The Baptism of the Lord 2022

"He shall bring forth Justice to the nations, not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street”

 

We are all here because we desire, on some level, to Hear Christ speak to us.  And the main way that we reach out to God is through prayer.

 

But if you are like me, you want to see and hear from Jesus Himself

 

And so I think it is important to remind ourselves of several things

1) When we hear the words of the Mass and participate in the Mass with a full, active, and conscious participation, Christ IS speaking to us!

 

Secondly, when we enter into private prayer, know that Christ, as the Prophet Isaiah reminds us in the first reading, Jesus Christ does not cry out, He does not shout, He does not make his voice heard in the street.”

The implication of that fact for us is that Jesus, at least 99.99999% of the time, refuses to shout above the noise of our world, but rather he speaks softly to us.

That puts the onus on us to remove ourselves from the Dictatorship of Noise and find silence in our lives and I think we need to do that at least 30 minutes a day.

Christ does not make himself heard above the buzz of Instagram/Facebook/Twitter/Youtube/Netflix/Disney+/smartphones/emails etc. Christ IS calling us away to a quiet place to be alone with Him so that we can increase our chances of hearing His voice.

 

He Himself also sought out quiet places away from the crowd, often early in the morning, to be alone in prayer with the Father and the Holy Spirit

 

May we follow His lead and seek Him where He promised to be found, notably in the words and actions of the Mass, and in the silence, away from the noise of the world.