Mass Readings Audio
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We all have a little voice of God within. It is called our conscience. The question is, do we listen to God or to everyone else? In this week’s episode of By Your Life, we talk about the consequences of choosing who we listen to.
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time – August 30, 2020
Welcome to the one hundred and twenty-seventh episode of By Your Life. I’m Lisa Huetteman and I know that you have a hundred different things you could be doing right now, so I thank you for choosing By Your Life.
My goal is to inspire, empower, support, challenge, and encourage you to connect Sunday, with Monday-Friday, in a secular business world. It’s my desire to help you live our Catholic faith in the marketplace. I hope to offer you practical ways to go forth and glorify the Lord by your life.
In this edition, we’ll reflect on the readings for the Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time. (Cycle A) As I was reflecting on this week’s readings, I asked myself, “Why do you believe what you believe?” That’s a good question especially after Sunday’s readings that promise us persecution for what we believe. Have we been duped by God like Jeremiah from our first reading?
A Man for All Seasons
In last week’s episode of By Your Life, I mentioned an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal about Jimmy Lai. The article was titled, “Jimmy Lai, a Man for All Seasons.” Then, as I was reflecting on this week’s readings and listening to Bishop Barron’s homily, he mentioned the movie about Sir Thomas More called, “A Man for All Seasons” because Robert Bolt’s Thomas More character makes a reference to this week’s Gospel. I always say if it is important, God tells me twice, so I rented the movie and watched it this week.
The reference Bishop Barron mentioned comes at the end of the movie when Thomas More is on trial for high treason. Richard Rich, a person with great ambition and little character perjures himself at Thomas More’s trial in exchange for an appointment to be the Attorney General of Wales. When More sees this, he confronts his accuser saying to Rich, “Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world… but for Wales?”
Jesus said, “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Mt 16:25) If we contrast Richard Rich to Sir Thomas More, a man who gave up his position as Lord High Chancellor of England and eventually gave up his life because he could not deny his conscience, we see the man who lost his life trying to save it versus the man who saved his life by losing it for Christ’s sake.
So, what are the practical lessons for us and what can we do to be more like More and less Rich? I think there are two.
The Voice Within
First, we all have a voice of God within. It is called our conscience. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “Deep within his conscience, man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey… For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God…His conscience is man’s most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths.” (CCC 1776) “When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking.” (CCC 1777)
When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking. (CCC 1777)The question we need to ask ourselves, are we listening to our conscience or to everyone else. Listening to God speak to us is a choice. We have to open our hearts to him. The prophet Jeremiah tells us this. God didn’t dupe him, he let himself be duped. It is a choice.
Richard Rich ends up conquering and destroying his conscience rather than obeying it. Contrast that to Sir Thomas More who gives up his position and ultimately his life because he cannot sacrifice his commitment to his conscience, which dictates that he not turn his back on God or on what is morally right.
The Problem of Rationalization
So, what leads a person to follow Rich’s path? In matters of conscience, there is this pesky thing we human beings do and that’s called rationalization. In psychology and logic, rationalization is a defense mechanism in which controversial behaviors or feelings are justified and explained in a seemingly rational or logical manner. We do this to avoid the true explanation and our poor choices are made consciously tolerable—or even admirable and superior—by plausible means.
In other words, we make excuses for our actions to quiet the voice that tells us we are wrong. The problem is, our persons know when we are doing something wrong. When we are behaving in a way that is inconsistent with our values, we can feel it. There is a physical manifestation of our conscience.
Richard Rich could feel it. In A Man for All Seasons, after Thomas More refuses to offer him a position, Richard Rich befriends Thomas Cromwell, the lawyer who crafts Sir Thomas More’s demise. Rich agrees to play along with Cromwell’s schemes, even though he knows Sir Thomas to be an honest man. After he twists a story about Sir Thomas accepting a bribe, a dispirited Rich says to Cromwell, “I’m lamenting. I’ve lost my innocence.”
Like Rich, we don’t like that feeling and again, we are faced with a choice to listen to the voice of God, repent and make things right, or not. Alternatively, we can choose to make ourselves feel better by rationalizing our behavior. We make excuses. We justify ourselves. As Benjamin Franklin said, “So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.”
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do. ~ Benjamin FranklinWe often have people who help us rationalize because it helps them feel better about themselves. This is what the Duke of Norfolk did when he tried to convince More to sign the oath. He said, “Oh confound all this. I’m not a scholar, I don’t know whether the marriage was lawful or not but dammit, Thomas, look at these names! Why can’t you do as I did and come with us, for fellowship!”
But Thomas More would have none of it, saying “And when we die, and you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience, and I am sent to hell for not doing mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?”
People help us rationalize more for their sake than for ours. When Sir Thomas’ daughter came to visit him in the Tower of London, she pleaded with him to save his life. She begged him to say the oath acknowledging the king’s supremacy while holding fast to his true belief in his heart. She said, “God more regards the thoughts of the heart than the words of the mouth, or so you’ve always told me. Then say the words of the oath, and in your heart think otherwise!” But Sir Thomas replied, “What is an oath, then, but words we say to God?”
Lesson #1: Listen to the voice within and protect it from rationalization.
Good for You and Good for Others
We serve others best when we do what is right, even if it isn’t popular. Thomas More believed that what was the right thing to do was not always politically convenient but was best for those he served. He did not do it for his own sake, but for the common good, saying “I think that when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties, they lead their country by a short route to chaos.”
Throughout the movie, Thomas More is offered one opportunity after another to compromise his values for personal profit, and time and again, he does choose otherwise. The ultimate challenge comes when personal profit means saving his life. Thomas More chooses to give up his life to save it. His final words, “I die the king’s good servant and God’s first”
And this is our second lesson: Jesus warned us that following him, listening to the voice of God within, includes taking up our cross. We are promised hardship, and we will fail. But when we fail, do we make it right or simply make ourselves feel right about it? Thomas More put it this way: “We speak of being anchored to our principles. But if the weather turns nasty you up with an anchor and let it down where there’s less wind, and the fishing’s better. And “Look,” we say, “look, I’m anchored! To my principles!”
Listening to the voice of God within and acting on it is not always what is popular and certainly isn’t always easy. In fact, it often isn’t, but it must be non-negotiable. It must be the only option. When it is, every decision we make, even the most difficult, is straightforward. When choosing between what is easy, what is popular and what is right, choose what is right by listening to the voice within.
Which brings me back to my first question: Why do I believe what I believe? I don’t know. I just do. I think it is because once we’ve opened our hearts to God and listened to his voice, we cannot stop it. We, like Jeremiah, who despite the mockery, reproach, and derision, cannot fathom a life without God. It is a fire in our hearts and imprisoned in our bones. (Jer 20:9) There is no turning back. We must keep moving forward, trusting that when we listen to the voice of God, we can’t be wrong, no matter what the rest of the world thinks, or says, or does.
Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us.
Come Holy Spirit, fan the flame of God’s voice in our hearts. Help us to think, not as human beings do, but as God would, so that we might be an example to others in our failed world. Help us to listen to the voice of God within, and let it guide our choices, so that we may be reasonably happy in this world, and supremely happy with you forever in the next.
May God bless you abundantly this week and may you glorify the Lord by your life.
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