Friday, January 12, 2018

2nd Sunday of Year B (Gospel: John 1:35-42) Listen



Has God ever spoken to you? Do you wonder why God doesn’t speak to you more? Has God ever spoken to me? Yes; many times, but not in audible words. Often through the Scriptures, sometimes in prayer when something just comes to my mind, or I become aware of something and often through other people, through something they will say, even though they will be unaware of it.

God is speaking to us all the time. A lot of the time we are not aware of it because we are not listening and there is so much noise. Everywhere we go there is noise, music playing, tv or radio on, texts on our phones. It is very hard to find silence and we need silence if we are to listen.

If God spoke to you, what would He want to say to you? If we really believe God created us and that we are being drawn closer and closer to him, then God must have plenty to say to us, but probably not in the way we would expect. Presuming that you love your children, or nieces/nephews, you want to teach them, guide them and encourage them. You want to help them make sense of their lives and point them in the direction where they will hopefully be most fulfilled. Even if you don’t have your own children, there are always people we come across that we want to help in some way, through encouragement, or a bit of wisdom that we have learnt from experience. I am sure that that is also how God speaks to us. Since He created us, He wants to teach us, show us the path that will lead to our greatest fulfillment. He wants to help us make sense of things. Do you ever wonder what exactly Jesus was saying to the people he taught when he walked the earth? I’m sure it is the same as what he teaches us now.

‘But I am so busy!’ There is always time when we are alone and we can turn off the radio or tv and the phone! Think of all the time you spend driving places. Turn off the radio. Get off the phone and listen! Talk to God from your heart and just be with him.


St. Benedict of Norcia lived around the year 500 and he wrote a rule for his monks, which is just known as The Rule of St. Benedict, and it is still used by monks today, 1500 years later. It is basically a guideline of how they are to live from day to day. The very first word of the rule is the word ‘listen’. The second word is ‘carefully’. Listen carefully to my teaching.

We also talk about being ‘obedient’ to God. The word ‘obedient’ comes from two Latin words ob audire, which means ‘to listen intently.’ God is saying to us: ‘Listen carefully, because I have something to say to you.’

Last November at one of the papal audiences, Pope Francis said this:
When we go to mass, maybe we arrive five minutes early and we start to chat with those in front of us. But it is not a moment to chat. It is a moment of silence, to prepare ourselves for dialogue with God. It is a time for the heart to collect itself, in order to prepare for the encounter with Jesus. Silence is so important. Remember what I said last week: we do not go to a show; we go to meet the Lord and silence prepares us and accompanies us [for this].
(Nov 15, 2017, St. Peter’s Basilica)

Did you know that people come here up to an hour before the mass begins, in order to pray? They understand that it is an encounter with Jesus and they are preparing for it.

All of us are different. All of us pray differently and that’s normal. But all of us need silence in some shape or form to be alone with God; to listen to God, sot that the one who created us can speak to us.


One of the most beautiful ways that God speaks to us is through the Scriptures. The Bible is a collection of letters and stories that God has written to us. Everything in the Bible addresses everything in our world today. Everything! Do you have a bible? If not, why not? Don’t you want to know what God is saying to you, because God is speaking to you. Take out your bible, or buy one and read one chapter of one book on a regular basis. It takes about 5 minutes.

God has a lot to say to us, but we must listen.

‘Speak Lord, your servant is listening.’



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