on Luke 24:1-32
By Rev. Ronnie P. Floyd
By Rev. Ronnie P. Floyd
I often get the question:
Does God really talk to us? Can we really hear God's voice?
Many Christians, particularly young Christians doubt
that if we talk to God in prayer He will talk back to us.
Perhaps you have talked and talked to God, at times,
and you feel as if you have never gotten a response:
about God's vocation and plan for you,
about your requests
about your questions
about why he allows people you love to suffer
Maybe you would just like him to say: "hey how you doing"
to let you know you're not crazy
for taking time to talk to God and practice your Faith,
when the world seems to be telling you are...
The Problem
The problem with talking with God
is that His response is often lost in translation.
You've all studied foreign languages;
have you ever decided to take your language skills out for a spin?
And tried to talk with an actual foreign speaker,
Bonjour m'amie comment t'allez vous ma cher...
And gotten back in response a garble of jiberish
that sounds like radio static?
Speaking of radio static....
did you know that much of the static we hear on the radio
is actually human voices and signals that we are just not tuning into properly or that are too weak for us to understand.
Like talking to a foreigner or tuning into the radio
it takes time and effort to hear voices from far away.
We need to focus on what is being said, and tune out other noise.
Sometime we just need to listen more carefully
or become attune to how something is being said.
And even when you understand the basics of what they are saying
you need to understand what they are saying means.
We had a professor in Rome who used to regularly say
"e un pezzo di torta..." it's a piece of cake
To which the actual Italian speakers would scratch their head wondering, what does the Trinity have to do with cake?
Our God is not far away or a foreigner,
but one of the key principles of theology is that
God is always so much greater than what we think He is.
God is not like us, in fact He is not like anything
we will ever experience in His creation!!!
And since we learn from experience
and think using these learned ideas
it is hard for God to communicate with us,
because it's hard for us to understand God.
In the Garden of Eden we are told
God walked with Adam and Eve,
somehow making His presence
co-natural with their understanding.
But because of sin that's not the case any more for us.
Movies like Oh God, and Evan Almighty,
demonstrate our human desire
for God to just talk to us man to man.
And of course He tried that in the incarnation.
The problem then and now being that
you can ignore your fellow man, as many ignored Jesus.
How to Hear from God
So how can he get our attention?
Wouldn't it be great if God decided to use billboards to talk to us? Just think, we could drive down the road and God
would simply choose one of a zillion billboards
to get our attention.
On the other hand, he could use something more subtle.
Like a gentle rap on the side of the head
whenever we veer off the course.
Yup, there's a thought. God smacking people upside the head whenever they don't listen.
The problem is I'm afraid we'd all be walking around in a daze from all the repetitive brain trauma.
Hearing from God is a learned skill.
Of course, you could be one of the lucky ones like Moses,
who was walking up the mountain, minding his own business, when he stumbled upon the burning bush.
Sadly although God talks to lots of people in spectacular and seemingly overt ways in the Bible,
the bible is the history of thousands of years,
and in all that time God spoke to people in these ways
only a handful of times.
Most of us don't have those kinds of encounters so we find ourselves looking for skills to help us hear from God.
But the fact of the matter is that God speaks to us
in all these ways and many more on a daily basis,
if only we pay attention and listen to him.
Like that piece of cake my professor used to talk about,
God try's to speak to us with images and symbols that we understand and can interpret.
When I was 16 praying about my vocation
God sent me a message in a little bundle of flesh.
Holding my infant nephew for the first time in a hospital
and marveling at the miracle of life,
for the first time I began to think of my vocation
not just in terms of the job I would do, but who I was called to be.
At that moment I was sure I was called to be a father,
and I was...I just needed to listen a little bit more
it took me another 8 years to understand that there is more than one type of father.
In billboards, on TV, in movies, on the Radio, in Books, in other people, in life events,
God is sending us a message through symbols and images
that we can understand, if we stop and think about them in prayer!
So how can you tell if God is Talking to you?
Here are some common ways God talks to us:
• His Word--In order to understand a person we need to know something about their character and history.
The more we understand the story of who someone is
the more we understand what they say
and why they are saying it.
To actually "hear" from God we have to know who God is, and the way he does things, and who we are to God.
The Bible goes into a lot of detail about how you can expect God to react and what kinds of expectations he has for us,
• Other People--In Genesis God creates man in His Image and Likeness, and so if we want to get to know God we can look at his picture in other people. And if Jesus says in the Gospel whatsoever you do for the least of my brothers you do for me, then logically when we listen to our neighbors we listen to God.
