I Thought You Should Know | Quiet time opens up our heart to Jesus' love

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Bishop Robert J. Hermann

Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Deuteronomy 18:15-20

1 Corinthians 7:32-35

Mark 1:21-28 

In Sunday's first reading Moses told the Israelites, "A prophet like me will the Lord, your God raise up for you among your own kin; to him you shall listen."

A prophet is one who speaks to men on behalf of God. He speaks to the people what he has heard from the Lord. The Lord speaks to us in great silence. Moses' real leadership challenge came in the desert when he was confronted with ruling and feeding the thousands and thousands of men, women and children over whom the Lord had placed him. Before he could begin his task, the Lord called him to the top of Mount Horeb for 40 days of fasting and silence!

It was during this time that God gradually spoke to Moses and revealed to him the details of the covenant God was making with His people. It is from these 40 days of listening that we have the Ten Commandments. This took a lot of quiet time!

In today's Gospel Jesus is teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum and, "The people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes." Even though Jesus was the Son of God, He routinely spent the first hours of the day in quiet communion with the Father. It was from the Father that He received His daily agenda. In the Gospel of John He tells us, "I do only what I see the Father doing."

When in the synagogue an unclean spirit interrupted His teaching, "Jesus rebuked him and said, 'Quiet! Come out of him!" The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him. All were amazed and asked one another, 'What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even unclean spirits and they obey Him.'"

Jesus was accustomed to spending quality quiet time daily with the Father. Before leaving this earth He said, "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me...." He then commissioned the apostles to go forth and proclaim the good news.

Jesus wants to share His authority with us. The more authority we receive from Jesus, the more Jesus and the Father are glorified by our life here on earth. Look at the great saints and how they received authority generously from Jesus and shared that authority with the Church.

How do we receive Christ's authority in our lives?

For Christ to reign in our lives, we need to first welcome Him. This is so hard to do because we have so little room and quiet within. We are too full of ourselves.

How often do we not ask God to be our agent in carrying out our desires! From the time we are two years old, we want our will to be done. It has been said that the authority of one's personality is like the authority of the soap principle. The more we use it, the less we've got!

There is a beautiful fable, which gets this message across. A person is seeking the Beloved. "He knocks at his door and hears, 'Who is there?' He replies, 'It is I.' the response comes: 'There is no room in here for both of us.' Despondent, he goes away into the forest and for long months meditates on the words he has heard. Then he returns and knocks again at the door. In response to the same question, 'Who is there?' he replies, 'It is Thee!' – and the door opens to receive him." (Thelma Hall, "Too Deep For Words"; New York: Paulist Press, 1988. P 15

If you and I are overstressed, working too hard, overly compulsive, with too little time to accomplish all we need to do, we need to waste time with our Lord, receiving from Him His authority into our busy lives. If we are just too busy to pray, we daily need to spend one half hour of silent time, "wasting it" with the Lord!

You may say, "That sounds crazy. It doesn't make any sense!" Overstressing yourself is crazy. Wasting time with the Lord in silence is sanity and beauty!

Once on a Sunday afternoon, after resting, I went over before the tabernacle to waste one hour of silence with the Lord. I genuflected and knelt down. Within five minutes, at least five urgent chores that needed to be done before Monday morning came to my mind. I instinctively got up, genuflected and started walking away, and then I broke into laughter at my behavior. I said, "No, compulsions, you are not going to drive my life." I went back to kneel and listen, and as each compulsion came to my mind, I simply smiled and said, "Oh no you don't" and laid it aside. After one hour, I had no compulsions driving me, and I was refreshed for the next day! In that silent time I received the Lord's authority to say "no" to work and "yes" to Him! It was fun!

May I encourage you to open your life up to the authority of Jesus by spending daily quiet time with Him. When you sit in silence before Him, whether in your home or in your church, just silently open your heart to His love. He wants to give you His love more than you are ready to receive it. If you resist the compulsion to leave, you are receiving His authority over your life! Enjoy His victory over your compulsions. Enjoy Him freeing you from all that work He is really not asking you to do! With His authority comes great freedom and peace!