Catechetical Sunday

"The Lord opened my ears that I may hear." Is 50:5

The word catechesis is from the Greek meaning to echo or resound. Every believer is to echo the saving work of Jesus Christ and re-sound his message. Most often we think of this element of our mission as Christians in a formal sense, that is to teach what Jesus taught, but in fact it means much more than this. To be a catechist we must echo Jesus message with our life and lifestyle. We are called to be signs of the living God in our everyday lives.

We infrequently think of this challenge until we are faced with a question we can't answer or a life challenge that feels overwhelming. It ought to comfort us to know that Jesus felt this in his life and, when faced with the ultimate challenge, he willingly gave his life so that we might live. The same challenge confronts us at the beginning of the 21st century. Too often we take our faith for granted. We go to church on Sunday, we listen, and we often leave without hearing or interiorizing the message of the Sunday scriptures and the breaking of the bread.

That is why the church asks us to reflect on the words of Isaiah this Sunday. The prophet begged God to open his ears that he might hear, and perhaps that is all we need to do today. If we ask God to open our ears and heart, God will, and the rest will be up to us.

There is a temptation most of us face in all of this. Unless we hear God speak very directly to us, we hesitate to act, but God is shouting at us on a daily basis in the faces and lives of the poor, the sick, the imprisoned and the homeless. Jesus says so himself at the end of St. Matthew's gospel. Whenever you feed the hungry, visit the sick and imprisoned and clothe the naked, he says, you do it for him.

Today, ask God to let you hear his word and see what happens.

How do you echo the Good News in your daily life?