Quiet Listening

Does God actually speak to us—individually, personally?

Does he send angels to bring us his messages?

The Scriptures contain many accounts of those Divine communications.

We have two of them today.

We hear that the Lord spoke to Nathan.

And gave him a message for David.

A message assuring that God would raise a new king from David's heirs.

God saying of that new king, I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.

And then in our Annunciation Gospel we hear of the coming fulfillment of that assurance.

The angel Gabriel was sent from God … to Mary.

To tell her that God has chosen her to give birth to a holy child, the Son of God.

Mary had a real conversation with Gabriel.

And in the end, she accepted God's call—

May it be done to me according to your word.

In still other Scripture passages angels bring messages from God to Joseph in his dreams.

And God and his angels also talk with Abraham and Moses and many lesser Bible characters.

But how about us ordinary non-biblical folks.

Does God really talk to us?

When we're awake? When we're asleep? Through his messengers?

Yes, he does.

We've all had those experiences.

That inner voice speaking to us—guiding us.

We may have to question whose voice that really is.

It could sometimes just be our own voice.

It takes practice in listening.

But we can develop our ear for recognizing God's voice.

We can also test the message.

Is it consistent with what we know of God's law and God's goodness?

If not, we know it's not God's voice or God's message.

If we have any doubts that God does indeed speaks to us, our own stories can help assure us.

My own favorite personal story has some relation to today's Annunciation Gospel.

Fifteen years ago I was trying to decide whether to apply to the deacon program.

I'd been carrying the forms around in my briefcase for days--filled out and ready to mail.

Now the deadline had come.
The application had to be postmarked that day or I'd have to wait another two years to apply.

In those days I was the server at the 8:00 daily Mass.

And as I walked to Church that morning I was praying/thinking:

God give me some guidance here.

Give me some message—some sign—let me know for sure if I should mail in this application.

Usually, I was the first one into the sacristy.

But that morning there was already a priest waiting.

A priest I didn't recognize.

Father Begg was scheduled for the Mass, so I figured this was maybe a friend of his.

We chatted a bit, but didn't introduce ourselves.

We looked at the historic scenes painted on the sacristy windows.

One showed the ships, the Ark and the Dove, that brought the first settlers to Maryland.

The priest mentioned that the day before, on the Feast of the Annunciation,

He had blessed the replicas of those ships in Baltimore Harbor.

Our lector came into the sacristy to help with setting up for the Mass.

Being more polite (or at least less preoccupied) than I, she said Hi father, I'm Elsa.

He responded, Good morning, I'm Fr Keeler.

I went about setting up the altar.

When I came back to the sacristy, Fr Begg had arrived and they were both vested.

The bells began to ring and we lined up to go out to the altar.

At that instant, Fr Keeler pulled a scarlet skullcap from his briefcase and set it on his head.

And I immediately began thinking:

Ah, Fr Keeler is Cardinal Keeler from Baltimore—maybe this is the sign I'm asking for.

God sent me a cardinal for morning Mass.

But then again, I've served with Cardinals Hickey and McCarrick and other Bishops before.

A cardinal showing up today is certainly a surprise and uncommon, but it's not unheard of.

Maybe it's not a sign at all.

So I started the Mass sitting right here, distracted, paying no attention.

Totally engrossed in my mental debate over whether Cardinal Keeler was a sign.

Suddenly I realized that Fr Begg was standing right in front of me, starting his homily.

I'd automatically stood up at the Alleluia, and it was time to sit down and tune-in to the Mass.

Fr Begg gave one of his famously brief-but-powerful weekday homilies.

     Yesterday was the Feast of the Annunciation.

     Just a week ago we had the Feast of St Joseph, the patron of our parish.

     And in a few weeks we'll have Good Friday.

     The key figures in those holy days are Mary and Joseph and Jesus.

     Besides being members of the Holy Family, 
     What did these three people have most in common.

     They all listened to God's call—and did what he called them to do.

     When are you going to do what God is calling you to do?

There it was—my unmistakable sign.

Fr Begg, messenger from God.

So, that's my story of the personal message that was most clearly sent to me from God.

The one that assures me that God does speak to us personally.

What's your story?

We can all find personal stories—maybe more or less dramatic—of God speaking to us.

In these final days of Advent, let's recall and reflect on the times God has spoken to us.

At the time maybe we didn't fully appreciate what happened.
Maybe we wrote it off as just our own thought, or as some coincidence.

Let's also step up our active communication with God.

Devote much of that time to listening rather than speaking.

Contemplate, meditate, praise, petition and give thanks.
And then follow that with some quiet listening.

Honing our ability to recognize his messages.

And most importantly, building our confidence in the messages.
And our commitment to act on those messages.

Sunday, 4th Week of  Advent

Lk 1:26-38      Read this Scripture @usccb.org