Finding Clarity in the Noise

If we wanted to capture today’s readings into a few words, I think I’d probably go with a theme of finding clarity within the noise. I don’t know if any of you are classical music fans, but I enjoy listening to a wide range of music. One piece in particular I like is Maurice Ravel’s Bolero. It starts out very simply with a quiet melody being played on a piccolo. After a minute or so, a clarinet joins in, then an oboe, other woodwinds, and over the space of about fifteen minutes that simple melody has become fully immersed into the beautiful sound of a full symphony orchestra playing in perfect harmony. But here’s the thing – that simple melody at the heart of all that beautiful music remains pure and unchanged throughout the whole process.

That’s the message we heard from Paul in our first reading. He reminds us that in spite of lots of pretty words, great preaching, or new interpretations of the Gospel, Christ’s message of charity, love, sacrifice, and forgiveness remain unchanged and pure. And he could just as well be urging US TODAY not to be swayed or misled in ourfaith life by the allure of fancy mega-churches, celebrity preachers, “prosperity theology,” or any of the other breakaway “churches” we hear about today. Paul’s point is clear – under all the noise and fancy trappings, at its heart, Christ’s message to his people remains everlasting and unchanging.

Christ is making the same point in our Gospel reading from Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount as well. As Catholics, we know lots of prayers – the Hail Mary, the Angelus, Fatima Prayer, the Jesus Prayer, Glory Be, the Doxology, and many others – and of course the Our Father, which we heard Christ offer to his followers in today’s Gospel. Lots of prayers and lots of words. I don’t know about you, but I can pretty much say a Rosary out loud on autopilot, and realize halfway through that I haven’t even begun to enter into a prayerful state. It’s too easy to approach our prayer life like a child who is first learning their ABCs. They can master the song pretty quickly, but that doesn’t mean they know the first thing about the letters they’re singing.

That’s the danger Christ is warning about in the Gospel, and it’s probably more real for us today than it was 2000 years ago. Although we’re very careful in reciting the Our Father, Christ wasn’t worried about the specific WORDS he taught us, but about the intent of the prayer – about bringing ourselves into the presence of God and opening our hearts to him. Christ’s message is clear – it’s not about the number of words pouring forth from our lips, but the amount of LOVE and forgiveness pouring forth from our HEARTS. Christ is calling us to rise above the noise and come to him in clarity of faith. With God’s help, may we strive to do so each day.