Here's the audio for my homily for August 9, based on these three scriptures. (If a widget doesn't appear above, click here!) The text of my homily follows before.
I've
got a lot of questions today. Many more questions than answers. And you can be
sure I pose all these questions to myself as well as to you.
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.
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