Wednesday, March 25, 2015

According to Your Word


Then Isaiah said: Listen, O house of David! Is it not enough for you to weary people, must you also weary my God? Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us!”   Isaiah 7:-14

Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”  Luke 1:38

Piety
“Here I am Lord.  I come to do your will.”  Psalm 40

Study
There used to be a commercial on television about an investment company that has since been gobbled up in mergers.  When one of the actors said that his broker was from the company, all the extraneous loud conversations stopped and people listened to what was expected to be a great stock tip or investment strategy. “When EF Hutton talks, people listen.”
Today, there is so much noise, how can we really take time to listen and to hear?  Our first reading reveals that the Lord spoke to Ahaz.  Yet, Ahaz acted like us.  He refused to listen and follow the instructions until Isaiah steps in.  Then, the Lord speaks to Mary through an angel.  When reading accounts in the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament, when the Lord speaks, people listen.  Sometimes, the Lord uses others to intervene.  In Ahaz case, it was Isaiah.  In Mary’s case it was Gabriel.  Who might it be in your case? 
It seems so easy for these Biblical characters to listen to the Lord.  But it was not and it remains hard. And the listening is just the first step.  The doing comes next.

Action
How is the Lord trying to get your attention today?  Unless you take some time to disconnect the earbuds, the tiny screen, and the other distractions, you might not hear what the Lord has to say.
The Carmelites have an interesting little Internet posting.  They call it the Daily Disconnect.  You can get it right there on your Facebook page.  The challenge is to stop everything else that you are doing and spend three minutes with the Lord.  Three minutes is less than a commercial break and only slightly longer than those EF Hutton commercials. 
As one of the other advertisers of my youth used to admonish, “Try it.  You’ll like it.”

No comments: