HEARING GOD’S WHISPERS IN THE MIDST OF MY EVERYDAY LIFE

Jeremiah said:
“I hear the whisperings of many:
‘Denounce! let us denounce him!’ . . .
Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail,
and take our vengeance on him.’
But the LORD is with me, . . .
‘In their failure they will be put to utter shame,
to lasting, unforgettable confusion.’” Jeremiah 20:10-11

This Reading from Jeremiah sounds like he was having a really bad day, and that happens to us, too, especially to those of us who “know” the Lord enough to want, like Jeremiah, to share the Good News with everyone. Trying to understand why this sometimes happens may help us live through these frustrating times that can border on depression.

Jeremiah’s dilemma is that he has experienced knowing God and it fills Jeremiah with joy to know this, so he wants to share this, but so many around him just don’t get it. Why does that frustrate him? Because sharing what one enjoys seems to be a natural tendency: You find a new restaurant, book or movie that you like: you tell people about it, so that they can experience it, too!

This happened to St. Augustine. He came to realize that it is only in God that we humans find what satisfies us. It is happening or will happen to us: When we “see” God in the here and now – and realize that we have found what we were looking for – we want the whole world to experience God.¹

“Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you. And see, you were within, and I was in the external world and sought you there, and in my unlovely state I plunged into those lovely created things which you made. You were with me, and I was not with you. The lovely things kept me far from you, though if they did not have their existence in you, they had no existence at all. You called and cried out loud and shattered my deafness. You were radiant and resplendent, you put to flight my blindness. You were fragrant, and I drew in my breath and now pant after you. I tasted you, and I feel but hunger and thirst for you. You touched me, and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is yours.”
― St. Augustine of Hippo, Confessions

So why are others not experiencing these moments when, as St. Augustine wrote,  “God called and . . .  shattered my deafness”? Also, why is it that, even when we have experienced this, we still, like Jeremiah, have times when we feel denounced, unsuccessful and confused?

Each of us has to answer these questions for ourselves. What is it that keeps us – that keeps me – so engaged in other pursuits that I miss “seeing” God’s hand and “hearing” God’s whispers in the midst of my everyday life? Is it that I focus too much of my time and thinking on what I am doing and miss what God is placing in my midst? Or is it something else?

PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

As I often mention, the Church’s Liturgical Year readings can be helpful to us as we journey through life with its ups and downs. We tend to think that we are encountering new and different challenges and that they are so unlike those that faced the people living in the times of the Bible (and of the Doctors of the Church, too). But  think about the choices faced by Noah, Jeremiah, Jesus and St. Augustine, just to mention a few. What were their worlds like? Was human nature any different then than it is now? Is what they faced very different from what we face today? What can we learn from how they handled what they saw around them? What were the lessons they learned, the decisions they made and are they more relevant to me today than what I have been thinking and doing? To what conversion is God calling me?

What can we learn from Saint Augustine’s finding God, from Noah who “walked with God” while surrounded by the “mortals who corrupted the earth” (Gen 6:9,11)? How is the story of Jeremiah and the deaf-to-God Israelites similar to our situation today? Are there similarities between us in today’s society and Jesus’ situation with the people who joined the crowd and egged on those who crucified him? Whom would we be inclined to support?

ON A PERSONAL NOTE

I have vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.  That may sound restrictive to you, but for me, these vows are more liberating than having all of the wealth, pleasure and power that you can imagine. Can you see why that is? (Ask me about this, if you wish.)

And still, there are moments when I forget about God.²

There are moments when I feel like Jeremiah.

But what keeps me focused is a belief that God is God – the One-in-Three to whom I am being drawn – no matter how distracted I may become.  And it helps to know for sure that God is encouraging me to be less of a sinner and more of the person God created me with the potential to become. It’s a partnership leading me to a full and perfect union with God.

As Saint Augustine put it, “You touched me, and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is yours.”

Sister Loretta

1. One can never know God fully. Our knowledge and love of God keeps growing all through our lives, just as our love for a human person never stops growing – if we let this happen.
2. I know even in these moments God is here and offering me graces to change that and, that at the end of my earthly life, all these distractions will be gone and all that will be left is me and God – just the way it was when my life began.