Heeding God's Words, God's Voice, God's Commands

In today's responsorial psalm, God says to us: "If today you hear [my] voice, harden not your hearts."  In the first reading, Jeremiah 7: 23-28, the Lord says to the Israelites and to us: Listen to my voice; then I will be your God and you shall be my people. Walk in all the ways that I command you, so that you may prosper."  Saddened, God tells us that "they obeyed not, nor did they pay heed. They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts, and turned their backs, not their faces, to me....This is the nation that does not listen to the voice of the Lord, its God, or take correction. Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself has banished from their speech." Is that also true of you and me? Is that true of our nation, our country, our city, our society, our family, our religious communities, our parishes?

Satan, a fallen intelligent angel, roams the world seeking souls to devour. In no way does He want us to listen to God's voice. He and those angels who followed him did not!  They lost their home in heaven and no way want us to achieve that goal!  May we take heed of God's voice directing us, guiding us, beckoning us to do God's will, keep God's commandments, listening to the prophets in our midst, some of them children used by God to direct us toward the good.

Walking in God's Ways

In today’s first reading, Jeremiah 7: 23-28, God, through the prophet, challenges us to listen to God’s voice. “Then,” Yahweh says, “I will be your God and you shall be my people.”  To whose voice am I listening? God continues:  “Walk in all the ways that I command you, so that you may prosper.”  In whose way am I walking? Which path am I following?    Of the Israelites,  God says: “…[T]hey obeyed  not, nor did they pay heed.  They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me.” God instructs Jeremiah to say to the Israelites:  “This is a nation that does not listen to the voice of the Lord, its God, or take correction. Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech.” Does God say to me personally: “You do not listen to my voice; nor do you take correction. Faithfulness has disappeared in your life; the word itself is banished from your speech”?

If it is true that you and I have stopped listening and have turned our backs on Jesus, we have the consolation Jesus gives us in today’s Gospel, Luke 11: 14-32.  Jesus is casting out “a demon that was mute, and when the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke and the crowds were amazed.”    A demon is anything that or anyone who lures us away from God, invites us “to turn our backs,” on God.  Evil is all around us; that means that evil spirits, truly, prowl around the world seeking the ruin of souls (Prayer to St. Michael for protection).  This is occurring every moment of every day and night. However, no less now, than when Jesus walked the earth, does Jesus drive out the demons that silence us when it comes to our faith in God, our faith in Jesus, our faith in the Trinity and its presence in our world, a presence that will overcome Satan in whatever way he deceives us and those around us. Yes, “it is by the finger of God that…[Jesus] drives out demons, [and therefore we know that] the Kingdom of God has come upon us.” We shall be set free, and always are being set free,  to return to the Lord, to turn our backs back to the Lord and again begin to hear His voice and heed his commands. Praise to our God!