As Catholics, we have no excuses when we don't hear the truth | Fourteenth Sunday Ordinary Time

It's a danger that any of us can fall into - when we think we know someone, when we're familiar with them - to not hear the truth when it is spoken to us. "Familiarity breeds....contempt", exactly! Any time we think we are familiar, we think we really know someone: "Oh I know them, I know what they're really thinking. I know what they really mean," then we fall into contempt. And even if they speak the truth of God to us, we close our ears. We harden our hearts. And we miss it.

 

Why is this so dangerous?

 

It's because, more often than not, God chooses to speak to us through those people. The very people you don't want to listen to. ...

When we die and go to our judgement we may say to the Lord in our defense: "But Lord, I cried out to You so many times! You never responded to my prayer! You never directed me! How could I have known this, that or the other?" And the Lord will simply play before your eyes all the situations in your life in which He spoke to you directly through your spouse, your children, your parents, your co-workers. Even your enemies.

 

And you did not listen to Him. ...

 

It's a very powerful lesson: that the Lord may speak to me through the last person I would ever want. If I can't be humble enough to hear the truth when its spoken, regardless of the lips that speak it, then I may miss the voice of the Lord. ...

 

As Catholics, when we have the fullness of the faith revealed to us, and the fullness of grace in the sacraments. Among all human beings on this planet, we have no excuses when we don't hear the truth. It's always our fault. Always.

 

If you're struggling to hear the Lord, go to confession. If you're in the state of grace, pray for humility. Without this openness, this humility, to hear the Word of God as it comes to us - regardless of the messenger - not only could fail to grow in great sanctity, but we could lose our salvation.

 

 

Ez 2:2-5; Ps 123:1-4; 2 Cor 12:7-10; Mk 6:1-6a

 

You may watch the Mass in its entirety on our YouTube channel. Homily begins at 21:07