Are You Talking To Me?

Last summer I was at the National Eucharistic Congress when Fr. Mike Schmitz delivered an impassioned call to repentance in his keynote address during an evening revival session. The crowd received his message with great enthusiasm. Their applause and the cheers shook the Lucas Oil Stadium.

The next night, Sr. Josephine Garrett took the stage and, in her address, got into the nitty-gritty of what it means to be a disciple, what it means to live repentance — or, as she so beautifully put it, to embrace the hunger.

And in doing so, she called back to the previous night’s thunderous approval of Fr. Mike’s message.

“When I heard you clapping when Father said we need repentance, I was worried you thought he was talking about your neighbor’s repentance,” she said. “He is not.”

In other words: he’s talking about your repentance.

We all love a message about The Right Thing To Do. We all love when a priest or a nun or any Catholic with a microphone gets up and talks about the truth. We rise to our feet and applaud.

And then, too often, we take a deep breath and walk to our car and forget all about it — because we think they were talking to someone else. You know…the others. The ones who need to hear it. The ones who aren’t being vigilant.

In today’s Gospel, Peter asks Jesus, “Is this parable [of the absent master] meant for us, or for everyone?” (Luke 12:41). And Jesus answers him with a question. In so many words, he says this: “Do you want it to be for you? Are you ready to hear it?”

Whoever we are. Wherever we’re from. Whatever our life looks like. However we pray. He’s talking to us.

Are we ready to hear him?

©LPi