“The Lord is near to all who call on him!”
“Seek
the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near.” God spoke this word to his people Israel around 2,500 years ago through
a prophet who went by the name of Isaiah. Scholars today give us to understand
that there were actually 3 prophets over 300 years who were called Isaiah:
chapters 1 to 39; 40 to 55; and 56 to 66. Because God inspired these words as
applicable to us human beings, they are just as true and meaningful for us
today.
God calls us to
seek him “while he may be found (and) call upon him while he is near”. This
points to a time when he may not be found, because he will not be near. How
could God not be found or not be near? In 1917, Catherine Kolyschkine de Hueck
was attending an early morning hidden Mass in St. Petersburg when Communist
soldiers came in and shot the priest through the heart as he elevated the Host,
the Body of Christ. He was the last priest. All the others were sent to
concentration camps or killed. No more Mass. No more confession and absolution.
No more sacraments at all. God in Jesus suddenly seemed far away and difficult
to find. This happened many times in many places. It is happening now. It could
happen here.
“The
Lord is near to all who call on him!”
“Let the wicked person forsake
their way, and the unrighteous person their thoughts; let that person return to
the Lord that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon.” What do these words have to do with you and me? Who
are the wicked and the unrighteous? People are wicked who love their sins and don’t
want to stop sinning or to change their wicked ways. An unrighteous person is
self-sufficient, has no interest in God, and has no use for the will of God.
This person is proud and doesn’t care. This person won’t listen to anyone:
children won’t listen to their parents, parents won’t listen to their children,
spouses won’t listen to their spouse, people ignore the poor, the sick,
homeless itinerants, those who suffer in any way; the young won’t respect the
old, and the old won’t care about the young.
“The
Lord is near to all who call on him!”
In addition, they
are wicked and unrighteous who don’t want to know the truth. Knowing the truth
has to do with our thoughts. We are all full of thoughts: our own thoughts,
thoughts from other people: thoughts from books, social media, and plays; from
scientists, grade and high school teachers, college and university professors,
from poets and novelists; thoughts that are true, and thoughts that are false.
Because the wicked and unrighteous don’t want to know the truth, they often
don’t want to have anything to do with God either or his Church. How do we make
sense out of all the thoughts arising from within us and around us? Those who
believe in God and love Him know these words to be true: “For my
thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For
as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
“The Lord is near to all who call on him!”
When people at any age
suffer confusion about their gender or human sexuality, it is often because
they don’t want to know the truth or are listening to the wrong people. It is
dangerous to follow our feelings, because they are often unreliable. Rather than
follow our heart, we must guide our heart from our
mind nourished with the truth and from our soul that listens to God.
We are constantly being
bombarded by an endless stream of thoughts; it’s enough to make some people go
mad. Over the centuries, our Church has made sense out of the ever-growing
flood of thoughts expressed by people through the work of highly literate men
and women in monasteries and in the offices of bishops, the shepherds of the
Church. None of us can afford to have so many competent people at our service,
but we can rely on the Church’s Magisterium, the teaching authority of the
Church. A good source to make part of one’s daily reading and study is the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” which comes in different affordable formats.
“The Lord is near to all who call on him!”
All the saints knew that
the best way to listen to God is by reading the Bible every day. Before people
could have their own Bible, they went to daily Mass and listened attentively to
the Word of God. In the early Church it was in Latin which was the language of
the people. When in time the language of the people changed and they no longer
understood Latin, they listened attentively to the sermons, the preaching. Before
the invention of the printing press, radio, television, computers, the
internet, and smart phones, people were able to be so attentive that they were
able to memorize many Bible passages just from hearing them at daily Mass.
Today, we have no excuse. Anyone can own a Bible as
well as a copy of the Catechism. Anyone with a computer or smart phone with
internet can listen to the Liturgy of the Hours and read along at the same
time. The hours of Morning Prayer, Midday Prayer, Office of Readings, Evening
Prayer, and Night Prayer all contain Psalms and readings from the Bible and
saints.
So, if you're not already doing so, I invite you, I encourage you to open your Bible every day. To find the Liturgy of the Hours on the Internet, you can go to Divine Office dot org, but there are others as well.
“The
Lord is near to all who call on him!”
We need a steady diet of the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit brings order to the thoughts that assail us. We saw in the Gospel how the people who had worked all day were filled with thoughts like "That's unfair!", and they were not able to make room for other thoughts - the kindness and generosity of the landlord - he started by paying those who had worked only an hour; so that they would not be embarrassed in realizing that they were paid as much as all the others. So, as we prepare the offering of ourselves, to place our offering on the Altar with the bread and wine, let us make room for the Holy Spirit to elevate our thoughts and fill us with the thoughts of the Lord.
“Mary
Mother of God, St. Joseph, walk with us in
the steps of Jesus. O my
Jesus, I trust in You! Thank You; You who are God, the
Father, + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
In silence now, the Holy
Spirit helps us to unite our offering of ourselves to that of Jesus….
https://frgilleshomilies.blogspot.com https://homeliesabbegilles.blogspot.com
