How Well Do You Hear? Remember?

How well do you hear? How long is your memory? No, this isn’t a test for Alzheimer’s. These really are profound spiritual questions that we all would do well to consider.

How well do we hear God’s Word as revealed to us? How attuned are we to the words of the ancient and modern-day prophets who God sends to us regularly? How long do we remember all that God has done for his people, his chosen ones?

Jesus has some very strong words for those who fail to listen and to remember, as we have been hearing in the Gospel readings this past week at Mass. He condemned the Israelites of old for killing the prophets, and then condemned his contemporaries for building monuments to the prophets but forgetting the message, the words that they spoke.

How do we Catholics hear and remember? What is the primary way of doing so? It is through gathering as a parish for Sunday Mass. It is there that we hear proclaimed God’s Word, where we recall all that God has done for us as a people, where we remember the sacrifice that won for us new life. Yes, the Church is very much aware that unless we gather as a people to hear and remember, we will lose our faith. That is why the Church insists that we gather as a parish each Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation to worship at Mass.

Let us always have ears open to the Word of God in our lives. Let us always have hearts that are present to God as He is present to us. Let us never forget that God sent His only Son into the world to die, so we might live, and have the fullness of life.