Catching God’s voice

THIS is an art and skill we need acquire. Knowing that our life is not just our own, but is always a life shared first of all with God, our Creator and Father, and then with others, we have to realize more deeply that we have this duty of learning how to catch God’s voice not only in some special moments of our life, but also at all times.

Yes, God speaks to us all the time, and that’s simply because he, being our Creator who can never withdraw his presence from us, is the main protagonist in giving shape and direction to our life.

We, of course, do our part, and others and everything else in our life contribute in shaping our life, but it is God who originally, abidingly and ultimately gives it shape and direction.

We should not forget this very basic truth about ourselves. God is still creating us. He is not yet finished with us. We are still a work in progress, a divine project that is still under construction. He wants us to be truly his image and likeness, to be children of his, meant to share in his life and nature. We have to be most aware of this truth and behave accordingly.

But we have to learn how to catch his voice. We can presume that being our Creator and Father who loves us to madness, he is actually intervening in our life all the time. There is nothing in our life where he is not involved. Even in our worst scenario, when we fall into a big mess, with a big ugly sin defacing our soul, he is around, even more solicitous of our condition than ever.

He never leaves us. It is us who leaves him, ignores him and even goes against him. We have to acknowledge this reality and do our part to correct what is wrong or deficient in our relationship with God.

God himself reveals to us constantly, even through nature itself. St. Paul said as much in his Letter to the Romans. “For what can be known about God,” he said, “is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made.” (1,19-20)

We really have no excuse from not knowing God and not hearing his voice. We just have to learn to be perceptive by activating our faith always, always reminding ourselves that God must be saying something to us now and we just have to find ways of how to know what he is telling us.

It’s our usual attitude of ignoring God or of taking him for granted that makes us deaf to his words and blind to his will and ways. We have to overcome that attitude by making many acts of humility, reminding ourselves that we are nothing without him. The only possibility we have when we are without him is to err and to commit sin, even if we can say that we are having a grand time knowing a lot of things in this world.

We have to realize that even in the most secular and mundane activity we have, God is always there. Even in our worst condition when we are in a state of grave sin, God looks at us with greater affection and understanding. Everything can and should be relatable to God.

We just have to put ourselves in the constant presence of God, keeping always a dialogue with him, praising him, thanking him, asking him for pardon and for favors. We should overcome whatever fear, shame or awkwardness we may feel toward him, because the truth is that however we are, God is always a father to us, full of love and compassion for us.