Hearing God’s Voice

Tuesday of the Second Week of Easter

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041426.cfm 

Good morning, St. X, and Happy Easter Season.

What are your favorite sounds as you go about your day here at Saint Xavier High School?  I’ll ask that question again [repeat]. I bet you have never given that much thought.  We often tune out familiar noises as we go about life.  I want to share with you my four favorite sounds.

First, when I come into the Driscoll building in the morning and pass the auditorium, I usually hear a wild and raucous noise drifting up from the weight room at the bottom of the steps.  There’s the metallic clang of iron plates hitting each other, the crash of heavy bars, hype-up music blaring, and above it all the primal sound of guys driving each other on.  This is what brotherhood sounds like.

Second, when I walk down the first floor of the T during the school day, I’m bound to hear a single word—IF!—from our teacher of the year, Coach John Jefferson, as he pours himself into his students.  This is what service sounds like.  

Third, on a Friday up in the campus ministry office on the second floor, I will hear a little hissing noise.  It’s the white noise machine outside Fr. Anthony Vinson’s office, and that sound means that someone is in there with him doing the hard work of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  That penitent is in there owning up to where he has fallen short of who God made him to be – and asking for mercy from a God who never tires of forgiving us. This is what grace sounds like.  

My fourth and final favorite sound is the loud and unrestrained honk of St. X’s two Canada geese.  You know that we have two Canada geese, right?  Or it might be more correct to say two geese live here and permit us to share the same space.  During the winter months, the geese liked to hang out on the roof. Even deep in the school building, you could hear them chaotically calling to each other.  

If you have ever been around geese, you know that they are not safe, tame animals.  If you get too close, they bring their wings up, stick their tongues out, hiss, and charge. Though they aren’t big, I will confess to having run away from them. The geese calls remind us that the world is still wild and that we are not its masters. 

To the Catholics of Scotland, the wild goose is a symbol of the Holy Spirit.  That very wildness and untameability is part of God’s own character.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus describes the Holy Spirit being like the wind,  

“The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes,

but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes;

so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

I like to imagine that Saint Francis Xavier heard this Scripture passage before he became a missionary to Asia.  Francis was not the first choice of Jesuit priests to travel to the East, and he doubted his own willingness and capability to go.  Perhaps while he was praying over what to do, Francis heard a pair of wild geese honking, and in that sound, the Holy Spirit’s desire to propel him to the ends of the earth.  

The Xaverian Brothers, in their document The Fundamental Principles, write to us that we should, “Stand ready to answer when asked if you are available for God to become more present in your life and through you to the world.”   When we make ourselves available to God, God can use us to do incredible things with our lives.  Just like Saint Francis Xavier, God made you for something great.  Making yourself available to God leads to zeal in serving him.  When the geese honk on our campus, this is what zeal sounds like.  

I have described to you four sounds that I hear during my day—the weight room, Coach Jefferson, the white noise machine, and the geese—and how through these sounds I hear brotherhood, service, grace, and zeal.  God is speaking to each one of us, all the time.  Jesus tell us, “he who has ears should listen.”  The voice of God is not always obvious or loud, but He never stops calling out to us and drawing us to Himself. There are many other noises in this world that are competing for our attention and pulling us in the wrong direction.  

I challenge you this Easter season to become a better listener.   Here are three suggestions for how to do that: first, give yourself some quiet time every day.  Avoid the temptation to always have earbuds in and screens on.  It is hard to notice God when we are drowning in an ocean of noise.  Second, the Bible is God’s Word.  Spend some time reading it or going to mass where you can hear it proclaimed.  Finally, seek out wise people who can give you good advice.  God often speaks to us through other people’s voices.  

As we continue this great 50-day Easter season that began two Sundays ago, may you listen for God’s voice when he speaks to you, and may you answer his call.  God bless you.