We, as baptized people, are children of God and not mere creatures, and therefore it is incumbent upon us to bear public witness to the greatness of our Religion and Christ Jesus.
Newsroom (07/09/2021 11:15, Gaudium Press) To listen to the voice of God is to take the attitude of Samuel: “Speak, Lord; your servant is listening”, or that of St. Paul on the road to Damascus, or that of so many others.
In the opposite sense, the sinner ends up becoming deaf to the calls of God due to the din of his passions; and even forgets the supernatural messages received in the past.
God’s deafness
Deafness symbolizes all the insensitivity of the soul in its relationship with the Creator. There are countless means by which God seeks to contact us.
First of all through the very order of visible creation; then through the tangible and palpable facts produced by natural and supernatural providence, about which the Book of Wisdom teaches us marvelously.
Wisdom, as Scripture declares, “anticipates those who desire it. Whoever, to possess her, rises early in the morning, will have no trouble, for he will find her sitting at his door.”
In other words, God is continually calling us to share in His eternal glory and happiness.
Those who love Him intensely are most sensitive to God, as we find again in St. John: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word” (Jn 14:23).
Unfortunately, spiritual deafness is much more widespread today than in other historical eras. Even among the baptized themselves.
Recollection
A countless number of souls have their ears hardened to the word of God, either through lack of formation or poverty of prayer. How many are the practical atheists who never pray!
However, to receive some communication from eternity, it is enough to place oneself in a state of contemplation.
Those who do not do this will find it difficult to discern the voice of grace in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the modern world. And we must not forget the advice of Scripture: “If today you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
The cooling down of our prayer life, the abandonment of the practice of religion, give free rein to our unruly passions, bad habits invade our intelligence and our will, the Law of God becomes more and more burdensome, and, finally, we end up deaf to God, and dumb to His glory.
It will be useful, and perhaps even indispensable, in these circumstances, to create some distance, to withdraw in some way, to surrender oneself into the hands of Jesus and be miraculized by Him.
Spiritual mutism
Saint Augustine uses throughout his works, many times, the expression “Deaf to hear the truth and dumb to glorify God”. The metaphor is even more applicable to our world today.
A large majority of people today have their ears open and sensitive to almost everything that is not of God: immoralities, blasphemy, atheism, scandals, etc.; and often closed or hardened to the warnings, examples, and advice towards holiness.
And what to think of the use of the tongue? Often it consists of uttering sins, iniquities, blasphemies, slanders, calumnies, lies, etc., when in reality we have received from God the gift of speech to proclaim His greatness, honor, and glory!
Mankind is more deaf and mute than all the speech and hearing-impaired people in the days of Our Lord’s public life.
How necessary is Mary’s intercession to obtain from Jesus the return of the hearing and expressiveness of the golden ages of history, when men sang the glories of God not only through words, gestures, and attitudes but also through melodies and all the arts!
Mons. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, EP.
Compiled by Camille Mittermeier
