15 June 1984
Granada, Spain

My dear Friends in Jesus Christ,

Many years ago I remember reading a short detective story about a murder that had been committed in a house on a city street. The police came to make investigations. They asked witnesses, who lived on the same street, if they had seen anybody entering the house. Nobody had. After a long time one witness came forward and said that he now recalled the fact that the postman had called at the house, where the murdered man lived, on that particular morning to deliver a parcel. It was the postman who had committed the murder. When the other witnesses were asked if they had seen the postman in the street on that particular day, almost all of them said: "Why, yes." Nobody mentioned the postman because the postman was on the street every morning. The point which the writer of the detective story wanted to make was that we do not see with our eyes what is commonplace and ordinary. No one had thought of the postman because the postman had been taken for granted.

I was reminded of this little story when I reflected on the first reading of this evening's Mass. Elijah had gone outside to stand on the mountain and was told that the Lord would pass by. First, there was a strong wind, but the Lord was not in the wind. Then there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. Then there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. Elijah, naturally thinking about the majesty and the greatness of God, would have expected the Lord to manifest Himself in the strong wind, in the earthquake, in the fire, but no. When the Lord did pass by, He made Himself known by "a still, small voice." (1 Kgs 19:12).

Our experience of the presence of God in our lives will be very similar to that of Elijah. God makes Himself known to us by the "still, small voice" of our conscience. The voice of our conscience is small and delicate, as small and delicate as a child. A child needs care and attention. So, too, with our consciences; we need to give them care and attention. That is why it is good at the end of each day to take a few moments to be silent in order to hear what the small, delicate voice of our conscience is saying to us about the day that has ended. Before we receive the Sacrament of Penance, it is good to give time in order to pay attention and give care to the still, small voice of our consciences.

Elijah found God, not in the strong wind nor in the earthquake nor in the fire, but in the still, small voice which he heard. God speaks to us in all sorts of ways: through the Scriptures, through His Church, but also through all the events, great and small, that happen to us. Since most of our lives are made up of very ordinary tasks which we must do each day, it is in these especially that the voice of the Lord is to be heard. We make the mistake so often of expecting God to speak to us through some great event or happening when, in fact, all the time He is speaking to us in all the small events of each day. You will remember how after the Resurrection Peter and John were fishing on the Lake of Galilee. Day was breaking and in that twilight, John saw Our Lord on the shore. "That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter: 'It is the Lord.'" (Jn 21:7). For all of us here, it would be a very great grace if, in all the circumstances of our lives, in all that we do, in accepting all that happens to us, pleasant and unpleasant, we could say, "It is the Lord." St. Vincent de Paul recommends that we accept all things "when something unexpected happens to us in body or mind, good or bad, we are to accept it without fuss as from God's loving hand...." (CR II, 3). If we could live that ideal of St. Vincent, we would have great peace in our lives. Elijah only heard the voice of the Lord when he went forth and stood upon the mountain. May all of us here be strengthened to go forth every day and to stand upon the mountain of our daily work, so that we may hear and be consoled by the presence of the Lord passing by.