Many times God will use other people to speak directly to us or try to get through to us.
It's possible for God to use anyone at any time, but speaks particularly clearly in those who are striving to do His will.
And let's not forget that listening to other people includes things like the arts and culture, which are after all just alternative means of communication.
I love movies, particularly very artsy and symbolic movies. people often think I am weird when I tell them I hear God talking to me in movies. But why not? And I am not just talking about overtly Christian movies.
Sure, God is speaking to us all about courage and sin in a movie or book like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings,
but why can't he also speak to us through Stephen King, or Shakespeare, or even someone as antiCatholic as Dan Brown.
Our Circumstances--Sometimes the only way God can teach us something is to allow circumstances in our life to lead us to and through the very thing we need to discover.
Peter knew he was a sinner from the start of the Gospel, but he needed to experience his weakness, and how much he needed the Grace of God, in order to internalize that message, and so Jesus said "Verily I say to you Peter, before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times."
God doesn't want us to sin, but if we are to accept what St. Paul teaches: "that all things work for God for those who love God," then even in the experience of sinning God can speak to us.
I am not of course encouraging you to sin to hear God's voice, since the act of sinning is as much a distraction from God as an opportunity to hear Him
• The Still Small Voice--although our God is not in the habit of wacking us upside our head when we get off the path, our conscience attempts to do just that and is the small voice of God speaking to us in our heart.
As St. Ignatius explains when we are doing God's will we should have peace in our heart.
Whenever we're considering something and we don't have peace about it, it's a very good idea to stop and carefully look at the options. There's a reason you don't feel peace about it.
• The Actual Voice--Sometimes in our dreams or even occasionally in ever day life we're able to actually "hear" something that sounds to us like an audible voice.
Pay attention to those occasions because it is very likely God trying to tell you something important.
Overall, when God Talks, Shut Up and Listen!
Jesus is here, remaining with us,
but often we are so afraid, so uncomfortable,
with just being with Him, in His presence.
It all starts here, at the Altar, in the Eucharist,
through the Word of God, and in Prayer.
Here we begin to understand the structure of reality,
and see and understand God's constant conversation with us,
if we believe and are open to it.
Finally like the women who first received the message of the Resurrection at the tomb, don't be surprised or afraid
if other people, and even other Catholics think you are crazy
for hearing the voice of God.
It is always easier, in terms of effort and comfort,
not to hear Him! And that's why many don't...
Many Christians, particularly young Christians doubt
that if we talk to God in prayer He will talk back to us.
Perhaps you have talked and talked to God, at times,
and you feel as if you have never gotten a response:
about God's vocation and plan for you,
about your requests
about your questions
about why he allows people you love to suffer
Maybe you would just like him to say: "hey how you doing"
to let you know you're not crazy
for taking time to talk to God and practice your Faith,
when the world seems to be telling you are...
The Problem
The problem with talking with God
is that His response is often lost in translation.
You've all studied foreign languages;
have you ever decided to take your language skills out for a spin?
And tried to talk with an actual foreign speaker,
Bonjour m'amie comment t'allez vous ma cher...
And gotten back in response a garble of jiberish
that sounds like radio static?
Speaking of radio static....
did you know that much of the static we hear on the radio
is actually human voices and signals that we are just not tuning into properly or that are too weak for us to understand.
Like talking to a foreigner or tuning into the radio
it takes time and effort to hear voices from far away.
We need to focus on what is being said, and tune out other noise.
Sometime we just need to listen more carefully
or become attune to how something is being said.
And even when you understand the basics of what they are saying
you need to understand what they are saying means.
We had a professor in Rome who used to regularly say
"e un pezzo di torta..." it's a piece of cake
To which the actual Italian speakers would scratch their head wondering, what does the Trinity have to do with cake?
Our God is not far away or a foreigner,
but one of the key principles of theology is that
God is always so much greater than what we think He is.
God is not like us, in fact He is not like anything
we will ever experience in His creation!!!
And since we learn from experience
and think using these learned ideas
it is hard for God to communicate with us,
because it's hard for us to understand God.
In the Garden of Eden we are told
God walked with Adam and Eve,
somehow making His presence
co-natural with their understanding.
But because of sin that's not the case any more for us.
Movies like Oh God, and Evan Almighty,
demonstrate our human desire
for God to just talk to us man to man.
And of course He tried that in the incarnation.
The problem then and now being that
you can ignore your fellow man, as many ignored Jesus.
How to Hear from God
So how can he get our attention?
Wouldn't it be great if God decided to use billboards to talk to us? Just think, we could drive down the road and God
would simply choose one of a zillion billboards
to get our attention.
