August 2, 2020

18^th Sunday in Ordinary Time [A]

“The Seed of Active Charity”

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

Noise is one of the constants of our culture. Public places provide a cacophony of sounds and visual stimuli. Smart phones place noise and distractions on our persons. On my phone there are various ways for someone to contact me: phone, text, facetime, WhatsApp, email. Unlocking my phone to do one task leads me inevitably to do another, something to Google, news to check, responding to an old message. Our churches, which should be sanctuaries from the relentless noise of the world have become noisy and distracting. A few of our good people viewing our live-streamed Masses text comments during Mass and some I suspect are taking their breakfast.
 
Cardinal Robert Sarah warns us that we are overwhelmed by the noise of the world and the noise within ourselves. He asserts that we have become “complicit victims of a dictatorship of noise.” Our world needs silence, reflection, adoration. It has been said that without these, “…we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences and failing to achieve anything useful.”
 
Jesus who frequently made spaces for solitude invites us to silence. St. Matthew tells us that “…he withdrew to a deserted place by himself” [14:13]. If the Son of God felt the need for silence, how much more should we. Search the Gospels, and you will find that Our Lord’s great actions, his generosity and compassion were preceded by silence and solitude.
 
Silence is not an end in itself nor a flight from life. Silence deepens our knowledge of God, of life and ourselves. Do we give ourselves this opportunity? How often do we make spaces for solitude and silence? Do we precede any of life’s important decisions with silence and solitude? Silence generates action that is effective and fruitful. When we rise from prayer, do we feel animated by love? Are we more generous and compassionate?
 
Just as in the Lord’s life, our silence and solitude should blossom into an active love.
 
In the world, people still go without food and drink, people still suffer. Their plight is solved not in waiting for a miraculous intervention from heaven but in the changing of our own hearts. Jesus teaches us that the key is our participation, our sharing, our charity, that is the fruit of our silence, our solitude, our contemplation.
 
After satisfying the crowd, Our Lord downplays the miracle’s importance and rejects the desire to make him king. He dismisses the crowds and goes off by himself up the the mountain to pray,” modeling the necessity of silence and solitude. He did not come to bring them common bread but the Bread of Life, the bread that can transform our hearts and make it more capable of true and generous love.
 
After Communion, let us devote some time to silence that will amplify the awesome reality of our encounter with the Lord and help us to see the world as he does and to love our brothers and sisters.