I have been in this parish for about a month and the biggest complaint that I am informed of is the inability to hear. Each of us has a desire to hear what is going on within the walls of this Church. Hopefully once all is said and done with this current sound system update we will be able to hear clearly. I remember one of my first daily Masses at this parish when Father Garrity was preaching and turned to me during his homily. Speaking to me I only heard the word "green." He wanted me to get something green, but what I had no idea? I walked into the vesting sacristy where he pointed and went in search of something green. The only thing that I saw was the green vestment that he wears, but why would he want that? I grabbed that green garment and walked back into the Church with it. Father Garrity then looked as confused as I was. It turned out that he was wanting a green battery. Only if I could of heard better!
In today's Gospel Christ has a desire for us to clearly hear this parable. He tells us the parable once and then we are given it a second time, so that we may better hear what we have been told for "whoever has ears ought to hear."
In our spiritual life we want to overcome false messages which get in the way of Christ's love. Adam and Eve committed sin in the garden and thus their ability to hear God clearly was blurred. Through the waters of baptism we were allowed to hear Christ clearly, but sin continues to come into the world and call out to us in a roaring manner. Messages have been sent out from the evil one which strike our beliefs to the core. You are tired, so do not go to Mass today! Everyone else is doing it, so can it really be so bad! Once can not hurt, so try it! Is it really wrong if nobody was around to see it? These demands come to us everyday and their sole mission is for us to give in and stop hearing the voice of comfort which is sent to us by Christ our Lord. The devil is yelling out to us, so that we can resemble the weeds mentioned in the parable proclaimed in the Gospel. May we never allow ourselves to enter into this state, but tune our ears towards Christ's infinite mercy.
With our ears turned towards God most high we can truly hear the call of His voice. We will finally be able to transcend the calls of evil because our ears will be tuned to a different voice. As we continue to trudge along the path towards holiness the voice of the evil one will no longer be heard because we could think of nothing more beautiful then the voice of God. Trusting in this voice will not cause us to end up resembling useless weeds which need to be plucked up and destroyed, but instead a good seed will be sown.
As nice as this may sound we know that it can be hard to listen to God when His voice is bouncing off of the walls and you can not make out anything that is being spoken. It is the desire of God that his voice may clearly come to each and everyone of us. We must continue to allow ourselves to be nourished by the word of God and by all the Sacraments that the Church has to offer. Sin clouds our ability to hear God, but the Church has been given the gift of the Sacrament of Confession which can help us to enter back into this spoken relationship. When we feel weak and as if we have had enough because we are unable to hear this beautiful voice may we join with Saint Paul in his letter to the Romans by allowing the Holy Spirit to come into our lives and help to lead us down the path that we must encounter. This path may be hard, but may we truly be able to hope to continue to hear your voice within our lives O Lord for by doing this we will finally be able to have the comfort that we are in search of.
Christ is calling out to us and he wants us to hear him clearly. At the same moment the devil does not want us to hear Christ and wants to put things in our way that will buffer him out from our ears. Every time that we renew the vows of our baptism we are asked if we "reject Satan and all of his works." We cry out "I do!" In our lives we must remember this cry to the ears of Our Lord and reject the things which will make us hear Christ less and less.
If the attitude of this Church resembles our spiritual life it is our goal to overcome our inability to hear and to finally be able to come in contact with the Word of God that is continually being spoken to each one of us.
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