Reflections from the Heart – September 19, 2021

Twenty-fifthSunday in Ordinary Time
by Fr. Ivan Olmo

“The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.” Noise is just that, noise. Noise wants to drown out the sound of truth, the sound of sweetness, the sound of goodness. It chooses to overwhelm, it plans to overcome, it has to overtake silence. Noise wants to be seen. It wants to be heard. Noise draws all attention to itself. It is an unpleasant sound that seeks to confuse, to deafen, to silence the voice of faith, reason and truth. I am struck by the noise, the yelling, the screaming in the Passion of Christ. The crowds are angry, hostile, noisy.  They desire to drown out the truth of who Jesus is, why he came, all he did. The noise of the crowd wants to ensure that the Word of God, the words of encouragement, all the miracles are hushed, quieted, silenced so that truth cannot be heard, so it cannot be seen. But truth always flows from the precious lips of Jesus. Truth is who he is and although we are so deaf to the truth, the truth never changes, it is relentless, it never gives up, it never ceases to exist or to be true. The truth sets us free. It moves us and challenges us to change. It makes us work at being good, at being holy, at being truthful. O my sweet Savior, how can anyone hear the racing of your heart beat or the pains of your body trembling or the weeping of your soul in agony or the sound of your tears and blood hitting the ground when there is so much hatred, so much yelling, so much rejection. They yell for your death. They yell out all the louder, “Crucify him!” “Crucify him!” The truth of your love is drowned out by pride and selfishness, greed and ignorance, fear and fearfulness. Our hearts, our souls, our spirits want to hear you. They need to hear the truth that you love us but our minds are plagued with darkness and temptation. They refuse to listen. Our minds oppose truth. They fail to understand that without you, we are nothing. Without you, we can do nothing. Without you, we cease to exist. Sin renders us helpless. It causes us to be hopeless, weak and pitiful. We lack wisdom, we lack knowledge, we lack understanding, we lack counsel, we lack strength. We become unholy, ungodly, noisy, fearful of everything except the one thing we should fear the most — being separated from you.