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\u2019t taken the time to properly discern God\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First and foremost is to strive to hear the word of the Lord because if we don\u2019t discern his voice then all of our work is for naught. St. Paul explains this in his letter to the Corinthians when he says, \u201cif I have all the eloquence of men or of angels\u2026 if I give away all that I possess\u2026 but am without love, it will do me no good whatsoever.\u201d 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,<\/em> St. John Paul II says that we can only fully contemplate the Lord \u201cby allowing grace to take us by the hand\u201d and that \u201cour witness, however, would be hopelessly inadequate if we ourselves had not first contemplated his face.\u201d 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 \u201cno prophet is accepted in his own country,\u201d which echoes the warning of the Lord at the call of the prophet Jeremiah: \u201cI, for my part, today will make you\u2026 to confront all this land: the kings of Judah, its princes, its priests, and the country people. They will fight against you.\u201d 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; \u201cbefore I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you came to birth I consecrated you\u2026 I am here with you to deliver you \u2013 it is the Lord who speaks.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Daniel Sal\u00e9 <\/strong>\u2013 St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fot. Greg Rosenke\/Unsplash.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-strona-glowna-najnowsze","category-strona-glowna-slider"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n