On the other hand, he could use something more subtle.
Like a gentle rap on the side of the head
whenever we veer off the course.
Yup, there's a thought. God smacking people upside the head whenever they don't listen.
The problem is I'm afraid we'd all be walking around in a daze from all the repetitive brain trauma.
Hearing from God is a learned skill.
Of course, you could be one of the lucky ones like Moses,
who was walking up the mountain, minding his own business, when he stumbled upon the burning bush.
Sadly although God talks to lots of people in spectacular and seemingly overt ways in the Bible,
the bible is the history of thousands of years,
and in all that time God spoke to people in these ways
only a handful of times.
Most of us don't have those kinds of encounters so we find ourselves looking for skills to help us hear from God.
But the fact of the matter is that God speaks to us
in all these ways and many more on a daily basis,
if only we pay attention and listen to him.
Like that piece of cake my professor used to talk about,
God try's to speak to us with images and symbols that we understand and can interpret.
When I was 16 praying about my vocation
God sent me a message in a little bundle of flesh.
Holding my infant nephew for the first time in a hospital
and marveling at the miracle of life,
for the first time I began to think of my vocation
not just in terms of the job I would do, but who I was called to be.
At that moment I was sure I was called to be a father,
and I was...I just needed to listen a little bit more
it took me another 8 years to understand that there is more than one type of father.
In billboards, on TV, in movies, on the Radio, in Books, in other people, in life events,
God is sending us a message through symbols and images
that we can understand, if we stop and think about them in prayer!
So how can you tell if God is Talking to you?
Here are some common ways God talks to us:
• His Word--In order to understand a person we need to know something about their character and history.
The more we understand the story of who someone is
the more we understand what they say
and why they are saying it.
To actually "hear" from God we have to know who God is, and the way he does things, and who we are to God.
The Bible goes into a lot of detail about how you can expect God to react and what kinds of expectations he has for us,
• Other People--In Genesis God creates man in His Image and Likeness, and so if we want to get to know God we can look at his picture in other people. And if Jesus says in the Gospel whatsoever you do for the least of my brothers you do for me, then logically when we listen to our neighbors we listen to God.
Many times God will use other people to speak directly to us or try to get through to us.
It's possible for God to use anyone at any time, but speaks particularly clearly in those who are striving to do His will.
And let's not forget that listening to other people includes things like the arts and culture, which are after all just alternative means of communication.
I love movies, particularly very artsy and symbolic movies. people often think I am weird when I tell them I hear God talking to me in movies. But why not? And I am not just talking about overtly Christian movies.
Sure, God is speaking to us all about courage and sin in a movie or book like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings,
but why can't he also speak to us through Stephen King, or Shakespeare, or even someone as antiCatholic as Dan Brown.
Our Circumstances--Sometimes the only way God can teach us something is to allow circumstances in our life to lead us to and through the very thing we need to discover.
Peter knew he was a sinner from the start of the Gospel, but he needed to experience his weakness, and how much he needed the Grace of God, in order to internalize that message, and so Jesus said "Verily I say to you Peter, before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times."
God doesn't want us to sin, but if we are to accept what St. Paul teaches: "that all things work for God for those who love God," then even in the experience of sinning God can speak to us.
I am not of course encouraging you to sin to hear God's voice, since the act of sinning is as much a distraction from God as an opportunity to hear Him
• The Still Small Voice--although our God is not in the habit of wacking us upside our head when we get off the path, our conscience attempts to do just that and is the small voice of God speaking to us in our heart.
As St. Ignatius explains when we are doing God's will we should have peace in our heart.
Whenever we're considering something and we don't have peace about it, it's a very good idea to stop and carefully look at the options. There's a reason you don't feel peace about it.
• The Actual Voice--Sometimes in our dreams or even occasionally in ever day life we're able to actually "hear" something that sounds to us like an audible voice.
Pay attention to those occasions because it is very likely God trying to tell you something important.
Overall, when God Talks, Shut Up and Listen!
Jesus is here, remaining with us,
but often we are so afraid, so uncomfortable,
with just being with Him, in His presence.
It all starts here, at the Altar, in the Eucharist,
through the Word of God, and in Prayer.
Here we begin to understand the structure of reality,
and see and understand God's constant conversation with us,
if we believe and are open to it.
Finally like the women who first received the message of the Resurrection at the tomb, don't be surprised or afraid
if other people, and even other Catholics think you are crazy
for hearing the voice of God.
It is always easier, in terms of effort and comfort,
not to hear Him! And that's why many don't...
