Watchman

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author.

You son of man, I have appointed watchmen for the house of Israel. Why would the Lord appoint a watchman? Why would the Lord appoint a watchman? It must be because there’s a danger, right otherwise wouldn’t need a watchman. And it’s a danger that a lot of people aren’t aware of. And so He’s appointing a watchman. And so what is this saying to us today? So first of all, who is a watchman? And I can see three, three groups of watchmen. Because the watchmen and what the Lord is talking about, of course, here is He’s calling Ezekiel, the prophet to be a watchman, He’s not talking, first of all about physical danger or military danger, but a danger of spirits. And so the example we have here of Ezekiel, Ezekiel is a prophet. And so prophets are often those raised up by God to be watchmen. And one of the key things about a prophet is that it’s God Himself, who appoints them. They’re not necessarily part of any structure or organization, or, you know, like for special formation, but that’s just God raises up whoever He wants.  Like, say in our times, or rather, in recent times, for instance the three children of Fatima. Who decided that they were going to be watchman to sound an alarm for the Church? It was God. Or like Saint Faustina, that’s God who calls her, and appoints Ezekiel.  An example we have in the New Testament is John the Baptist. God raises him up, to be a watchman to announce a great message to the people. And those of you who know our little mission better, know how important prophecy is to our mission, that the Lord has made it clear to us that prophets exist today. And it’s important for us to be attentive to those that the Lord continues to raise up for this role of prophecy. Obviously, it needs discernment, because there’s also false prophets. And it needs prudence too, but prudence and discernment don’t mean, ignoring or despise the prophets. And I’ve often quoted that passage from St. Paul, when he says, “Do not extinguish the Holy Spirit, do not despise prophecy, but test everything.” So prophets are often raised up by God as watchmen for our times. But there’s also others, there’s the pastors of the Church,  those who are appointed by the Church in a special role as pastors, the Pope, the bishops, priests and deacons. And we see a lot of examples in the New Testament of the pastor’s being warned to be watchful, on guard. Just to give one example, this is from the Acts of the Apostles, when St. Paul is taking leave of the elders of Ephesus, he says, “Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you guardians to feed the Church of the Lord, which he obtained with His own blood.” And so then he says, “I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.” So that’s a pretty serious danger. When he says fierce wolves came in, he said that there’s a very, very grave danger. And then he also says, “and from among your own selves, will arise men speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, be alert.” So just one example, many in the New Testament of the pastors of the Church have been warned to be on guard, to be watchful. But so that’s the second group that pastors but it’s also all of us. All the faithful are called to be watchful. How often in the Gospel does Jesus speak of being watchful, to being sober, being alert, being watchful. Like when it gives the example of the homeowner being watchful if he knew that thieves were threatening to break into his house. And so all of us are called to be watchful. We can’t just say, well, that’s the role of the pastors of the church. And so I don’t have to pay attention. Now all of us need to, for instance, so just like every person needs to be watchful for their own home, and in not just the physical home, but for instance, parents be especially watchful, for the good of their children. And so this example of Ezekiel as a watchman has several applications. It’s one, our duty to listen to the watchmen, the watchmen that God appoints for His Church. But it’s also our duty to be ourselves watchful, for those that are entrusted to us. So what are the two things that a watchman needs to do? That’s not real complicated, but it’s real important. Two things that a watchman needs to do. So first of all, he needs to pay attention, right? Not be sleeping, not be distracted, but paying attention. And so for that, the watchman is often put in a special position. Say for the cities at that time, the watchmen would often be put up on that high up on the walls of the city, so he could see far away. And sometimes they would have special towers. So even higher, so they can be even higher, so that they they’re able to see farther. And so they’re able to see not just beyond the walls, but much farther. And so God often when He’s raising up a prophet, He often gives them, He raises them up, so they’re able to see farther, to know, like St. John, St. John, the apostle. For when it’s great, the great revelations that he was given, which was the source of the book of the Apocalypse, he was raised up spiritually, so he could see things, so he could share that with us. And so God often gives the prophets and pastors in a different way, but a grace of knowing the dangers, of seeing the dangers.  