Friday after Epiphany Sunday
1 John 5:5-13 | Psalm 147:12-15,19-20 | Luke 5:12-16
His reputation continued to grow, and large crowds would gather to hear him and to have their sickness cured, but he would always go off to some place where he could be alone and pray. (Luke 5:15-16)
As I type this, there’s a group of young folks sitting in a pavilion under my study window, noisily chatting and occasionally laughing uproariously, in the dead of night. This happens quite often around my area, and while it can get annoying at times, I’ve learned to tune it out as I contemplate the next day’s scripture and write this blog.
It’s these moments that I’ve come to treasure again, the silent contemplation of the Word of God, detached from the noise of the secular world, from all its distractions and temptations.
Buy it does require an act of will to begin the process each night, to tell myself “OK, enough of the world, time to focus on the Divine”. Much like Jesus, I need to consciously withdraw to a place of mental silence, where Truth can voice its quiet thoughts.
✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞
So it is too with the Sacrament of Reconciliation, dreaded by many who fear the memory of sins committed and omitted, and the guilt that floods our hearts in the silence on holy ground.
Yet it can instead be a time of renewal, to acknowledge that we are flawed but still loved by our Creator, to recount the times we’ve stumbled in order to take stock and ponder how best to stop falling over the same obstacles in future.
So let us embrace the need for holy silence in our lives, far from the madding crowd of noisy hedonism and seductive bedlam. Let us use that quiet time to draw closer to God, to reflect on our sins and resolve to do better.
And in that silence, may we make peace with ourselves, that we may better love the One who loves us beyond all telling.
Amen.