23rd Sunday Ordinary Time
Fr. Mark Gatto
Preached: September 10, 2023
“O that today you would listen to the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts.”
How do we listen to the voice of God? As vocation director I would speak to many young people who were discerning their vocation, how God might be calling them in their life. Often they were struggling with how to listen to the voice of God in their life.
How do we listen to the voice of God? It is not as though we will hear an actual voice speaking to us. In Matthew’s Gospel that we just heard, we see the early church struggling to deal with conflicts within the community. A process is established to restore unity within the church community when there are divisions or someone hurts another.
It is all about listening to each other. How do we insure that we listen to each other within the church? Jesus says, “where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” By listening to each other we are able to listen to Jesus.
Pope Francis has called for a worldwide Synod that has been in discussion for the past couple years and will have an official gathering in Rome during October. This Synod is ultimately about we as a church learning to listen. Listening to all members of the church. Including those who are often ignored, the poor, the marginalized, those who seem to be on the outside. It is rooted in this basic principle of Jesus, that where two or three gather in his name, he is there among them.
When we as disciples of Jesus gather together in his name and really listen to one another, then he is among us. The challenge for a Catholic parish today, like our parish, is that we really listen to one another.
Listening to the voice of God requires that we are good at listening to one another. Do you listen well to other members of your family? Do you listen well to your spouse? Do you listen well to your children? Do you listen well to your parents? Do you listen well to your friends? Do we listen to each other well within our parish? If we do not listen well to others then we are probably not going to listen well to the voice of God.
I offer three suggestions that are crucial to us listening well to others and to the voice of God in our lives – Silence, Slow Down, Stop Talking
Silence: find times and places for silence in your life. Hard to hear when there is lots of noise.
Slow down: if I am rushing all the time then it is very difficult to listen well to others or to the
voice of God.
Stop talking: I cannot listen to another person if I am talking, if I am focused on what I have to say. Also, we need to stop talking for a while if we are to hear the voice of God.
The upcoming Synod is about our Church becoming a Church that listens. We need to listen well so that we can walk together.
Each one of us needs to work at listening well to others in our life. Only when I listen well to other people is it possible to listen to the voice of God.
“O that today you would listen to the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts.”
