Posted by The WORD in other words (2013) by Fr. Joey Miras, SVD – Toronto, Canada
16th Sunday in Ordinary Time – C
In a society where there is so much talk of almost everything (just look at how many talk shows are there on TV and other shows like debates, interviews, TV anchors who never stop talking, etc.) it is no wonder people get tired of words and words and too much words. Times to be quiet are in high demand. We just take note of emerging trends in big cities where centers/shops that offer time for relaxation and meditation abound (Yoga centers also are mushrooming).
Well, this could also be seen as a way out of stress but isn’t this desire for a bit of rest from all noise and talk an indication of something people are looking for, something missing in most of our lives or something which has been neglected or taken for granted?
Pope Benedict XVI’s Lenten message in 2012 touched exactly on something basic which gets lost easily and that is listening, the act of listening, especially listening to the divine. It may not be something easy but definitely, it is something all of us need to strive after and we should get used to. For it is in hearing or listening to God’s voice (word) that we come to the very source that sparks life in all of us.
May the following words of the poet T.S.Eliot, remind us of the need to create a space for the word to become alive in us all.
If the lost Word is lost, if the spent word is spent
If the unheard is unspoken, unheard;
Still the unspoken word, the Word unheard,
The Word without a word, the Word within
The world and for the world;
And the light shone the unstilled world still whirled
Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
About the centre of the silent Word
O my people, what have I done to thee?
Where shall the world be found, where will the word
Resound, not here, there is not enough silence
Not on the sea or on the islands, not
On the mainland, in the desert or the rain land,
For those who walk in darkness
Both in the day time and in the night time
The right time and the right place are not here
No time to rejoice for those who walk among
The noise and deny the voice.
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