Be That Voice

Noise

Friday I walked over to the Union Station food court for lunch.

It’s school-trip season, so there were bus loads of junior high kids—thousands.

The noise level was intense.

An unbroken, chaotic, high-decibel din.

A sea of sound—no street noise, no equipment or machinery noise; just voices.

It was nearly impossible to hear any one voice.

The guy at Burger King was shouting out numbers as orders were ready for pickup.

The crowd of customers waiting for their food could hardly hear him.

After spending a half-hour or so there, it was good to get out.

Walking along the outside arcade, heading back to my office,

I passed a steady stream of people heading toward the station.

And I noticed that more than half of them had wires dangling from their ears.

There was a lot of private hearing going on.

But I wonder if there was much real listening.

Or whether there was even much worth listening to.

Back at my office I kept checking the Internet to see what was happening in Boston.

Earlier, I had heard about the situation in Watertown on Mt Auburn Street.

I used to live just off Mt Auburn and have a friend who lives there now.

I wanted to find out just where the commotion was, and hoped it wasn’t too near her house.

(It turned out to be a half mile further up the street.)

There was a lot of chatter from Boston on the Internet TV news sites.

Reporters and commentators filling the time with repetition and speculation.

An occasional new fact, but mostly a lot of noise.

When I got home, I spent the whole evening listening to that noise.

Such is life today in America, and in much of the world.

We’re bombarded with noise.

So accustomed to constant noise that when it's absent we seek it out.

When faced with the threat of quiet, many of us stuff mind-numbing speakers into our ears.

Music is good.

Books on tape are good.

But so is observing and thinking.

And being fully present and conscious of our current time and place.

Yes, we can multi-task.

And a little personalized background theme music might add flavor to our daily activities.

But in moderation; in balance.

We miss a big part of life when we let our ear buds block it out.

Despite all the artificial noise, we can still manage to hear.

And even to listen.

But with environmental and self-inflicted noise at such high volumes in quantity and decibels,

It becomes harder to focus on what’s important in what we hear.

The noise can actually drown out our hearing, or at least distract our listening.

Jesus says today, in the Gospel:

My sheep hear my voice.

When Jesus came to the temple area in Jerusalem, it was probably a noisy place too.

Especially at the feast times, when people would flock there from the countryside.

When the markets would be crowded and busy.

But in those days there was a lot more quiet time.

More quiet places and more time to spend in them.

It was easier to escape the chatter.

And there was less opportunity and less temptation to tap into the noise channels.

But Jesus was talking to all of us.

Those of us living today as well as those two thousand years before the iPod.

And still today, if we make it a priority, we can find the quiet and the time.

Voice has a number of meanings.

It can refer to the physical sound that comes from a person’s throat and mouth.

Or to expression in words by means other than speaking, such as writing.

Or voice can refer to a point of view or to actions.

The dictionary even includes voice as an utterance of a guiding spirit.

And indeed, still today, the Spirit—the Trinity—dwells within us and speaks within us.

We still hear his voice from within, and we still know who’s speaking to us.

We hear his voice when we listen in prayer.

We hear his voice perhaps most audibly when we come to Mass.

His words spoken in a physical voice; his point of view expressed.

We hear his voice when we read the Scriptures.

We hear his voice in daily life.

When we receive advice or comfort or guidance.

We hear his voice in the song and laughter and even in the sorrow around us.

We hear his voice in nature.

His voice fills the world.

With practice we might even hear his voice in the noise itself.

But, we owe it to ourselves to make that quiet time.

To give ourselves a chance to absorb and understand what we've heard.

To really appreciate what we've heard.

Perhaps to hear his voice more clearly.

We'll know when we've been hearing well enough and listening well enough.

We'll know when we've become true disciples—faithful members of his flock.

That will be when we can not only clearly hear his voice, but faithfully be his voice.

4th Sunday of Easter

Jn 10:27-30                                    Read this Scripture @usccb.org