a few more questions…
What influence does God's voice have in our lives when we're lost or confused, when we're seeking advice, or guidance, insight, or wisdom, truth, clarity - or simply answers to questions we have?
What's the impact of God's voice, of God's word, on my thinking, my opinions, my conscience, my choices, my decisions? In the daily competition for my attention, my allegiance, my respect - how often does God's voice, or God's word, come out ahead of all the other voices?
And here's a tough question. Actually, the toughest one for me. How do I respond when the voice of God runs counter to all the other voices sounding in my head, in my heart?
And here's another way to phrase that last question…
How well do I listen to… how seriously do I take… how faithfully do I follow the voice of God -- when it flies in the face of what's accepted and conventional? When it calls me beyond my gut response. When the word of God doesn't make any financial sense. When the voice of God asks of me more than I am naturally inclined to give. When the voice of God, the word of God, confronts me, challenges me, and calls me beyond my comfort zone.
Listening to and listening for the voice of God is a challenge -- precisely because the voice of God and the word of God are so challenging!
Here are just a couple of examples from the New Testament - hard sayings from Jesus…
You must strive to be perfect… (Matthew 5:48)
Sell what you have and give to the poor… (Mark 10:17-22)
Love your enemies - and pray - for those who persecute you… (Matthew 5:43)
If you want to be my disciple, you must deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me… (Matthew 16:24)Greater love than this no one has, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friend… (John 15:3)
The first will be last and the last will be first… (Matthew 20:16)
Offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well… (Matthew 5:39)
Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you… (Matthew 5:42)
Love your neighbor - as yourself… ( Matthew 22:39)
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you… (John 6:53)
If you say, “I love God,” but you hate your neighbor – you are a liar… (1 John 4:20)
How many times must you forgive the one who offends you?
If your neighbor sins against you, you must forgive him 7 X 77 times… (Matthew 18:22)
Where your treasure is, there also will your heart be… (Matthew 6:21)
How very challenging is the voice of God, the word of God, when it flies in the face of what's accepted and conventional. When it calls me beyond my gut response, when it doesn't make any financial sense, when it asks more of me than I'm actually inclined to give, when it confronts me, challenges me, and calls me to go beyond my comfort zone.
All those scriptures - and think of today's first reading, when we found Elijah, huddled in his cave, waiting to hear God's voice: it didn't come as he expected in the wind, earthquake, or fire, but rather in “a tiny whispering sound.”
Perhaps the voice of God is something we need to listen for more carefully, strained to hear, in the ordinary experiences of our lives.
And in the second scripture, St. Paul wrote of how his heart was “filled with great sorrow and anguish.” Perhaps God's voice is speaking to us in the pain we can't ignore - or in the pain we want to ignore.
And in today's gospel, Peter wants to believe he's hearing the voice of Jesus, but he's afraid and he's slow to trust that voice. He says, “Lord, if it's you, tell me to walk on the water. If it's your voice I hear.” Perhaps we hear God's voice calling us, but we hesitate to respond because we hear that voice calling us beyond what we're able to trust and to try. Beyond what we're ready to accept and believe. Beyond what we're willing to concede and yield to. Beyond what we're ready to give up, or to give away. Beyond where we're willing to move, to press on, to further the journey.
But could any voice in my life or yours be more significant, more important, wiser, of greater counsel, more loving, just, or knowledgeable - than the voice of God and the word of God?
Is any other voice in our lives more likely to speak the truth to us? The whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Can anyone else's word, can anyone else's voice, offer greater wisdom, clarity, and insight, and the voice, and the word of God?
Well, I told you I was gonna ask a lot of questions, so I did. Now let me offer you - not exactly answers - but rather some suggestions for where we might turn and begin to find some answers.
Perhaps we need to better attune ourselves, attune our minds and hearts, to listen for, to more accurately hear and understand, the voice of God in our lives.
Perhaps we need to make some quiet time every day - at least once during the week - and apart from Saturday afternoons - to make some quiet time, to listen, as Elijah did, for that small, whispering sound of God's voice in our minds, in our hearts, in our prayer, in our conscience - to hear God's voice speak his presence and his peace, not in the extraordinary - but in the ordinary pieces of our daily lives, right where we are.
Perhaps we need to make some quiet time so we can hear, as St. Paul did, to hear God speak in and through our pain, our anguish, our problems: to hear God speak, a healing word. Perhaps we need to make some time - in the roar of the storms that often threaten us - to hear the voice of Jesus as Peter did, to hear the voice of Jesus calling us to trust him when we hear him. To trust that he will give us what we need to step beyond our comfort zone, to do what may seem to be impossible, to walk a path we may think is impassable. And to live by the only word we can trust to free and to save us.
What will we have missed if we don't make that kind of time in our lives? We will have missed nothing less than the voice of God.
So I'll close as I began with a few questions….
Whose voice in our lives do we turn to most frequently for advice, guidance, answers to our questions?
Regardless of where we turn for advice, whose voice impacts us most significantly, impacts our thinking, our choices, our decisions.
How many voices in our lives compete for our allegiance and attention, and which voice wins?
And how, in the week ahead, might each of us listen more carefully to hear the voice of God speaking in our prayer, in the scriptures, in our thoughts, in our conscience, in our hearts?
It was the voice of God that called all of us here today. It was the voice of God that calls us to his table. We have heard his voice and we've accepted the invitation - we're here. May the sacrament receive from this table open the ears of our hearts, to hear his voice in the week ahead: to go where he calls, to follow where he leads, and to do as he commands.
