Listen and Listen Again.

People of every culture know what it means to be human. The ancient Israelites, not as sophisticated as some of the surrounding peoples, nevertheless hit on something wonderfully insightful and beautifully simple: being human means “having ears” (the capacity to listen, hear, internalize, reflect, and respond). The Shema (Deut 6:4) is God’s urgent reminder: “Listen, Israel!” But Israel was willfully deaf at times, though the Shema was often on their lips. Jesus berated the people’s selective deafness: “They have ears but they do not listen.” Time and again he challenged them to act like responsible human beings.

Today’s Entrance Antiphon and Collect pray that God will listen to us. But in the Gospel Jesus reminds us that we too must listen, and in a particular way: “You have heard . . . but I say to you: love your enemies.” We must listen for, and to, God’s voice. We have ears, but like many of Jesus’ contemporaries we fail to hear and fear to respond.

Every society teaches its members how to think, and many people think the way they think is the best or only way. Jesus asks us to listen and listen again, and not simply to continue to think in the same old ways, but to rethink some cherished and biased ways. Today’s Gospel is a striking case in point, but its difficult message sometimes goes in one ear and out the other. This is unworthy of us as human beings.

We expect God to hear our prayers. How well do we listen to God, and repent by thinking and acting differently?

Fr. Anthony J. Gittins. Taken from Give Us This Day.

Fr. Anthony Gittins, CSSp, trained as an anthropologist, has spent many years living outside his native culture, and taught theology and mission in Chicago and beyond. His most recent book is Courage and Conviction: Unpretentious Christianity (Liturgical Press).