By Father Rich Tomkosky
In the readings this past weekend, we saw a fascinating encounter of the prophet Elijah with the living God. We also saw Peter venturing out to walk on the water, moving towards Jesus, only to falter in the end because of his weak faith. These two events point to the reality of God and that He desires communion with us, but often we falter and fail to enter into that communion. Why is that? And what are the particular challenges of our modern time and culture that makes it sometimes quite difficult to encounter the living God?
Exterior Noise
I think it is safe to say that we live in the noisiest culture in human history: cell phones going off, text messages and tweets; music blaring in the background in cars and on stereos, or in our headphones; the TV is buzzing day and night clamoring for our attention; we have the internet and its endless sea of information at our fingertips; videos, videogames, endless podcasts – some good, some bad. All of this is a distraction to focusing on the “higher things” per the saints.
The encounter of the prophet Elijah with God in the first reading was a lesson for all time. We will not encounter God in the noise. He is a God of peace and is encountered in the silence, in the small whispering sound that we will only hear if we allow ourselves to enter into silence – interiorly and exteriorly. It is not by accident that most monasteries have been located in rural areas.
The holy silence we are called to means that daily we need to shut those noisy distractions down for a time (start with a few minutes) and allow some exterior silence to be part of our life, e.g., try turning the radio off in the car when you are driving sometimes and instead pray the Rosary or Divine Mercy Chaplet; spend some quiet time communing with God (especially Eucharistic adoration). Reduce the exterior noise in your life and you will encounter the living God in profound ways in time.
Interior Noise
For most of us, it is not just the exterior noise in our life that prevents us from encountering the living God who reveals Himself in the whispers of life (little moments where we see true love at work in our families, little moments when things just fall into place, times when we are beaten down and then get a new surge of strength to go on in life, moments of insight that occur when reading, at Mass/Eucharistic adoration or on a walk), BUT we are also full of interior noise/anxiety. This is often an even more serious barrier to encountering the living God. This interior noise is often caused by unhealed hurts and unforgiven sins of various sorts.
We live in a time where the sense of sin has been lost to a great degree. We also live in a victim/blame culture where few take responsibility for their actions; instead, we blame the family environment we grew up in, our school, our neighbors, our boss, for all of our problems in life. Rarely do you encounter people who truly take responsibility for their actions and fess up to their sins, all the while trying to change and do better, in God. Maybe this is also why we see relatively few people going to Confession regularly, but almost everyone comes up for Holy Communion. We should find this a troubling dynamic because some of the Saints went to Confession on a weekly or even daily basis, and all recommend at least monthly reception of the Sacrament, in order to keep our souls spiritually clean and our spiritual vision unclouded/focused.
If we want to encounter the living God, we MUST take a radical inventory of our interior life and see what we need to change there, asking the Holy Spirit to show us what we need to see and the courage to change what we need to change (the serenity prayer). And remember the two types of sins that most blind us interiorly are the sins of pride and lust. Something to keep in mind when we do this spiritual inventory and go to the Sacrament of Confession.
The Ongoing Solution: Prayer
The deeper we grow in prayer, the deeper we grow in faith, and the more we encounter God. The two go hand in hand. Please take more time out every day to pray. Resolve to spend at least 15 more minutes each day praying and then see where the Holy Spirit leads you. If we have to get up earlier or go to bed later in order to spend that time with God in the silence, please do it – you will NEVER regret it. Why? Because our union with God in prayer is the beginning of eternal life, the Divine Indwelling by grace will lead to the Vision of the Trinity in the next life — the ultimate joy of the eternal embrace of pure and total love! God is inviting us to taste this now in the silence. Say Yes.
Father Rich Tomkosky is the Pastor of Saint Thomas the Apostle Parish in Bedford and Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Beans Cove.
Overview
Why Does It Seem Like God is So Hard to Find in the Modern World?
By Father Rich Tomkosky
In the readings this past weekend, we saw a fascinating encounter of the prophet Elijah with the living God. We also saw Peter venturing out to walk on the water, moving towards Jesus, only to falter in the end because of his weak faith. These two events point to the reality of God and that He desires communion with us, but often we falter and fail to enter into that communion. Why is that? And what are the particular challenges of our modern time and culture that makes it sometimes quite difficult to encounter the living God?
Exterior Noise
I think it is safe to say that we live in the noisiest culture in human history: cell phones going off, text messages and tweets; music blaring in the background in cars and on stereos, or in our headphones; the TV is buzzing day and night clamoring for our attention; we have the internet and its endless sea of information at our fingertips; videos, videogames, endless podcasts – some good, some bad. All of this is a distraction to focusing on the “higher things” per the saints.
The encounter of the prophet Elijah with God in the first reading was a lesson for all time. We will not encounter God in the noise. He is a God of peace and is encountered in the silence, in the small whispering sound that we will only hear if we allow ourselves to enter into silence – interiorly and exteriorly. It is not by accident that most monasteries have been located in rural areas.
The holy silence we are called to means that daily we need to shut those noisy distractions down for a time (start with a few minutes) and allow some exterior silence to be part of our life, e.g., try turning the radio off in the car when you are driving sometimes and instead pray the Rosary or Divine Mercy Chaplet; spend some quiet time communing with God (especially Eucharistic adoration). Reduce the exterior noise in your life and you will encounter the living God in profound ways in time.
Interior Noise
For most of us, it is not just the exterior noise in our life that prevents us from encountering the living God who reveals Himself in the whispers of life (little moments where we see true love at work in our families, little moments when things just fall into place, times when we are beaten down and then get a new surge of strength to go on in life, moments of insight that occur when reading, at Mass/Eucharistic adoration or on a walk), BUT we are also full of interior noise/anxiety. This is often an even more serious barrier to encountering the living God. This interior noise is often caused by unhealed hurts and unforgiven sins of various sorts.
We live in a time where the sense of sin has been lost to a great degree. We also live in a victim/blame culture where few take responsibility for their actions; instead, we blame the family environment we grew up in, our school, our neighbors, our boss, for all of our problems in life. Rarely do you encounter people who truly take responsibility for their actions and fess up to their sins, all the while trying to change and do better, in God. Maybe this is also why we see relatively few people going to Confession regularly, but almost everyone comes up for Holy Communion. We should find this a troubling dynamic because some of the Saints went to Confession on a weekly or even daily basis, and all recommend at least monthly reception of the Sacrament, in order to keep our souls spiritually clean and our spiritual vision unclouded/focused.
If we want to encounter the living God, we MUST take a radical inventory of our interior life and see what we need to change there, asking the Holy Spirit to show us what we need to see and the courage to change what we need to change (the serenity prayer). And remember the two types of sins that most blind us interiorly are the sins of pride and lust. Something to keep in mind when we do this spiritual inventory and go to the Sacrament of Confession.
The Ongoing Solution: Prayer
The deeper we grow in prayer, the deeper we grow in faith, and the more we encounter God. The two go hand in hand. Please take more time out every day to pray. Resolve to spend at least 15 more minutes each day praying and then see where the Holy Spirit leads you. If we have to get up earlier or go to bed later in order to spend that time with God in the silence, please do it – you will NEVER regret it. Why? Because our union with God in prayer is the beginning of eternal life, the Divine Indwelling by grace will lead to the Vision of the Trinity in the next life — the ultimate joy of the eternal embrace of pure and total love! God is inviting us to taste this now in the silence. Say Yes.
Father Rich Tomkosky is the Pastor of Saint Thomas the Apostle Parish in Bedford and Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Beans Cove.