[stephenkhoo]

LISTENING TO GOD AND OTHERS FOR UNDERSTANDING

SCRIPTURE READINGS: 2 SM 7:18-19, 24-29; PS 132:1-2, 3-5, 11, 12, 13-14; MK 4:21-25

There is an innate desire in each of us to know more and more. We have many questions on our mind, but sometimes no answers seem to satisfy. Or the answers that we receive only satisfy us for a while. For this reason, we are in constant search to understand ourselves, the world we live in, and God.

But how do we really come to a greater understanding of the mysteries of life? The gospel tells us that it all depends on the way we listen. Twice in the gospel, Jesus spoke about hearing. In the first parable, he concluded with ‘Let him who has ears to hear me, hear!’ In the second parable, he prefaced it by warning his listeners, ‘Listen carefully to what you hear.’ The key message of Jesus therefore is one of listening.

The greatest obstacle to hearing, according to Jesus, is that we do not really hear. We think we are hearing, but actually we hear only ourselves, but never give ourselves fully to the other. Indeed, most of us behave like one who acquired a lamp in order to put it under a basket or hide it under a bed. This may seem ludicrous to us. But this is actually how we all behave in real life.

Very often, we seek the views of others, but how often do we really listen and absorb what is being said? Often what we are only interested in is to confirm what we want to hear about ourselves. We hope that these people will support our beliefs and ideas. We are not open to what new things they have to tell us. And so if their ideas fit in with ours, we say that they give good advice, but if they do not, we brush them aside and conclude that they are not very helpful, or that they talk nonsense. We do not even try to assimilate and think deeper into whether there is truth in what they say.

It is the same too in prayer. We often seek God for what we want to hear. We read the bible according to what we want to hear and therefore interpret the text according to our own liking. When we act thus, it means that we are simply not ready to confront ourselves. We are not really interested to know more about ourselves, especially those things that we do not wish to hear.

That is why Jesus tells us in the second parable that if we really want to discover life, then we will need to listen carefully. In the measure that we give ourselves to the other person by listening attentively with our whole being, and not planning another answer in our head, or be impaired by our own preconceived ideas while the other person is speaking, by that measure we will be able to grasp fully what that person is saying. With the knowledge that one gains from the other, combined with our own, our understanding of the situation will be twice enriched. That is what Jesus meant when He says that ‘In the measure you give you shall receive, and more besides.’

But when we give little attention to what the person is saying, then even the little that we know about the world will be taken away. Yes, total listening is total receiving. Failure to listen totally not only causes us to miss benefitting from the other person’s wisdom, but it can even be destructive, because we risk misunderstanding the message, which in turn could result in immense trouble for ourselves and others.

Today King David gives us the model for listening in prayer. In his prayer we see the basic ingredients of total listening: his humility in the face of all that God has given him; his praise and thanksgiving for his loving deeds; his confident petition for his continued help in the future.

Let us pray in a similar manner – that in our relationship with God and with others, we may be humble enough to realize that we know very little in life. Only in humility will we be truly open to the other person. It is also in humility that our spirit will be receptive to hear what God wants to tell us, whether it is in prayer, through contemplation of the scriptures, or through the counsel of those in authority or of friends.