Listen; because the Lord your God listens!

Listening to the right voice

THE WORD IN LENT 2026 - FIRST WEEK THURSDAY

February 26 – Esther 4: 17; Matthew 7: 7-12

Listening to the right voice, is the call… but the question might be, why should we listen. We have a famous line of answer… the Lord told us through Moses (Lev 19:2) – be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy; just so, we have to listen, because the Lord our God listens! This is the message that the Word today gives us.

We find ourselves with Queen Esther in the first reading today. She is out there to face the great powers of evil and treachery, all alone. But she does not feel alone, for she knows that there is her Lord and God who listens. And that is why, she prays! “I am alone, and have no one but you Lord” she says… making it clear to herself, that she is not really alone! The listening God was there with her!

Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me – we repeat that in the responsorial today, once again reiterating that we have a God who listens, One who is close to us and knows our situation even before we say anything. But on our part, if we have to understand and experience the listening God – Jesus teaches us – to ask, seek and knock. It is not that only when I ask the Lord will give; it is not that only when I seek I will fill; it is not that only when I knock it will be opened to me… but when I do it, I feel listened to, for certain.

Our Lord is a listening God, because God is close to us, near us, beside us, with us and within us. God knows our needs even before we could think of asking God for it… but when we ask, we feel we are answered. The Lord has his hands, and his heart always open for us to enter, but when we knock, we feel attended to. The Lord is right there beside us, but when we call out like those disciples on the boat or Peter who was sinking, the Lord extends his hands and touches us…and we feel assured, as Queen Esther felt.

The Lent is a wonderful moment to have all these shades of experiences, because it is a time of getting back into the embrace of the Lord. A time when the Lord promises to create a pure heart for us and give back the joy of our salvation… because the Lord listens to our inner cries.

We are called to be holy because the Lord our God is holy! We are called to love because the Lord our God first loved us! We are called to listen to the Lord, because the Lord our God always listens!