Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time Yr C 2025

Title

Silencing the Voices that are not Jesus

Outline

I “just happened” this week to be finish Fr. Basil Nortz’s Holy Silence as well as praying the Prayer for the Twelve Virtues of Silence of Our Lady of Silence. In life with Jesus there are no coincidences.

We live in a world of false standards

They are the blind forming the blind, for they have not come to Jesus to open their eyes. They are disciples of the wrong teacher, the one for whom truth is my truth, for whom money is the ultimate value, and for whom outward appearance is everything. You can see this wherever the mouth is open, whether in social media, talk shows, family dramas, news, or in idle talk around the coffee pot or water cooler. We discover what people’s gods are, how they have been discipled by the slanderer and divider, and where they deflect guilt onto others in a form of scapegoating.

Ah yes, but what do they hear from us disciples of Jesus?

Do they find in us disciples, if not fully trained, then in the process of being trained to be like our teacher Jesus? Do they find in us people who perceive our own guilt and who apologize for it without excuses, and when it comes to the other do we try to give as charitable a view of their behavior as we can? Do we practice the silence of judgment? When we are hurt by others do they see in us the silence of the will as we see in Jesus, who on the cross submitted his human will to the will of the Father and taught us to do the same? Do they see us interested in our good or do they see in us the silence of self-love in our seeking the good of others?

Yes, as I read through the book Holy Silence, I could both see, looking back over the years, where my Teacher had made progress with my training and, looking at the present, where he still was at work to make me a healthier tree, whether it be in the silence of the imagination or in the silence of speech. I do not imagine that he will get through with the training this side of heaven, so I pray the confitior from my heart every day. I know I have so much work to do on me in making my day a day of dialogue with my teacher and love for others, that I do not have the time to critique others other than to bring them to Jesus for the mercy I know I am receiving and to set boundaries to my interactions and those of the folk for whom I am responsible, although that itself requires divine wisdom.

So, [brothers and] Sisters, learn from our texts the lesson of Holy Silence

As you listen to people ask whether you are hearing Jesus or some other voice? If you are hearing some other voice, ask Jesus if he is giving you the grace to respond like he did or, if you need, to silence that voice for you. Last week I got rid of Twitter/X. I mostly avoid reading news because most of it is about things God has not made me responsible for and which only activate my anxiety.

Then, as you listen to yourself, ask Jesus how to silence the improper voices within you before the come out into the world.

And besides reflecting more on our readings for today, you might want to read Fr. Basil Nortz’s Holy Silence.

Our Lady of Silence, Pray for us.