13th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2023

There is a big difference between listening and hearing. All of us probably played the game of telephone sometime in our youth. I remember playing it in the second grade. The teacher told a few-sentence story to the child at one end of the room, and by the time it reached the other end, we had distorted it completely. The exercise proves to us that it is easy to hear someone but more challenging to listen to them.

A more up-to-date example is the Yanny vs. Laurel experiment of a few years ago. Some scientists made a computer-generated sound and asked people what they heard. Forty-seven percent said they heard the name Yanny while fifty-three percent claimed the sound was the word Laurel. A variation in the ability to hear high-frequency sounds caused some listeners to hear Laurel and others Yanny. We can hear a lot without listening.  

I began this series of homilies on the Mass a few weeks ago. I started them to coincidence with the Eucharistic Revival the bishops of our country are conducting. This three-year Eucharistic Revival is being undertaken to try to clear up the misunderstanding of many Catholics regarding our belief in Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist. One of the ways to bring that about is to reinvigorate Catholic worship. While as a priest celebrant of the Mass, I have a great responsibility for the tone and solemnity of the Mass celebration. You aren’t meant to be passive observers. Everyone has a role in making Mass faith-filled and spiritually enriching.

We Catholics often refer to our worship as liturgy. Liturgy comes from a Greek word meaning the “work of the people.” Liturgy is meant to be everyone here’s job. Everyone has a part to play in making Mass moving and inspiring. So with this series of homilies, I’m trying to help you better understand why and what we do when we celebrate Mass so everyone can play their role in it.

If you want to listen to the previous homilies, we archive our weekend Masses on our parish website, www.holyredeemerchatham.org. Two weeks ago, I gave you a broad overview of the Mass. We reflected on the Mass as a mystery. By mystery, we don’t mean the Mass is a problem to be solved, but a mystery that goes beyond our ability to completely understand because it is from God, who is immutable. Last week I explained the Introductory Rites of the Mass and compared them to stretching exercises we do before we work out.

The Introductory Rites help us settle our minds and hearts for worship. I told you Mass preparation needs to begin before we come to church. Before entering the church door, we must start preparing ourselves. It begins by making sure we get to church at least a few minutes early to quiet ourselves and prepare to enter into prayer. To prepare for Mass, we ensure we have observed the Eucharistic fast and will not have eaten food or drink for an hour before receiving Communion. We make sure we are appropriately dressed for Mass. Good Mass preparation starts even more distant than an hour or so before it begins. It begins during the week by reflecting upon the scripture readings proclaimed during the Mass. We will be better prepared for the Mass if we have read over the week’s readings and used them in our prayer during the week.

I often encourage you to make scripture reading part of your prayer. Over the last few decades, Catholics have been encouraged to read and reflect on scripture more often, yet only about one-third of Catholics say they regularly pray with scripture.

Today I’ll be talking with you about the section of the Mass called the Liturgy of the Word. It is when we need to get serious about the work of the liturgy. The Liturgy of the Word is the part of the Mass where God wants to elicit a response from us. It is where we need to not only hear what God is saying to us but to listen so we can respond to God.

The Liturgy of the Word begins with a reading from a book of the Hebrew scriptures or- during the Easter season- the Acts of the Apostles, and concludes with the Prayers of the Faithful. We start with a reading from the Hebrew Scriptures because to understand Jesus’s ministry, we must learn from them and the New Testament’s lessons. Next comes the Psalm, one of the songs of prayer that help us reflect on the first reading. The second reading comes from a letter of Paul or one of the other apostles written during the early days of the Church. The apostles wrote these letters to encourage the faith of the early Christians. Since we face many of the same challenges today, the purpose of the second reading is to encourage us also.

The last reading we listen to is from one of the gospels. Last week I told you we hear the phrase “The Lord be with you” four times during the Mass. The first time is at the beginning of Mass. It is said to help us refocus ourselves and prepare to listen because something important is about to happen. The Gospel reading is the most important reading because it tells us of Jesus’ ministry and preaching. The Liturgy of the Word’s readings is compiled in a three-year cycle based on the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, with readings from the Gospel of John mixed in. In that process, we get excellent exposure to much of the Bible.

The priest or deacon next gives a homily or sermon, usually based on the readings or, like I am doing today, a tenet of our faith. Its purpose is to help instruct, encourage, offer solace, and sometimes admonish the congregation. The homily is another hot-button issue with Catholics. Catholics often criticize preaching when compared to other denominations. I sometimes think that is a cop-out. I’ve sat through some tough homilies but heard some very well-prepared and thought-provoking ones.

I try to work hard on my homilies, and the response from parishioners is you recognize it and appreciate it. There is a rule of thumb that a homilist need to do an hour of preparation for every minute he speaks. I try to follow it. I’m always open to feedback and appreciate when parishioners give me some that goes deeper than just, “Nice job, Father.” Of course, I most enjoy positive feedback, but I appreciate it when a parishioner tells me they wish that I had brought out a point I made better.

The reciting of the Creed, our profession of faith, and the Prayers of the Faithful follow the homily. The Creed is a summarization of the basic tenets of our faith. The Prayers of the Faithful include all the needs of our community locally, nationally, and worldwide.

To get something out of a homily, a parishioner, of course, needs to listen. I remember an incident when I first came to the parish. It was my second week here, and I was up at Our Lady of Grace, our Summer chapel, for the first time. I was standing outside greeting people when a couple approached. I can say this because my name is Sullivan, but she was the typical Boston Irish hag. She had a scowl on her face, and with a hard voice, said,

“Are you the new pastor?”

I said, “Yes, I’m Fr. John Sullivan. I’m pleased to meet you.”

Without a greeting, she said, “You know, Father, we’re known for short homilies in this parish.”

I believe the Holy Spirit must have been with me because I responded, “You know I have never felt spending time with the Lord was wasted.”

She entered the church, but I don’t remember seeing her again. We won’t get anything out of a Mass if we aren’t willing to come and make an effort to listen with an open heart.

Jesus told a parable in Matthew’s Gospel about the need to be willing to not only hear His message but listen to it. It is the Parable of the Sower. In the parable, Jesus tells the story of a farmer who goes out to sow seeds. Jesus said some seeds fell on a footpath where the ground was hard, and birds immediately came and ate it all up. Other seeds fell among thorns that choked out the plants as they tried to grow. Jesus said some seeds fell on rocky ground, where they sprouted quickly, but because the soil was so thin, the sun burned them out when it came up. Finally, Jesus said some seeds fell on fertile ground that the farmer had tilled and fertilized. These seeds germinated and produced a tremendous crop.

The parable reminds us of a scientific experiment with two variables fixed and one allowed to vary. The seed was all the same, the sower the same person, and only the ground conditions were allowed to change. It is similar here at Mass. We all hear the same words that go into our ears and then to our brains. They work themselves down from our brains to try to transform our hearts. The Word’s ability to change our hearts depends on how receptive we make them.

I invite you to take some time this week to ask how to make your heart more receptive to the Word of God you heard today. To do that, you have to check your ego. We all need to find out what keeps us from listening to God.

·         What questions about God, the Church, and your faith keep you from listening well?

·         What in your life keeps you preoccupied or distracts you from having a heart receptive to God?

·         What would keep me from accepting the challenge I get from the gospels? What excuses do I already formulate to prevent me from listening to God?

If we remove some of those barriers, we can truly listen to God and not just hear God’s message, which will truly reorientate our lives.