February 20, 2016
by Deacon Bob Schnell
At Mass one Sunday morning there was a young boy, maybe 5 years old, sitting in the pew with his dad. By the time of the homily the little boy was bored. Sure he heard the homilist, but he certainly wasn’t listening to what he was saying.
Rather than listening, the little boy was looking around the church, and he finally caught sight of the large red candle burning next to the tabernacle. He stared at the red candle for a minute and then nudged his dad in the ribs and nodding towards the red candle, he whispered:
“Dad, when that light turns green, can we go?”
Today’s Gospel causes us to focus on listening as well. We read the portion of Luke’s Gospel that tells of the Transfiguration, where along with Peter, James and John, Jesus is on the top of the mountain, and His clothes become dazzlingly white, and He is speaking with Moses and Elijah.
As they are there, a cloud descends on the mountain and the voice of God from the cloud speaks to the terrified disciples, saying:
“This is my chosen Son: Listen to him.”
Listen to Him, God the Father says. Not “hear, but “listen.” Listening is very different from hearing. Hearing is simply a physiological response—sound waves strike the parts of the inner ear and electrical signals are produced which the nerves take to the brain and they register there. Pretty involuntary.
Listening, of the other hand, means actually paying attention, rolling over in your mind what is said, opening yourself up to having those sounds that you hear actually have an impact on you.
I remember when our kids were little and we would sometime go to school to see what was going on, the teachers would sometimes tell the kids: “Put on your listening ears.”
Pay attention, the teachers were saying. Don’t just “hear,” but listen so that what I am saying will have an impact on you.
That’s what God is saying to us today—Put on your listening ears so that what Jesus is saying will have an impact on us.
How do we do that?
The scriptures tell us time and again what we have to do so that we can truly listen to what God is telling us.
Psalm 95 tells us: If today you would hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.
The prophet Ezekiel, speaking of the regeneration of the people of Israel, says the Lord will “remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a new heart of flesh.”
And, in a reference that is particularly appropriate for this time of Lent, the prophet Joel says that we should “rend our hearts, not our garments.”
When I think of this business about not hardening our hearts so we can truly listen to Jesus and let His words impact us, so that we can truly receive those words, the metaphor that always comes into my mind is that of a pass receiver in football.
What do they say about a pass receiver in college or the NFL who is really good?
They talk about his hands—they say: “He has really soft hands.”
Hands that will give a bit to receive the ball, so the ball stays and doesn’t bounce off. Hands that aren’t like rocks, where the football can’t stick.
A soft heart is as necessary for us Christians as soft hands are to a wide receiver.
So, especially in Lent, how to we develop a soft heart so we can truly listen to Jesus?
It takes exercise—here are a few: (1) forgiveness. Consciously, deliberately, every day find something or someone to forgive. Maybe something that happened long ago—maybe some who took your parking spot in the ramp or made you wait on hold too long. Remember, we ask that our sins be forgiven in direct proportion to our forgiveness of others; (2) gratitude. Have a box of thank you notes on your desk or table, and write one every day. The very act of thinking about who to thank each day works wonders for the heart; and (3) quiet. Force yourself to spend 5 minutes in quiet with Christ every day. Much harder than it seems, but works wonders for the heart.
And as our hearts soften, we’ll find that we start to grow “listening ears,” so that we can honor God’s command:
“This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”