Courage to speak and humility to listen

Here is the text of the homily I prepared for this Sunday's liturgies, some thoughts inspired by the wisdom of the scriptures and by the current happenings of the day.

Speak clearly; listen with humility

For two weeks now, there has been a special meeting, called a Synod, taking place at the Vatican.  The topic that’s being discussed is The pastoral challenges facing the family in the context of evangelization. There are about three hundred voices gathered around that table: the Pope is there, along with many bishops and Cardinals, and there are a number of lay people there too, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, people who can speak their truth from lived experience about the challenges they face every day.  On the first day of the meeting, the Holy Father asked all the bishops and Cardinals to do two things: to speak clearly and to listen with humility.  These two attitudes are essential for open and honest dialogue.  Speak clearly, he said, for yours is a great responsibility, to transmit the realities and the problems of the Church, in order to help her to walk the path that is the gospel of the family; and listen with humility: welcome with open hearts, the words that others will speak.

Today’s gospel shows us what often can happen when people don’t speak clearly, and when they are unable or unwilling to listen with humility.  The Pharisees were feeling threatened by the words that Jesus had been speaking.  They wanted to entrap him in what he said, so they sent their disciples to him to ask him a question that was bound to put him to the test.  If the Pharisees had been willing to speak clearly, they themselves would have confronted Jesus, but perhaps they were afraid that they themselves might have been the ones to fall into the trap.   If they had been willing to listen with humility, the conversation would probably have turned out very differently.

What about us?  Have there been times when we have been unable to speak clearly, to express the truth that is in our hearts without fearing the possibility that we might be judged based on something that we say or that we will not be listened to at all?  Have there been situations where we have been too afraid of hearing a truth that we know, and yet don’t want to admit, so we try to find ways to hide?

The prophet Isaiah speaks today of another time in history when someone called Cyrus, someone who had no claim to fame was chosen to speak a truth that needed to be spoken: I arm you, the Lord told him, so that all may know from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is no one besides me; I am the Lord and there is no other.  God gave Cyrus the gift of courage so that he would be able to speak the truth that was in his heart.  Courage is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the divine gift that allows all of us to speak clearly the truth that is in our hearts.  We should always give thanks to God for this gift, and for the gift of those who by their works of faith, labours of love and steadfastness in hope have taught us how to listen humbly for words of guidance and to discover the wisdom that such words often contain.

Over the last two weeks, the discussions that have taken place at the Synod have indeed been open and honest.  There is great wisdom being shared, some hard truths being spoken.  Let us all pray that these truths will be welcomed in a spirit of humility so that we may all learn from the wisdom they contain.