And, in fact, hear in the word, He says to Ezekiel, “when you hear me say anything.” So Ezekiel’s special way of being a watchman, is to be listening to God. He’s a watchman, by listening to God, by being attentive to God. God wants to speak words to him. But he also has to be listening to those words. And so he’s receiving that grace, not just for himself, it’s not just for his own salvation, but that grace is for all of his community. And so God doesn’t say to Ezekiel, take a poll of the people and see what their opinions are of the dangers. He’s not asking him, he’s not asking Ezekiel to consult human opinion. He’s asking him to listen to God. And that’s an essential difference, to listen to God. It won’t do much good to watchmen, to have a poll, poll results of the dangers because a lot of times what the watchmen has to see, especially the dangers that people aren’t aware of, and so the watchman needs to be paying attention. And so some simple ways to do that is, first of all, to know our faith, just to know our faith to be aware of our faith. A lot of times people ask me questions, and I say, Well, have you looked into the catechism? Because a lot of times those answers are in the Catechism. And they’re in the Catechism much better than in the mind the father, John Mary, my poor little mind doesn’t remember things to well. And so but just having a catechism is a very simple way to help us be alert. And also, of course, taking time to pray, taking time to listen to God. And those of you that are the women who are just finishing your encounter, you know that that’s so much of what the encounter is, the retreat is about silence. And the reason for silence is not just because we’re mad at you, and we don’t want to hear you. The reason for silence is so you can listen to God. And so many times, at in these encounters, we have people sharing with us at the end, the ways that they experience God speaking to them revealing to them. You all were, well I haven’t heard from y’all yet, but that listening to God, so many times He’s able to speak then to us. And I’m also being alert also means being aware of what’s going on right now, key things that are going on right now. For instance, the Church, that there’s going to be a synod held next month in Rome, and synod, which is a gathering of representatives of bishops and others. And I know that there is a lot of people who are very concerned about that synod because they feel that there’s attempts to change things, which shouldn’t be changed. And so as Catholics,  those are important things to be aware of. We can’t be aware of everything. But there’s some key things that we should be aware of, because we all have a responsibility for the Church. So that’s the first thing that prophet need, for our watchman needs to do is he needs to be paying attention. And so how often satan has all sorts of ways that he tries to distract us from not paying attention, paying attention to stupid things or things which aren’t so stupid, but they’re just not important, but so that we miss what’s really important. But one of the things about our age today is we have of course, with our technology, we have the ability to know things that you know, and centuries ago, most people what was happening outside their little village, they didn’t really know very much. But now, we can’t of course, we can’t follow all the news, but we should at least be following the important things. So the second thing, then a watchman needs to do it after he’s paying attention. If he’s if he sees a danger, he needs then to what – to warn people. If he doesn’t warn , if you say, oh, there’s a danger and he runs away, that doesn’t do any good, right? You need to warn people. So what does the Lord say? “When you hear me say anything.” So again, the way that is Ezekiel is to pay attention is to be listening to God. And He says, when you hear me say anything, what should you do? “You shall warn them for me.” You shall warn them for me. So he’s doing, he has a responsibility from God, to warn the people from God. (And he goes on to say, The Lord says, “If I tell the wicked are wicked, when you shall, surely) So, so, excuse me, let me say, first of all, what is the responsibility of, how much responsibility does the watchmen the prophet have? Here’s what the Lord says,” If I tell the wicked, Oh wicked, when you shall surely die, if you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked from his way, the wicked shall die for his guilt, but I will hold you responsible for his death.” If you were supposed to warn and you didn’t warn, he says, I will hold you responsible. He says, “You shall warn them for me.” And so this takes courage from the Prophet, because he may be seeing things and knowing things that others don’t see. And so they just think he’s crazy. And it may not be a popular thing to warn people. It may be things that others on the contrary, are trying to hide. And so he has to warn people of something that others are trying to hide. And so, as an example of warning, a couple of years ago, we know that everybody was warning us about COVID, COVID, COVID COVID, seems like 24/7 COVID, COVID COVID. And so it is important that we be prudent, well about our faith, or excuse me about our health, our physical health. But think of all the energy and time and sacrifices that our society at the highest levels invested into COVID. And compare that to how much energy our society