Most of the time we don’t actually listen when someone speaks, at least not in the way we should. Many times instead of listening to understand, we simply listen to respond. As they speak something triggers a memory of our own. Then we wait in anticipation to share our memory, to interject our own self into the story. This is often the ebb and flow of modern conversation. It can also be very painful to the person speaking as the thing they have shared in vulnerability is pushed to the side to make room for another, which in some cases can be quite jarring and traumatizing. Redemptive listening is when we stop listening to respond and instead listen to be Jesus to the person. Our responses not only show that we are listening but continue to affirm, uplift, and encourage the person by letting them know you are truly listening.
Why do I bring up redemptive listening? Today’s Gospel shows an example of someone who just isn’t listening to Jesus. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus has been speaking about a radical trust in God’s providence. He has just told people that they shouldn’t worry about money or food. That God looks after the sparrows, how much more will he look after them? Then he goes on to say don’t worry about having the words to say in tough situations, God’s Holy Spirit would guide them and give them the words to speak. Then someone speaks up from the crowd and says: “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
How ironic that this man has made much the same statement as the woman at the well. When the living bread from heaven is right before him, instead of asking for the gift of eternal life, he asks for earthly treasures. In the middle of a sermon on detachment, the man asks for that which he most desires. Security. We tend to seek that quite a bit in the United States. Shopping in bulk we stock up the food stores and dry goods, often having food that goes to waste or never gets used. We budget and, if we tithe, we make sure that it doesn’t interfere with our pocketbooks or our personal goals. Saint Paul in the first reading says that Abraham’s trust was not written down for his benefit, but for ours. Abraham who picked up everything he had to set out in the direction that God pointed, leaving the comfort of his homeland to wander into the deserts. The same Abraham who was around the age of 100, believed when God said he would be the father of many.
Do we believe? Do we live as we do? Can you imagine how much the world would be changed if Catholics lived out what they actually believe? There would be no need for a mission appeal because the tithing would be so generous that all of the needs of the poor would begin to be met. Widows and orphans would have homes and meals provided, and our outreach programs would be fully funded. Bible studies would be overflowing as people gathered to learn the faith and Mass would be the center of our week, not the thing we do on weekends behind closed doors. Radical trust. Set free from all our enemies, holy in righteous in His sight, all the days of our lives. There is a promise we don’t think about much, isn’t it? Free to worship Him without fear. Do we truly live as if Jesus freed us from sin? Or do we just accept some flaw that we have, somehow thinking God designed us with it, “it is just who we are.”
That’s the true inheritance that we are offered, not just to become ‘divinized’ in the life to come, but for God to begin to change us here… now… today. Are you trusting Him to do just that? Or are you listening to God, waiting for your chance to interject your own story?
A reflection on the readings for October 21st, 2019: Monday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time.