What Did He Just Say? – I Wasn’t Listening
I can recall the moment in primary school when the teacher asked me in class, “what did I just say?” I hadn’t a clue. I hadn’t heard a word he had been saying. I wasn’t listening.
The voice from the cloud in today’s story of the Transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain said to Peter, James, and John, “This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favour. Listen to him.”
The command, the encouragement, was to listen to Jesus. How do we listen to Jesus? Are we listening to Jesus? What words of Jesus do we hear? To listen means to hear, understand and respond. The word of God that we read, that we hear, need not go in one ear and out the other, but we want it to enter into our hearts.
Think of the gesture that the deacon or priest makes when he proclaims: “A reading from the holy Gospel according to N.” He makes the sign of the cross on the book and on his forehead, lips, and heart. We are encouraged to do the same. By making this gesture, we are saying:
“May my mind be pure and open that I understand what I hear, may my speech be a means of sharing the words that I hear, and may the words I hear take root in my heart so our love for God and one another be strengthened”.
This listening will result in a change in us. Isaiah says;
“As the rain and the snow come down from the heavens and do not return without watering the earth, making it yield and giving growth to provide seed for the sower and bread for the eating, so the word that goes from my mouth does not return to me empty, without carrying out my will and succeeding in what it was sent to do.” (Isaiah 55)
Lent is a good time to become a better listener. To be better listeners, we need to cultivate more silence. The first words of the rule of St Benedict are:
“Listen carefully, my son, to the master’s instructions and attend to them with the ear of your heart. This is the advice from a father who loves you; welcome it, and faithfully put it into practice.”
As one commentator observed:
“The silence of Christian monasticism is not merely an asceticism of self-control or emptying our desires, but rather a posture of listening to a God who speaks. We do not silence ourselves for the sake of being silent, but rather for the sake of hearing more clearly. Our silence is not a matter of isolating ourselves, but rather of opening ourselves. It is relational. Silence is the necessary precondition for hearing God and encountering Him in prayer and in life. Too often we make the mistake of getting lost in the world and never slowing down enough or silencing ourselves enough to meet God, to hear Him and simply to be with Him.”
Lord help me to be slow to speak and ready to listen. Give me a spirit of silence in my prayer that your word may not only be on my lips but take root in my heart.
