A Letter from Fr. Paul - Sunday, August 6th

This weekend we are remembering the Transfiguration of our Lord: He took Peter, James, and John up to the mountaintop and was changed in front of them, his divinity shining through his humanity.  Most importantly, his Father identified Jesus as His Son with the same words that were spoken at his baptism in the Jordan: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. But this time, the
Father adds something: LISTEN TO HIM.
 
LISTEN TO HIM: that is crucial advice for all of us.  But we need to remember there are two distinct steps or parts to “listening,” both of which are very important.
 
LISTEN to him: the first step in listening is to hear what someone is saying. If I always have music or noise around me or if I am always busy doing something, I will not be able to hear Jesus or his Spirit talking to me.  I have to take quiet time each day, shut my mouth, and LISTEN. Then Jesus has the chance to speak to me.
 
LISTEN to him. But just HEARING is not enough: I also have to obey.  When my mother asked me, “Did you listen to me?”, she wanted to know if I actually did what I heard her saying to me.  That is the second, and most important, step in listening to Jesus.
 
It is easy to come to Mass and “listen” to the scriptures and the homilies, but let them (to use a trite expression) “go in one ear and out the other.”  That is not “listening” to Jesus in the sense the Father was calling us to.  We need to obey, making his words come alive in our hearts and how we live.
 
I invite us this week to reflect on the two steps of “listening,” asking ourselves if we are taking the quiet time to listen to what the Lord says, but, more importantly, if we are then obeying by the way we live our lives.  The Father says to each one of us: This is my beloved Son…LISTEN TO HIM.   Let’s make sure we are taking both steps of
listening. God bless.
 
Church sign of the week: When God calls you, do you pick up?