You’re right... I don’t usually write or speak quite like that. But I think you can recognize the substance and spirit of the question. What each of us hears becomes, in some way, a part of who we are, either because it does become part of us, or because it shapes us in response to what we reject, or fear. What we hear either brings us together with others or causes us in some way to withdraw from others. The Scriptures this weekend reveal the power of God’s Word to draw us near, to enfold us in God’s divine mercy and love, to draw us into the Communion in Christ for which we were created. This is the Kingdom.
There are millions of creatures on the earth that can hear, and seemingly can communicate sounds that others of their family or species can recognize. Still, of all of God’s creatures on this earth, we are not aware of any other that can both communicate and hear with such a scope of meaning, such a richness of spirit, such a power of appreciation, of gratitude, of love.
Jonah called Nineveh to repentance. Paul called the Corinthians to ways of being and acting that would conform to the Person and the Way of Christ. Jesus issued The Call to the Disciples that he issues to us. Mark’s Gospel shows Jesus moving among those whom he would call, finding them as and where they are...knowing who they are.
This manner and measure of call deserves the most focused of listening possible. If the “noise” of the Disciples’ world could be distracting, all the more so is ours. Day by day we really have to choose what we will hear. Oh, yes, sometimes something will be so loud or so insistent that we can’t block it out. But it will pass. And most often, the answer to the title question above is – we hear what we’re listening for.
Fr. Tom