Listening - to others and to the Other

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 27th week in Ordinary time

October 6, 2020: Galatians 1: 13-24; Luke 10: 38-42

The Word today insists on the need to listen, to begin with the need to listen to God. The credit that has to be given to Saul, in his turning into Paul is fundamentally his readiness to listen to God. If he were as stubborn as he always were, he would not have heard the Lord's voice from his horse! He himself reiterates his capacity to listen to God, by narrating his initial journey in the Lord, preparing himself to be an apostle: that was to a major part, an attentive listening to the Lord and to all that the Lord wanted to reveal in and through others. 

Mary at Bethany, is yet another icon of listening to God. She knew where the life giving source was: "to whom shall we go Lord, while you have the words of eternal life" were the words of Peter to the Word made flesh. Mary knew this in the core of her heart...and she chose the better part. 

Today we are called to discover the life giving Spirit in the Word that comes across to us on a daily basis. What strikes us in Paul's narration of his Christ experience is his readiness to perceive Christ in spite of his totally opposed prior experience. That was possible because of his capacity to Listen. Mary was considered wiser than her sister Martha in her choice because she chose to listen to the Lord in spite of all the excitement involved, in having the Lord around at home. 

The Lord, directly as it happened on the horse to Saul and at home to Mary of Bethany, and indirectly as Paul was directed to submit himself to Ananias and later to the Apostles, speaks to us today. To those who are attentive and prepared, God communicates directly in their hearts and from the Scriptures and to those who are ready and willing to listen to their brothers and sisters, through varied sources of God's communication. The task that is given to us is to grow in our capacity to listen - listening to the others and to the Other who constantly communicates unto us.