God Speaks to Us

Since Vatican II every Sacramental celebration has its proper Scripture reading. What is more, the proclamations at Eucharist now cover almost the entire Bible over a three-year period for Sundays and a two-year cycle for weekdays. Every important passage in the Bible is thus offered to us. Yet our experience is that our hearts rarely thrill at meeting the Lord in the Word, as happens when we encounter a loved one! Why do the readings leave us cold and distant, almost alienated from our loving Father? Could there be some fault with the way we listen?

First of all we recall that it is the Risen Lord himself and his Spirit who interpret the Scriptural message for us. Secondly, God speaks to us in the Liturgy primarily to remind us of his love. As he did at Mt. Sinai God as it were, asks us at the end of the proclamation of the Word: "Have you seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself?" (Ex. 19:3-5) Have you tasted how much I love you? But, as it is said often in relation to human communication: "I cannot tell you what you have said; I can only report what I have heard!" This means that in practice, we hear what we want to hear, or what we are conditioned to hear. What then have we been conditioned to look for in the Scriptures, especially at Eucharist?

Purpose: To Reveal the Father

Like every human communication, God's Word is directed primarily towards revealing who God is. "No one has ever seen God. It is God's only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known (Jn. 1:18; Lk. 10:22-23). We would never know who God is by our own endeavours. So, through his Word God opens his heart to us, showing us how totally different (holy) he is from what we imagine him to be: "My thoughts are not your thoughts…" His qualities, especially his mercy and love (hesed-emeth), are unimaginable, unbelievable, beyond our wildest dreams, almost too good to be true. That is why we need to listen attentively and with faith to accept whatever he reveals to us. The secret then, is to listen with an open mind, or better with a question in mind: "Which qualities of God does this passage reveal to me?" When we listen in this way, it is amazing what we discover.

We take an example: Read/recall the parable of the Sower. What is the message you usually get on hearing this parable? Isn't is something like this: 'Which of the four kinds of soil am I? When am I going to become a more productive soil?' If this is what we hear, we direct the focus of the Word primarily onto ourselves, worried about what kind of response we need to give. We fail to realize that as long as we focus on ourselves, we are wading in the quicksands of the Self - we get more and more entangled and engulfed and finally succumb to the worst in ourselves.

But, if we courageously focus on God's qualities first, the results are refreshingly different and encouraging. Looking at the Sower parable in this light, we discover God as 'generous, patient, persevering, respecting our freedom, impartial, always taking the initiative' and the like. Now, when we realize that God's loving heart is prepared to wait patiently no matter how often we fail, that he will never give up on us - would we not be disposed to respond more effectively? And, if God is patient with us can we afford to get impatient with others who do not produce the expected fruits? Won't we find ourselves becoming more understanding, patient, encouraging and calm, exactly the way God is?

However, the self-centred approach has been so deeply ingrained in us that we would have to make a Herculean effort to change our present attitude to the Word. Yet the positive benefits of this approach are guaranteed. The more time we spend seeking to know God, the easier will it be for us to "taste and see that the Lord is good."