Hearing voices

Most of us are aware, to one degree or another, of the isolation created by the pandemic. But, in truth, the pandemic didn’t create the isolation. It only accelerated us down a path we have been on for the first two decades of the 21st century. More and more our technology that we thought was going to bring us together has enabled us to each live in our own little world.  

In the previous century, when there were only three (perhaps four) networks to choose from, on any evening at any hour, chances were high that you and your neighbors were watching the same TV show and the next day everyone would be talking about it. In any area there would be perhaps one radio station for each music genre. Remember the world before earbuds, when people spoke to each other as they walked by. There was a time when we had common points of reference. 

Long before  COVID-19, we made a choice. We chose to use the technology not to communicate but to isolate. We chose the familiar. We chose sameness. 

In the first reading today we hear: 

Woe to the city, rebellious and polluted, to the tyrannical city! She hears no voice, accepts no correction

It raises the question: how many of us have chosen to move into the tyrannical city, where we hear no voice that corrects, because we are not wrong? THEY ( the people who think differently) are wrong? They need to change. We hear no voice but our own, and the people who share and echo our voice, our opinions. 

Ask yourself: when was the last time you truly allowed yourself to be corrected, heard information different from your current opinion and changed your mind (metanoia)?

The scriptures remind us that life should be a constant process of hearing, and allowing the voices we hear to correct us. This, of course, requires us to admit that we may be wrong.  

Today, can we hear the other voices, can we open ourselves up to the possibility that we are wrong, can we be corrected?

Day 16 St. John of the Cross

We are now on our 16th day of this new year. How are we doing at taking on a new way of being.

Yesterday was Gaudete Sunday. St Paul gave us three commands:

- Rejoice Always

- Pray without ceasing

-Give thanks in every circumstance 

How hard would it be to simply walk through this day maintaining a cheerful disposition, staying mindful and listening to the Holy Sprit, and focusing on the things for which we are thankful?

Today the Church celebrates St. John of the Cross who provides us with a wonderful metaphor, not Christ as shepherd or physician, but Jesus as a mine with many veins of gold. 

We must dig deeply into Christ. And “ however deep we dig we will never find their end or their limit. Indeed, in every pocket new seams of fresh riches are discovered on all sides.”

To be truly happy, we must lose ourselves in the mine, digging more deeply each day. Perhaps, in this sense, the pandemic can be good for us. It forces us to slow down,  It limits the running around we can do.  Sitting, at times feeling trapped in our homes, there is nothing to stop us from journeying down into the mine. Or are we afraid of what we will find? 

If so, remember, Christ is not only the mine, He is the light. 

Today, remember St. John of the Cross, and spend some quiet time mining. 

Opening Our Eyes

 In the Gospel of Matthew today we read, 

he touched their eyes and said, “Let it be done for you according to your faith.”  And their eyes were opened. 

St. Matthew doesn't focus on healing, but on the opening of their eyes which in some ways may be more difficult.

None of us wants to think of ourselves as the one who needs to open their eyes. Often when we talk about someone needing to open their eyes what we really mean is, if their eyes were open, they would see thinks my way.

The gospel states it in passive voice: not "they opened their eyes" but "their eyes were opened' (by someone else). They can't open their own eyes, perhaps because they don't know their eyes are closed. If you were born blind, how would you know what it means to see? Blind is all you know unless someone explains the idea of sight. You wouldn't even realize you had something that needed healing.

The paradox of the 21st century is that the means of communication we have, the more isolated we have become.

As we come to the end of this first week of Advent, this first week of the new year, perhaps now is a good time for us to pray that God and those around us will help us to identify those areas of our lives in which we are "blind". And having the humility to admit that we are blind, then we pray as the men in the Gospel "Son of David, have pity on us!" 

Then through faith our eyes can be opened and we can see clearly how to imitate Christ more fully each day. 

To truly know someone

On this third day of Advent, we have one of the thornier gospels in the Bible,

No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” 

Some Christians have interpreted this to mean that only Christians can know God. This is a misunderstanding of what it means to know.  Of the various languages that I have studied over the years, English is the only one that only has one word for knowing. Many distinguish between knowing in an absolute way, “I know your phone number” and knowing partially  “I know you.” I think we all realize that there are different meanings to the word “know.” I have been blessed to meet and spend time with some very well-known people.  I would not say I know them 

How do we humans know anything? — Through our senses. We see.; we hear; we touch; we taste;  we smell.  We read. We listen. We watch. So how can anyone know God?

By virtue of the fact that we are created in the image and likeness of God, every human has some experience of God. But it would be overstating to say that we therefore know God. What we truly know of God is what God reveals. 

What Jesus says in the gospel today is absolutely true. Only Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, can truly know God in the fullest sense.  Jesus is God incarnate, the fullest revelation of the presence of God. Therefore, any revelation of God, like all creation, is through him.

On this third day of advent, this Gospel challenges each of us to look inside ourselves and ask “how well do I know God?“ As we begin this new year, now is the time for each of us to re-dedicate some part of each day to knowing God better. God has given us the tools. The two most important tools we have are the Bible ( the word of God) and the Eucharist in which Christ gives himself to us. Let us use these tools. 

May each of us know God more fully each day and share that knowledge with others.