Preaching for Mother's Day

This is what my wife Therese preached yesterday, the 4th Sunday of Easter, Cycle C (and also Mother's Day).  The readings for yesterday are here.

Does anyone else hear voices?

OK, raise your hand if you do.  

The truth is that everyone should have their hand raised right now, because we are bombarded by voices, wherever we are, all the time.  

Some of these voices are loud and insistent, trying to get our attention.  Be afraid, because there are shootings and diseases and disasters all around you!  I have a habit of watching the network news, and a typical newscast begins with heartbreaking coverage of the war in Ukraine, followed by the latest thing we should be worried about, which is usually Covid, then the latest natural disaster or severe weather outbreak (15 million people in the path of tonight’s storms).  There are television shows and tweets and Facebook groups and podcasts and youtube videos feeding us with half truths and fears.  We get a steady barrage of this kind of noise, and it can leave us on edge and anxious.

We can hear other voices, much quieter, but still trying to mislead us.  The voices of temptation, trying to convince us to do the wrong thing, to make the wrong choice.  I’m thinking about in the cartoons, where you have the angel on your one shoulder and the devil on the other, both giving you their advice.  The angel, and the good choice, never sound like any fun, and usually get brushed away. People who suffer from the illnesses of anxiety or depression hear their inner voices telling them, “You can’t do this.  Something bad is going to happen.  You are not good enough.”

There’s voices telling us good things, too, voices of love and hope.  While I was preparing this reflection yesterday, I heard the ice cream truck.  Summer’s coming!  A baby in the womb can hear its mother’s voice, months before it will be born.  Here at St. Edna’s, we hear voices speaking the words of God in the Scripture, the voices of all of us praying and singing together, the voices of greeting before and after Mass.  I’m going to remember for a long time the power I heard in the voices of our community at our Holy Thursday service a few weeks ago, voices filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.

I personally think it’s good to seek out different voices, saying different things.  I’m curious, and I want to learn more about other people’s experiences, other people’s viewpoints.  I never think that one person knows all the facts and no one’s opinion is 100% correct.  I try from time to time even to seek out opinions that are the opposite of my own, just to hear what they have to say.  

Whose voice you hear is not as important as whose voice you listen to.  Hearing is a physical process, your ears reacting to the vibrations a sound produces.  Listening involves your brain and even your heart.  The dictionary defines listening as “to hear something with thoughtful attention”.  I remember listening to my grandma when I was little.  She would speak to me in Slovak, telling me, “…”.  I may have not have heard it right, and I am definitely not pronouncing her words correctly but I know she meant I was her granddaughter and she loved me very much.  

Which voices are you going to listen to?  Which words are you going to get into your brain and lead your heart?  Are you the going to listen to the angel on your right shoulder or the devil on the left?  In the first reading today from the Acts of the Apostles, the author describes a huge crowd that gathered to hear Paul and Barnabas in Antioch.  Almost the whole city was there.  There were Jews in that city who heard the words, but did not allow the Good News to get into their heads and to seep into their hearts.  They threw Paul and Barnabas out, and the disciples shook the dust of Antioch from their feet and moved on to the next town.  Even though they left, thero word continued to spread throughout the whole region, because so many people took the Gospel into their hearts and shared it with others who also passed it on.  You can imagine that the great multitude that John described in Revelation, of every nation, race, people, and tongue who gained eternal life in God, were those who heard the Gospel because of those in Antioch who embraced the words of Paul and Barnabas.

Whose voice are you going to listen to?  There is no better voice to listen to, no better words to let seep into our heads and guide our hearts than those of Jesus.  We can listen to the voices blaring about dangers lurking around every corner, or Jesus telling us “Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Have faith in God and faith in me.  We can pay attention to the inner voice that says, “You are not good enough.”  Or the one that says, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.”  We hear all kinds of voices, but we belong to Jesus, and we know His voice.  We can trust His words to lead us on the right path.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  His words lead us to eternal life with God, where we will not hunger or thirst and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes.  Listening to Jesus leads us to God, who is greater than all and no one can take us out of our Father’s hand.