So, I need you to
trust me this morning. Close your eyes and listen very carefully. Resist the
temptation to open your eyes before I ask you to open them. Did you hear it?
The silence? I willing to bet some of you, in that 30 seconds of silence, did a
couple of things. Within the first 10 seconds or so, some of you minds exploded
with: Where’s the deacon going with this? Then to, why isn’t he saying
something? 15 seconds into the silence, some of you may have started organizing
your agenda for the day, and a small percentage just dozed off and these are
the ones who were the closest to God and to my point.
The Responsorial
Psalm we repeated today, makes it perfectly clear what God is expecting: “I am the Lord your God: hear my voice.” (Ps 81:11 & 9a) To hear God’s voice, we must be silent.
In our first
reading, Hosea is making an appeal to the people of Israel, calling for their
repentance, calling them to listen to the voice of God, and telling them what
God’s response will be if the do. “I will heal their
defection, … I will love them freely; for my wrath is turned away from them.” (Hos 14:5) Alas, “O Israel, will
you not hear me?” (Ps 81:8bc-9) The fullness of God’s
love is found in the silence.
Our world no longer
hears God because it is constantly speaking. It seems to be an unending
monologue; a dictatorship of speech, a dictatorship of emphasis where nothing is
left but an infected wound of mechanical words, without perspective, without
truth, without foundation. Modern civilization does not know how to be quiet.[1]
How do we listen to
God’s voice today? God speaks through the Scriptures, the voice of the Church,
wise women and men, and in the depths and silence of our hearts. Hearing God’s
voice is the first step and perhaps the hardest step, because it requires silence.
Romano Guardini, in
his book The Lord writes: “The greatest things are accomplished in silence—not in the
clamor and display of superficial eventfulness, but in the deep clarity of
inner vision; in the almost imperceptible start of decision, in quiet
overcoming and hidden sacrifice. Spiritual conception happens when the heart is
quickened by love, and the free will stirs to action. The silent forces are the
strong forces. Let us turn now to the stillest event of all, stillest because
it came from the remoteness beyond the noise of any possible intrusion—from
God.”
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