invests, especially at the highest levels, about warning about mortal sin. And which is more dangerous –  COVID or mortal sin? And our society, it seems like on the  contrary, spends time investing in mortal sin, rather than warning about mortal sin. So the Prophet, the watchman needs to warn, and of course, to warn people, it’s better to try to do it in a way that doesn’t turn people off. You know, that sometimes, some people can warn in a way that scares people out but doesn’t it’s not effective. So try to warn in a way that’s helpful. But so the watchman’s responsibility, he has responsibility, but it’s a limited responsibility because look, because each person is free. The Lord says, “but if you warn the wicked, trying to turn him from his way, and he refuses to turn from his way, he shall die. for his guilt, but you shall save yourself.” And so the Prophet can’t save the people, because each person needs to respond personally. That’s not his responsibility. His responsibility is to warn when God wants him to warn. And this has, I think, a lot of significance for our little, our little mission right now. Because think of John the Baptist again, John the Baptist for many years, for most of his life, the Lord had him way off in the desert, quiet in the desert, hidden in that, with all that sacrifices, he was living in a desert. So you’d say, well, he’s not a watchman, because he’s not doing anything. He’s just way off in a desert. But then the time came for him, to come back to his people, and then to warn them, to warn them about how important this time was needed for repentance. And because the Messiah was about to manifest himself. And so St. John the Baptist was a watchman, that for a long time, he was kept in a desert quiet. And we even see the same thing with Jesus. He wasn’t in the desert. But for many years, he was kept quiet, his hidden life, you said, Well, he’s not a good watchman, either. Because look at all the corruption in Jerusalem. And he’s not saying anything. He’s going up to Jerusalem, for the feast, He doesn’t say anything. Because it wasn’t yet His time. And then the time came, and it was a time for Him then to speak out, to announce the kingdom of God is at hand, Repent, and believe the good news. And so I think, I think of that for our little mission. Because I think for many years now, it’s been, we started the mission over 20 years ago. It’s like we’ve been in a kind of a long desert. And that’s why the Lord brought us to Texas, a long desert. And, and also like, Jesus has kind of been collecting hidden life, for us. But I sense that maybe the time has coming which the mission, like John the Baptist, and Jesus is going to be called to transition from that desert, and that hidden life, to a much more public witness and public testimony. And so the key thing is to be listening to the Lord, to know when is the right time, as John the Baptist, and Jesus, there was a time to be silent in the desert, or in the hidden life at Nazareth. And then the Lord said, now’s the time to go, speak, speak out. So that’s the watchman’s duties. And all of us are called to listen to the watchmen. God says, that the Psalm today says, “oh but today, you would hear His voice.” And so we’re also called to be listening, to be attentive to the voices that God sends. And again, the examples I just gave, like, the children of Fatima, the urgent message they gave over 100 years ago, or the messages of Saint Faustina, with their warnings, and also with the great consolation of God’s mercy. And so, now about the content, though, the watchman’s role is not always just about warning about dangers. But it also can be good news, like imagine a watchman on top of the tower of a city that has being besieged. And maybe the inhabitants are about ready to give in because they’re discouraged. And I think we can’t do this much longer. And then the watchman sees help coming. Until he announces to people, there’s help coming too, so that people will have that hope, and continue, continue fighting. And so also the watchmen are called also to be messengers of hope. So John the Baptist was calling both people to repentance, repentance, because of a very good thing, the Messiah is coming. And so Jesus also when Jesus began, He was both calling to repentance. But above all, to believe the good news of the Lord is coming. And that’s, I think, one of the roles the prophets today, both to awaken us to the dangers of our world, but also to give us hope, with the great designs of mercy, that the Lord is preparing for our times. “Thus says the Lord, you, son of man, I have appointed watchmen for the house of Israel. When you hear me say anything, you shall warn them for me. If today, you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” And so with our Blessed Mother, who is the greatest example of listening to the Lord, being alert and also listening to Lord when he’s speaking to his watchman. So this passage, the Lord’s words to Ezekiel are own invitation for us to be alert, to be listening to the Lord, and to the watchmen that he’s sending us. And when he’s calling and asking us to speak to someone at the time, in the way that he wants us to do, also our role of alerting those others to whom the Lord wants us to speak. Amen

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Ezekiel 33:7-9
Psalms 95:1-2, 6-7,8-9