Students of the Quiet Voice
By Fr. Michael Tishel
Adapted from a Sermon Given December 7, 2023
This morning I would like to talk about behavior (duh-duh-duh!). We talk about kids with good behavior and we talk about kids with bad behavior. What is behavior? How we act? Whether we are good or not?
Do you all think that there are bad people?
The answer from our Faith is NO! There are no bad people!
Wait…even people who have done horrible things in things in this world?
Let’s start from the beginning: God is 1000% good! I know you can’t do 1000%. But He’s ONLY good. He created us in His image to be perfectly good. So no matter how many bad things we do or someone else does, human beings are creations of God, children of God. In that sense, even robbers and criminals are good people!
BUT (in case you think that I believe it’s OK for them to rob or hurt people), Adam and Eve were given so much in Paradise; they could enjoy spending time with a God who loved them so much. He only gave them one rule—don’t eat the fruit of this one tree! They did, so he was merciful and kicked them out of Paradise (because otherwise they would have spent eternity suffering the consequence of their disobedience), and he gave them the chance to repent before they passed away back to God.
We can either choose God or not choose God. Why would someone ever not choose God? Because there are loud voices all around us (and even inside of us) that tell us that if you listen to me you will be happy! Sometimes it could say, “if you tease your friend, you could be happy” or “if you steal that dollar bill you see in someone’s lunchbox, you could be happy,” or “if you cheat on that test, you could be happy.” These loud voices promise us happiness, but what happens after we do those things? Are we happy? No!
But there is a quiet Voice that is always inviting us to follow It, and if we follow this quiet, gentle, peaceful, and loving Voice, we WILL be happy! This is the Voice of the Holy Spirit! Sometimes it means having to do hard things—listening to our teachers, practicing self-control over our bodies or words, sacrificing ourselves for and being generous with our neighbor, and more. But every time we follow this Voice, we are happy!
At TOA, I want for us all to become students of the quiet Voice of the Holy Spirit. Let’s learn to ignore the loud voices around us and inside us—just watch them go by like storm clouds—so that we can come back to the quiet Sunshine of the Holy Spirit, who always turns us into Peaceful, Joyful, Caring, Compassionate, and Loving people.
