A person must be inwardly prepared to be able to listen.
If the inner faculties that allow one to hear the voice of God are undeveloped or ignored, that voice goes unheard.
Ad illud enim hominis ita loquitur, quod in homine ceteris, quibus homo constat, est melius, et quo ipse Deus solus est melior.
“For [God] speaks to that part of man which is better than the other parts of which he is composed, a part bettered only by God himself” (Saint Augustine, De Civitate Dei, XI, 2).
Not everyone can hear God's word, because not everyone chooses to listen. Not everyone uses their free will to cultivate the parts of themselves that make them receptive to God’s voice.
Many choose to avert their attention, their will, and their interests from these higher faculties, focusing instead on coarser, worldly concerns—those that dominate the saeculum [***].
Ad illud enim hominis ita loquitur, quod in homine ceteris, quibus homo constat, est melius, et quo ipse Deus solus est melior.
“For [God] speaks to that part of man which is better than the other parts of which he is composed, a part bettered only by God himself” (Saint Augustine, De Civitate Dei, XI, 2).
Not everyone can hear God's word, because not everyone chooses to listen. Not everyone uses their free will to cultivate the parts of themselves that make them receptive to God’s voice.
Many choose to avert their attention, their will, and their interests from these higher faculties, focusing instead on coarser, worldly concerns—those that dominate the saeculum [***].
Listening to God's word, then, is a kind of training, a discipline aimed at developing the inner faculties that allow one to hear it.
Profecto ea sui parte est propinquior superiori Deo, qua superat inferiores suas, quas etiam cum pecoribus communes habet.
“Certainly, in that part of himself, he is nearer to the Superior God, for by it he surpasses his lower parts, which he also shares with the animals” (ibid.).
The more people immerse themselves in the distractions of the saeculum, the more they become like animals, and the more they lose the ability to hear God's word.
This is why I am deeply opposed to the sanctification of "the people" when individuals are simply grouped together under a general category like "the folk."
Society is composed of individuals, and many of them lack the inclination or ability to look beyond the saeculum's propaganda, which keeps them bound to the lower parts of themselves.
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[***] On the Saint Augustine concept of saeculum https://princasvilniuje.blogspot.com/2022/02/il-concetto-di-saeculum-in-santagostino.html
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