First of all, I want to wish all the dads out there a Happy Father’s Day. I had originally planned to speak a little bit about Fathers and how they reflect the love of our Heavenly Father to us. I had a dramatic story about the conflict between me and my dad who gave me an 11:30 curfew for my first New Year’s Eve party when I was 15. It was a dramatic story because I was a 15 year old girl, and no one is more dramatic than a 15 year old girl. I was going to paint a woeful picture of poor Deacon Jim, stuck at home with no sports on TV and only Netflix and his family for company. The readings hint at the love that God, our Father, has for us. The Gospel tells us that God knows us so intimately that He even knows how many hairs are on our heads. We are worth so much to God, that He sent Jesus, his only son, to die for us so that each of us may live. Our first teachers of that Fathers’ love are our earthly fathers. Thank you guys for all that you do.
When I started reflecting on today’s Gospel to find my
“Father’s Day Reflection”, however, I found a different message resonating with
me. “What I say to you in the darkness,
speak in the light, what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.” Jesus is telling his disciples to speak up! In Chapter 10 of Matthew, he is sending the
12 out on a mission, and he’s giving them their marching orders, to proclaim
the Good News wherever they go.
And yes, we are the disciples of Jesus in this day and age,
and it is now our responsibility to speak up.
Our faith is a wonderful gift and we are called to evangelize, to share
how much our Father in Heaven loves us and how much we matter to Him.
I try to remind myself, “Find Your Voice. Use Your Voice.” How does someone do that? The number of ways is as varied as the voices
God has given us. In March, when the
virus was spreading around us and we were ordered to shelter in place, many
families decorated their windows and their sidewalks with messages of hope,
togetherness, and love. People posted
big signs at the Jewel over on Rand, thanking the store workers for all they
were doing and risking to make sure we could get food. People sewed masks and donated them in the
hundreds, to help keep all of us safe. People brought food to help our Outreach
client; there are many new clients who have recently lost their jobs as their
businesses closed that benefitted from that generosity. There were drive-by celebrations for
weddings, graduations, birthdays. If you did any of these things, you are an
evangelist, just like the disciples Jesus sent.
You brought God’s love to light in this world. Thank you.
There has been a LOT of speaking up lately on some heavy
duty issues that’s more complicated than these loving messages, but it’s very
important. Tweets. Facebook posts, News reports. Podcasts.
For those you are old school, there’s newspaper and magazine
articles. And all kinds of
demonstrations and protests. These
voices are addressing questions like how do we fight this virus in a way that protects lives and
livelihoods? How do we build a country
where all our citizens are treated equally?
There are so many opinions, so many sides, and so much noise. I find myself very, very confused at
times. “Find your voice, use your
voice.” How do I find my voice? I’ve tried listening to all sides, and what I
hear is a few morsels of truth and tons of hot air. For me, the best way is to turn away from all
the posturing and discord, and to turn to the voice that I know speaks the
truth. Like the disciples, the voice we
are supposed to make heard isn’t really ours, but God’s voice. We can hear God’s voice in Scripture, in
prayer, and in reflection. The truth can
be found there. I take time every
morning to read a passage of Scripture, to meditate, and to pray. This grounds
me and gives me a foundation to carry me through my day. When we feel God’s love for his children in
our hearts, then we can find our voice. In
my heart, it is not right that just because of the color of my skin, I am less
likely to suffer from both the coronavirus and police brutality. That is what I hear whispered. That is not the Kingdom that God has sent us
to build.
“Find Your Voice, Use Your Voice.” The second half of that, using my voice, can
be really hard and downright scary. What
if someone makes fun of me or belittles me?
What if some of my family or my friends turn away from me? What if everyone thinks I’m an idiot? Can I dare to use my voice when it’s so
risky? Jeremiah writes about his
experiences as a prophet in today’s first reading. “I hear the whisperings of many..denounce,
let us denounce him! All those who were
my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine.” Isn’t that exactly what we’re scared of? Jeremiah spoke out thousands of years ago,
and there was no social media, and he had the exact same experience that
freezes our tongues today. How did he
keep on going? By relying on God. “But the Lord is with me, like a mighty
champion. My persecutors will stumble,
they will not triumph.” If we have
something to say, and we’re scared to say it, we have to remember that we have
a very strong, powerful ally that is with us and knows us so intimately, he
knows how many hairs on our head. When
we speak, God is with us. His love is
worth more than a million people’s approval.
