The temptation to heed my own voice before the voice of God is the root of my sin, and it comes about in different ways. Sometimes it happens because I haven’t taken the time to properly discern God’s voice, other times I put too much trust in my own judgement, and still other times I deliberately ignore what I hear the Lord saying. Whichever it is, the result is the same, sin, and our readings today address each one of these situations.
First and foremost is to strive to hear the word of the Lord because if we don’t discern his voice then all of our work is for naught. St. Paul explains this in his letter to the Corinthians when he says, “if I have all the eloquence of men or of angels… if I give away all that I possess… but am without love, it will do me no good whatsoever.” In our lives, we should consider this especially when we have the chance to proclaim the Gospel or bear witness to the truth by a Christ-like life. In Novo Millennio Ineunte, St. John Paul II says that we can only fully contemplate the Lord “by allowing grace to take us by the hand” and that “our witness, however, would be hopelessly inadequate if we ourselves had not first contemplated his face.” The Christian life is first of all a life of prayer so that we can know the voice of the Lord. No matter how noble our intentions we must work with the Lord for that good to be made real, and if we heed the voice of the Lord then it is impossible to work without love.
Of course, when we hear the voice of the Lord we can still deliberately choose not to heed the voice of God. In the Gospel, Jesus has just read to the people that the spirit of the Lord was upon Him, and he scolds those present for not accepting the voice of the Lord. The Lord sent his prophets to proclaim his Word, but “no prophet is accepted in his own country,” which echoes the warning of the Lord at the call of the prophet Jeremiah: “I, for my part, today will make you… to confront all this land: the kings of Judah, its princes, its priests, and the country people. They will fight against you.” Jesus rightly chastises those who ignore the Lord altogether, and in the words of the Lord to Jeremiah, we see a promise to those who are tempted to trust more in themselves than in God; “before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you came to birth I consecrated you… I am here with you to deliver you – it is the Lord who speaks.” To heed the voice of the Lord is to trust the one who knows us better than we know ourselves, who knows what is good for us to do and gives us the strength to do it.
Daniel Salé – St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta
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