Be Opened: Homily for Friday, February 9, 2024

Readings for Today. Listen to our other podcasts.

Today we are reminded of a phrase used in our own baptism. Be opened!

Be opened

This encounter that we see today was a critical part of our own baptism. There was a period of time in the right, or not a period of time, but a moment in the celebration of our baptism where the priest who baptized us, or a deacon I suppose, or maybe even a layperson in a hospital if we had some kind of emergency, touched our ears and our mouth and said the same thing, “Be opened.”

And this story is recounted to us today because it’s really at the heart of what it means for us to be called by God and sent forth. We hear the word of God and so our ears need to be open. And we speak the word of God and we need not be mute.

I’m feeling in my life right now a real strong desire to increase the contemplative aspect of my life. I am a Dominican friar and we are active contemplatives, which seems like a contradiction and in some ways it is. And I would suggest as I look at our province, we’re very good at the active part, but not always as good with the contemplative part.

And I think each of us may, in our culture today especially, where worth is oftentimes reduced to what we do, it can be hard for us simply to be. God calls us to be a person of faith. God calls us to be someone in relationship with God. God calls us to be someone who is predisposed by our attitude to see the needs in others. But all that comes before the doing.

It’s not that we then get off the hook if we contemplate, we don’t need to do anything. It’s having to do with what is the most important priority. We come to know God first and God in his goodness and in his love for us that inspires us to do the things we need to do. The hard part is that when we are in contemplation with God, oftentimes we are first exposed to ourselves. We are the ones who see ourselves both in good and in not so good.

And it can be tempting to run away from that part of our own lives if we encounter something we don’t like or we encounter something that we wish we could have overcome. But the truth is that God is there to help us.

In the first reading, we have the situation where King Solomon, the son of David, has gone completely astray. Oh, how far he is from where he started. The young king who knew enough at the beginning to say, “I don’t have wisdom. I need wisdom, God,” has now left behind all of that and pursued his own path to his own detriment.

The beauty of our life is that when we succeed, we can be grateful to God and say, “Thanks be to God for all that God has done in my life.” But when we don’t, we also have a loving God who, when we turn to God, forgives our sins and helps to set us back on the right path. The challenge is for us to allow our ears to be opened so that we can hear the voice of God and really to have that relationship with God first.

And then to have our mouths sealed, unsealed rather, and to be open, not only in terms of our words, but also in terms of our actions so that others might come to know how deeply they too are loved by God.

On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

About Author