The Gospel for this weekend, the Fifth Sunday of Lent, includes these words: “Jesus said, ‘it was for this purpose that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it and will glorify it again.’ The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder; but others said, ‘An angel has spoken to Him.’ Jesus answered and said, ‘This voice did not come for my sake but for yours. Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.’” (John 12, 20-33)
In George Bernard Shaw’s play St. Joan, St. Joan of Arc tells of hearing God’s messages. She is talking to Charles, the Dauphin of France, who doesn’t appreciate this “crazy lady in armor” who insists on leading armies. He’s threatened by her. He says, “Oh, your voices, your voices, always your voices. Why don’t the voices come to me? I am to be King, not you.” St. Joan replies, “They do come to you, but you do not hear them. You have not sat in the field in the evening listening for them. When the Angelus rings . . . you cross yourself and have done with it. But, if you prayed from your heart and listened to the trilling of the bells in the air after they stop ringing, you would hear the voices as well as I do.”
St. Joan heard the voice of God. The Dauphin? If he heard anything at all, he heard only thunder. Why? Because she was listening for the voice of God and he was not. What voice are we listening for in these waning days of Lent? What will it take for us to listen for the voice of God? Are we willing to turn down “the noise” all around us, quiet ourselves, and slow down the pace a little?
