Homily for 4th Sun Lent, Year B March 18, 2018
Fr. Albert Sacred Heart, Baldwin
What do you hear? When the Father’s voice echoes out in response to Jesus’ prayer, some in the crowd thought it was mere thunder. Jesus tells us that this voice is for our benefit, but what benefit is the sound of thunder? God speaks in many ways, all for our benefit, but if we do not know how to recognize it, if we have not the ability to listen, then what good is it? So, what do you hear?
Perhaps it’s better to start with why you should want to hear. We all know the promise of Christianity, but it is worth hearing it again. “The Father will honor whoever serves [Jesus Christ].” Jesus is “the source of eternal salvation;” He is the only way of preserving your life for eternal life, the only way to find forgiveness of sins and escape from that nagging awareness of our own weakness and wickedness. Pain, death, and sorrow will be no more when we receive this glorious, eternal honor of the Father, but we have to hear His voice first. And if you hear only thunder and noise, how can you learn to listen?
In a word, the answer is obedience. Actually, the word obedience comes from the same root as the word for hearing. The prophet Jeremiah – our first reading – speaks about those who did not hear, did not obey God. This same prophet also gave us the famous line “more torturous than all else is the human heart, beyond remedy, who can understand it?” Indeed, the human heart is torturous, wandering around from desire to desire, never satisfied and stubbornly refusing to stick to what we know is good. It is this torturous human heart that makes us deaf to God.
The Old Covenant – the Ten Commandments – were written on stone tablets to show their permanence, but the hearts of the Israelites were unimpressed. So, God promises to write the New Covenant directly on those torturous, disobedient hearts. This is the promise of the Holy Spirit, the promise of supernatural grace. But, it is something we must allow the Lord to do to us. Though he longs for the Human Heart more than anything else in creation, he will not take it, it must be given. The heart has to be prepared to receive that sacred writing and there is really only one way to do that. To suffer.
Yes, in order to truly hear God’s voice, you must be willing to suffer. The letter to the Hebrews – our second reading – says that even Jesus Christ, “Son though he was… learned obedience from what he suffered.” How can that be? How can the eternal son of God “learn” anything?! Why does God’s own Son have to suffer? And the answer to that is “for the glory of God.”
It sounds strange because it is strange, but that doesn’t make irrational. When the Father’s voice echoes out and says, “I have glorified [my name] and will glorify it again,” he is referring to 2 specific events in history: the incarnation and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Father glorifies His name above all at Christmas and at Easter.
In our fallenness, our stubborn, torturous hearts were unable to follow God’s plan. But suffering can teach obedience and humility, which is what we needed – that’s why every parent and every teacher uses punishment to correct their children, not because we want them to be in pain, but because suffering teaches us to listen a little better. When God says “I had to show myself their master” in our first reading, he is talking about punishing the Israelites for breaking the Old Covenant. But they kept breaking it, and they kept running away from His firm, but loving punishment.
And that is what brings us to the Incarnation. God loves us and wants our hearts to be happy. Only in God can they find happiness. But we won’t obey unless we are willing to suffer. But we aren’t willing to suffer. So, God says, “Fine! I’ll do it myself! I will show you how to suffer, to obey, and to listen!” But there is one problem. Being divine means you cannot suffer. God’s nature is all-powerful and immune to suffering or change. Thus, we have the Incarnation, the first true “glorification” of God’s name.
In order to show us how to suffer correctly, God added a human nature to his divine nature. That divinely-operated human nature can suffer. That’s the first step. The next step, the ultimate glorification of God’s name comes when Jesus actually does suffer, especially on the Cross. This is the “hour” that Jesus is talking about. So, Jesus “learns” obedience as a human, although as God he already knows. But the point is to teach us, to show us, to be there with us when we learn to suffer, to obey, to hear the voice of God.
Does that sound like “glory” and “good news” to you? That you now get to suffer? Well, it is, but only if we include a most important detail. The good news to all of this is this: you are already going to suffer anyway. God’s incarnation and crucifixion don’t create suffering for us. No. The very fact that you exist means you’re already going to suffer anyway. It’s unavoidable. So, why the cross? Why 3000 years of God speaking to man in Scripture and another 2000 through the Church?
Because there is a right and a wrong way to suffer. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are God’s way of saying to us “I love you so much that I want to be with you, even in your suffering.” It is his way of showing us “see, even suffering and death cannot stop my Love.” Death is the dark room; the frightening hallway and we are little children who are so afraid that we are willing to do anything to get away from it. The devil uses that fear to control us. He pressures us to sin with the false promise of escaping the darkness: suffering and the reality of death. But God walks in first and shows us “see, nothing to be afraid of. Just listen to my voice, follow me, and the lights will come on soon enough.”
To learn to hear God’s voice does not mean you have to hurt yourself. It just means that you take the suffering you already have and give it to Him; Invite God into that suffering and let it teach you to listen, to hear how God speaks even in the midst of our pain; Let it soften your heart so that he can write on it the imperishable truth that can be summed up in a single word: Love.