I was with friends on a boat going to Bohol last month. Leo, the joker of the group, started talking about his grandmother. Hard on hearing and speech, his lola would blurt out words that are quite far from the truth. We could not stop laughing. Some samples:
“She told me her problem and I ‘long distance’ (understand)”.
“Are they singing using the San Roque (karaoke)?”
“My hip is painful again. Call the guy for my ‘reprep’ (reflex).”
“Your baby is crying. Better change her ‘Jennifer’ (diaper)”
If you just hear lola’s words, you may not understand what she’s talking about. But if you listen carefully, get the context and go beyond the words being said (meaning, reflect deeply), you will get what she’s actually talking about.
Leo said he’s the only one who can understand his lola speak that’s why he’s the favorite grandson. It’s because he listens well.
God’s words have power. If we understand it well, they can lead, guide and save us. But sometimes, we fail to listen well and so we don’t understand the true meaning.
We’re sitting in Mass and hear all the readings, the gospel and the priest’s homily but we still go home empty-headed, doing things that are contrary to what we hear during the Mass and worse, act like we didn’t hear anything.
Remember the gospel story of Martha and Mary whom Jesus visited? Martha was busy readying everything for Jesus and his disciples. Mary was at Jesus’ feet —listening. This is the place if a disciple! Not busy with worldly interests but spends time to listen for God’s Word—sitting at Jesus’ feet.
But why is this so hard to do? Because we are always distracted. We separate our activities in the world from those that we should engage with God to go to heaven. We think we should live fully our life on earth and heaven is a place that we go later when we die. So today, we busy ourselves in the world. Heaven will come later.
Reading and listening to God’s Words is sometimes the least of our interests. They take a backseat, if not, no seat. But unless we make time and effort to read and listen to God’s Words, it will be hard for us to understand what God is trying to say to us. For all we know, He’s telling us how to solve our problems today!
I am facilitating four deaf people in our Elim Communites. If I’m not mistaken this is the first and only deaf group in our community. One of our elders from Manila once asked how they get to understand the teachings during our prayer meetings. And I told him, they “listen” to the Word in their heart while I “sign”
For a deaf person, trying to read God’s Word in printed form can be like trying to crack a code—the words simply don’t make sense. That’s because most deaf communicate best in a sign language. But they continue to attend prayer meetings, even dance in worship more actively than the hearing people. Sometimes when I’m not around to interpret, they still stay and “listen”, writing down the notes projected on screen. Then they re-read the verses at home and reflect on how these impacts them.
If the deaf makes time to “listen” at Jesus feet, what stops us from sparing time to also spend moments to sit at Jesus’ feet, be quiet and just listen to His Words?
By saying to Martha that Mary “has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her,” Jesus is reminding us that nothing must “distract” us from hearing the Word of God. After all, “One does not live by bread alone,” Jesus had once said.
But sometimes we get so caught up in our lives that we don’t listen to what those around us need and neglect our personal ministries to reach out to those around us. We need to not just go and do, but also to sit and listen.
We hear ourselves say “God, I love you. I will follow you. I will do your will.” Good. But are we doing things to show we love God, that we truly follow Him and do His will?
Actually we’re so busy running about trying to do God’s will that we fail to listen for his Word first! The doing will come…but first we have to listen…
The model of a good disciple is that we must do both — do good things but this can only be genuine if we understand why we’re doing it. And this happens if we listen first. As they say, “Listening is the beginning of understanding.”
If my friend Leo didn’t take time to listen carefully to his lola, he would have missed what she was really trying to say.
If we don’t make time and exert effort to listen to God’s Words (and reading it) we lose that chance of understanding what God is planning for us for our own good.
I think we are all still hungry for the Word of God. So do many people around us. Let’s make it a personal mission to make sure others find it and are well fed.
Perhaps we can invite the Marthas of our day to join us…with Mary…where we all belong…at Jesus feet!