These issues we’re discussing today are incredibly,
incredibly important. In the future there
will be different issues, different questions that need to be answered. As disciples of Jesus, we are called to add
God’s words to these debates. God’s
truth deserves to be heard. Our heavenly
Father knows us, protects, and loves us.
Do not be afraid to use your voice to make God’s voice heard.
Very good thoughts, especially the reflections on the Jeremiah readings. The last sentence, "Do not be afraid to use your voice to make God’s voice heard" succinctly sums it up.
ReplyDeleteI like the thoughts. And I am grateful that Therese spared us the standard homily that assumes that ALL dads are great and reflect the love of God. Not true for many, including me. I actually find it somewhat painful to read some of the standard Father's Day stuff in the newspapers and online where lucky people (rightly) praise their wonderful fathers. My father was not abusive, but he was absent - both physically and emotionally - and I was well into adulthood before I realized the harm that he had done to his children. My experience of my father certainly would not convince me that God loves me.
ReplyDeleteMy husband, however, is a wonderful father. And years after I married him, I realized that one of the things that had so strongly attracted me to him was his gentle and kind way with his younger sister and with his friends' children.
But, Therese didn't rehash the same old stuff. She told us to find our voices, to use our voices. She reminded us of the many tangible ways that people used their voices to help others as we go through the pandemic together.
Find your voice. Use your voice.
How does this work in the wider world, the world of injustice and poverty and war? How do we use our voices in politics - because what happens in politics drives many of these crises to better or worse outcomes.
This is something I have thought a lot about recently. Generally I don't use my voice in politics beyond the ballot box, or donating to a worthy candidate or group. Until Floyd's murder, I didn't use my voice about Trump or Black Lives Matter or turning our back on refugees or denying asylum hearings to Latin Americans. I didn't believe that it does any good. I have been trying to use it recently via sending articles on racial justice and BLM and even COVID precautions to a few family members.
But I am no longer doing so. Those who disagree usually don't respond at all. Those who agree don't need "enlightenment." Those who don't respond are Trump people. They would not see the refugee crisis as I do, nor the immigrant crisis or BLM or any other social justice issue the same way I do. ALL are self-described devout christians - evangelicals and Catholic. None see the justice/refugee/immigrant/poverty crises as requiring action - they "pray" for the these problems to be resolved., They figure that's enough. They see no need to look at the underlying structures that create the injustices, the poverty, the refugees, the wars.
If they did respond, it would be to "enlighten" me. God sent Trump to save America. They don't understand why I don't see Trump as God's hand-picked choice to be President. They cite David and Cyrus (always OT figures) to point out that God used bad people to do God's work.They fail to comment on the fact that these OT bad guys also repented of their sins, unlike Trump who sees nothing in his life to repent of.
So, I'm not really sure how I can use my voice in these matters besides voting and contributing to candidates and causes that I believe in.
When it comes to family (and friend too), it seems to be impossible to "use my voice" to any positive effect. The million articles that have come out in the last 3.5 years, all addressed to anti-Trump people, say the same things (we need to listen to them and try to understand), and seem not to understand that the Trump people are apparently never encouraged to listen to those who don't support him or his policies. There was another one in the NYTimes a week or so ago, and the comments tell the story - Save your breath.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/13/well/family/talking-with-relatives-across-the-political-divide.html?referringSource=articleShare
So, how exactly should we use our voices? I'm at a loss.
"So, I'm not really sure how I can use my voice in these matters besides voting and contributing to candidates and causes that I believe in." Don't underestimate the importance of doing those things; they matter.
DeleteSomething else I think really matters prior to this election is to pressure one's state representatives and governor to make sure their ducks are in a row as far as the integrity of the voting process is concerned. It's too late to do what some have suggested and have a national mail-in system. But each state can make sure that the systems they have in place for both absentee and in-person voting will be as problem-free as possible. It's in neither party's interests to have a contested election.