HOMILY WEEK 27 06 – Yr I

Listening and Obeying

(Joel 3:12-21; Ps97; Lk 11:27-28)

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“Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

That statement from Jesus in today’s gospel needs a bit of tweaking for our society today that is full of sound bites, news clips, fake news and catchy headlines. We are challenged by this gospel to move beyond merely “hearing” to really “listening” to the words of Jesus; to move beyond merely knowing to obeying his teaching, and to move beyond mere admiration to genuine imitation of Jesus. After all, imitation is the best form of flattery.

There is a world of difference between “hearing” and “listening.” We hear all kinds of things every day – our world is filled with texts, emails, ads, announcements, requests, opinions, ideas, theories and ideologies. But how well do we take time to really listen, think about, ponder, meditate upon and try to understand what is really being communicated? We hear with our ears – we listen with our minds and our hearts, and eventually, even our bodies.

Someone who is on the far right, conservative wing of our beloved, long-suffering church, sent me some very negative articles about many things, with a statement, “The headlines say it all!” Unfortunately, it seems many people read no further than headlines, because that statement could not be more wrong – the headlines sometimes mislead and say the opposite.

One day, I was celebrating the Eucharist at a chapel downtown and found many of the parishioners very upset about what they had heard others say about a headline that read “Pope Francis says it is dangerous to have a personal relationship with Jesus!”, and of course, I was questioned about it.

I asked for some time to look into the matter more closely (to “listen” and not just “hear.”) When I had found and read the complete article, I found that Pope Francis actually taught it was not good to try to have an individual, personal relationship with Jesus that is separated from and not connected to a Christian community. To do that is to risk slipping into a more Protestant, “me and Jesus,” spirituality which again unfortunately, many of our fellow Catholics have without realizing it. So, what that headline insinuated was not true at all, and what it communicated to those who only “heard” but did not “listen” was not accurate.

Just this morning I read much the same in the October 4^th issue of the Prairie Messenger. In a talk to priests at a Louisiana Priests’ Convention, Cardinal Dolan spoke about the popular and unfortunately successful crusade afoot now to annul the spousal bond between Christ and his bride, the Church. We “hear” this all the time, he states, and offered these examples: “I prefer spirituality to religion”; “I want Christ my king in a kingdom of one”; “I’ll believe but I won’t belong”; “God is my father and I am the only child”; “Jesus is my general but there is no army”. They want Christ without his church, he concludes, and offers the example of a YouTube video by evangelist Jefferson Bethke – “Why I hate religion but love Jesus” – that went viral with 27 million views.

The opposite, of course, is what Jesus himself really taught. On the road to Damascus, he identified himself with the Church, “Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Christ is the head, we are members of his body; one can never separate the head from the body. A Christian without a church is pure ideology. Dolan then encouraged his priests to be more open about their own woundedness, because there is no perfect church, as there is no perfect family, and he wants us to portray the church as an imperfect family. That is truly listening, and not just hearing, the words and teachings of Jesus.

A grade eleven student once asked me why we Catholics worship Mary, when Jesus pushed her away when she and his family wanted to see him. She could have been thinking about this passage as well, in which Jesus seems to downplay the role his mother played in favor a more personal relationship with him and his word.

Again, the opposite is true. In both cases, Jesus is not denigrating his mother – he is honoring her, and using her as an example to teach those who are really listening. He is saying that as close as he is to his mother who bore him and nursed him at her breast, we can be even closer to him if we hear, listen and act on his word.

The woman in the gospel today is saying his mother should be proud; Jesus essentially responds that it would be better if our belief gave birth to living out his commandments to love God, love others as we love ourselves, and forgive our enemies. Obeying his word means more than a feel-good personal relationship and assurance of “being saved” – it means having a genuine concern for the poor and oppressed, dealing with our own issues for which we need forgiveness, and coming to him for healing of our painful emotions, negative attitudes and even our addictions. It means to do unto others what we would have them to unto us. That is truly both “hearing” and “listening to” his word.

The Eucharist is a celebration of word and sacrament – we receive forgiveness and healing by listening to God’s Word and receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus. We are thus empowered to go out and live the Word that we have not just heard but also listened to.

So, remember, the Word of the Lord is truly our refuge and stronghold, as the psalm puts it. However, we must not just hear it but also live it, obey it, and connect it with our lives.