Hearing The Silent Voice

Three months. It is hard to believe that it has been three months since we decided to go ahead and initiate our self-imposed hunker-down on account of the Covid virus. It was not a difficult decision, especially considering that the Archbishop had lifted the Sunday Mass obligation because of the virus.

Now that public Masses are being celebrated again, though the Obligation has not been reinstated, we try to go to daily Mass a couple times a week at the little parish that we call our church home.

We are not comfortable with the idea of inserting ourselves into and mingling with the groups that gather for Vigil Mass on Saturday evening or Mass on Sunday, particularly now with the numbers of reported Covid cases steadily increasing here in Alabama.

There would simply be no prudence in that. Wisdom, as well as the recommendation of our Primary Care Physician, tells us to stay hunkered down for the time being and to continue exercising discretion where outside contact is concerned.

We will do what our inner witness and our Physician recommend until these recommend otherwise.

A lot has happened in these three months. The world was different three months ago. Our own personal world was different three months ago. A lot has changed. A lot, in numerous ways, will never be the same. Get ready. More changes are coming that haven't manifested yet.

Covid has caused reeling changes that are ongoing. The death of George Floyd and the riots of late have caused reeling changes that are ongoing. These extremely polarizing external dimensions, if these alone were all that is unsettling, are unsettling enough. What we know of these, alone, creates enough unknowing for the day. And now, in the midst of the unknowing created by these contemporary events, we have yet another new set of reeling personal uncertainties that generate their own levels of unknowing.

Some things about our personal future, on multiple levels, are as cloudy as a river muddied by a deluge.

I remind myself that I have been here before. I remind myself of the numerous times in my life where God made a way where there seemed to be no way to be made.

I remind myself of the words of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount … But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things [He is talking about the matters that pertain to sustaining physical life.] shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. [Matthew 6:33-34] I, as well, remind myself of what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians where he encouraged them regarding peace in all circumstances of life by saying to them, But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. [Philippians 4:19]

I tell myself that I have no cause to be anxious or to worry because I cannot now see what he is going to bring to pass. I cannot see. But I know. And what God does will be more than good enough because, whatever it is, it will be a furtherance of his perfect will with rewards both here and in eternity.

Saint Benedict tells me that I am to listen with the ear of the heart. [Holy Rule Prologue 1]

I have never heard the audible voice of God. I have, many times, heard his silent voice speaking to me in the depths of my being … in my heart … in that part of my being that is part of the three powers of the soul – heart [sense], will [desire], mind [intellect].

The most important thing that I have learned in these near 67 years of traveling this earth is to pay attention to that silent voice that I sense speaking to me in the heart of my soul. That silent voice, the voice of God speaking to me, has never steered me wrong. My own willful desires have often steered me in bad directions. My own mental rationalizing has steered me down bad avenues. But the true silent voice of God speaking in my soul has never steered me wrong.

Yielding to the directions given by the silent voice of God is not necessarily easy. It will, in fact, cause problems. Not all have faith [2 Thessalonians 3:2] and not all who profess to have faith ever develop a mature faith that is completely surrendered to God.