Everybody is looking for you

Thomas of Celeno on reflecting on life of St Francis of Assisi states an advice he gave to his co-workers, "The preacher must first draw from secret prayers what he will later pour out in holy sermons; he must first grow hot within before he speaks words that are in themselves cold." (Stanton, 2012). This draws together what is in the heart of the Gospel for this weekend. Jesus went into the hills to be drawn more deeply into a relationship with God so that he could proclaim the Good News to others. He needs to rekindle the fire each day so that his words would be spoken in word and in action. To bring healing and forgiveness. This was not just so that he could become a great orator but so that through his words people might encounter the living love of God. He was calling people to be freed from the demons that enslaved them.

In our own lives, we need to be united in word and action with our God. I often reflect upon this when I read some of the prayers in our daily Mass or in the office. It is possible to pass over them too quickly and just allow them to roll through one ear and out the other. We can tend to pray too superficially where we do not allow the word to penetrate the heart. This is not easy because sometimes the words we pray cause us to wrestle with what is important to us with what is important to God. It is all too easy to pay lip service to these words and move on. It is like hearing the words of a song and then promptly forgetting what was said until we hear it again. Yet the gospel is called to become an earworm which repeats over and over in a way which is hard to forget or take away from our minds. Yet by learning not only to know the words but to inculturate the Word we start to live from a place where a fire burns deep within. We are called to become present to the word and take it more deeply. This is not about quantity of the text that we read but an engagement which is heartfelt. In this, we start to move from a desire to find Jesus outside ourselves to find the room he which he already has lit the fire, which glows within.

Bibliography

Stanton, G., 2012. The Gospel Coalition. [Online]
Available at: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/factchecker-misquoting-francis-of-assisi/
[Accessed 29th January 2018].