15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Cycle
A
July
15-16, 2017
Saint Mary Parish, Pylesville
4:00pm
Saint
Matthew Parish, Baltimore 11:00am
The Message: Listening
This
afternoon/morning I want to reflect with you on listening.
I am doing
this because listening is the main point in today’s gospel. In the parable, the seed stands for the Word
of God and the different types of soil represent different ways that we may or
may not listen.
I am
also focusing on listening because I think our culture has a problem with this. In recent years, I have become very sensitive
to the fact that we often don’t really listen to one another.
Often
we interrupt others when they are speaking. We can probably see this played out in our
personal experience and I know for sure that we see it on TV and in the public
life of our country.
Now I
have to admit, it was really drilled into me by my parents when I was a child
that you don’t interrupt others but you listen to them when they are
speaking. So I guess I am especially
sensitive to this – I hope not too much so.
At any
rate, I don’t want to dwell on the negative today. The more important thing is that listening
can be a positive force in our lives.
So, I have
three simple recommendations for responding positively to Jesus’ desire that we
be good soil or good listeners. I think
that these will be helpful, but you can see what you think of them.
Recommendation 1: Believe
My first
recommendation is: Believe.
If it is the
Scripture or Bible that we are listening to, we have to believe that this is
the inspired Word of God.
We are called to believe
that God speaks to us here. There is a
message here about God or about us or about how we are to relate to God and to
one another.
If it is another
person that we are listening to, like a family member or friend or whomever, we
again need to believe.
Here we need to
believe that the other person is made in the image and likeness of God, just as
we are. And so, we assume that this
person may have something worthwhile to say or is deserving of our attention.
Recommendation 2: Inquire
So, 1) Believe,
and then my second recommendation for good listening is: 2) Inquire.
Maybe a passage of
Scripture that is read here at Mass or that we read at home is confusing.
So we need to
inquire. We look at the footnotes or
commentary on the Bible or we ask someone here at the parish to try to clarify
this for us.
Or maybe we are in
a conversation with someone and trying to be attentive but we just don’t get
what is being said.
So again we need
to inquire. We respectfully ask: “Would
you please explain what you meant by that?” or “I don’t think I understand, so
could you please say more about that?”
Recommendation 3: Receive
So, 1) Believe, 2)
Inquire, and my third recommendation for good listening is: 3) Receive.
If it is the Word
of God, the Scripture, we need to receive it.
This means that we
take it in, reflect and pray over it and see how it relates to our lives. It means – and this is crucial – that we are
willing to allow the Word of God to modify our vision of life or change our
opinion about something or make a difference in what we say or do.
If it is something
that another person has said, we again need to receive it.
Here this means
that we enter into the person’s life experience or thought process that are behind
what they have said. In this case, to
receive means that we at least appreciate more about that person as a result of
this.
Conclusion
So, I offer these three recommendations for listening well to the Word of
God and to one another.
1)
Believe opens us up.
2) Inquire draws us in. And 3)
Receive transforms both me as the listener and the relationship with the person
who is listened to.
