A young Native American boy was listening to his dad, the chief, talk about how to read the skies in order to know how much wood to gather for the winter. Being the younger of the sons, the boy figured his older brother would be the next chief, so he saw no point in learning the skill. But then a few years later, tragedy struck the tribe as the chief and the elder son were killed in a car accident and the young boy (now a young man) was made chief of the tribe, the land, the whole reservation. After a period of mourning, a few people approached him and asked him to read the skies since winter was on the way, and tell them how much firewood they should collect. The new chief freaked out. He had no idea how to do that. To be on the safe side, he ordered the men to collect a good amount of firewood.
After a few days, he decided to contact the local weather station and ask the meteorologist for the winter forecast. The meteorologist told him, “Oh, it’s gonna be bad this year.” Panicking, the chief ordered the men and the women to go out and collect more firewood. A few days later he phoned the meteorologist again and asked him if the weather was still going to be bad. “Oh, it’s worse than we thought, the winter will probably be really rough.” His heart pounding wildly, the chief ordered every man, woman and child to collect firewood every day and store it wherever they could. By now, people were forced to store some of the firewood inside their homes.
Soon, winter was upon them. The chief called the meteorologist once again and asked him if he was sure about the weather forecast. “Oh, it’s going to be a lot colder than we thought,” said the meteorologist. “Maybe the coldest winter we’ve had in many, many years.” “Is that what your satellites are telling you?” asked the chief in shock. “Oh, no, we don’t use satellites to predict bad winters,” the meteorologist said nonchalantly. “Well…what then?” the chief asked, confused. The meteorologist explained: “We go by this Native American tribe just down the way and they’ve been collecting firewood like crazy for months now.”
That poor chief. Think about all the anxiety he could’ve saved himself if he had just paid attention to his father! Listening is an extremely important habit for us to develop as disciples. I will never forget one of the very first conferences I attended at the seminary. It was given by a wise priest named Father Ciccone, and he emphasized the importance for each of us to have a “listening and learning heart.” Having a listening and learning heart is crucial if we hope to be able to follow where our Heavenly Father is leading us in life.
Think about the people we hear about in both the first reading and the Gospel today. Both were presented with readings from God’s word in Sacred Scripture and both had the opportunity to either accept or reject the teachings based on those scriptures. What is the common theme that we see in both groups? Attentive listening! Ezrah reads from “the law” to all of the men, women and children gathered in the first reading. “The law” was the way the Jewish people referred to the first five books of their scriptures: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. First, we hear that the men, women and children–people of all ages–were listening attentively. So all of you young people, know that it is never too early to be listening for what God wants to tell you through Scripture. His Word is for you too. Did you catch that Ezrah was reading from daybreak until midday? That is a long time to listen! Imagine if the Liturgy of the Word at Mass went for several hours. I think few people today might have difficulty continuing to listen attentively.
When Ezrah opens the scroll, all of the people show great reverence towards it! They all stand up as a sign of respect and attention. What did we just do when it was time to hear the words of the Gospel? We stood up as a sign of respect and attention. Then, As Ezrah blesses God with the scroll opened, all the people raise up their hands and say, “Amen, amen!” This is a sign of their agreement with his blessing God. In a similar way, we give glory to God together as we begin the Gospel reading. Each of us say, “Glory to you, O Lord,” and make a cross on our forehead, lips, and chest. This reminds us to keep the saving Gospel of Jesus in our minds, on our lips and in our hearts.
All of these external gestures of praise and respect are meant to have an interior effect on us. They are meant to put our hearts in a place of attentiveness, ready to listen and learn. And if we cooperate with God’s grace, He can help us to do just that: listen attentively as He speaks His words of healing, challenge, and hope to us. God the Father wants us to constantly experience His voice in our lives to give us what we need, but too often we don’t have listening and learning hearts. Too often, our hearts are exactly the opposite: they are inattentive.
Why are our hearts inattentive? There can be many reasons. Maybe we have taken so little time to listen to God speaking to us in His Word throughout the week that when it comes time for us to listen to Him on Sunday, our hearts are listening to the thousand other voices in our heads other than His. If this is where we are, let’s open our hearts to God’s invitation to go deeper. There are so many resources for soaking in God’s Word every day, any one of which will take only a few minutes of your time: the daily Scripture reflections based on the readings on Formed.org, the daily readings available in the myParish app, the daily readings and reflections in magazines like The Word Among Us and Magnificat, the Bible in A Year podcast with Fr. Mike Schmitz, and many more. If you go looking for daily scripture resources, I guarantee you will find some.
Another reason we might be inattentive when God’s Word is being read is that our hearts are too noisy. There is something profound about preparing in silence to listen for God speaking to us. If we just rush into Mass at the last second or maybe even a couple of minutes late, chances are that our minds and hearts might not be receptive because they are still caught up in whatever we were thinking about before Mass. But if we get here early and give our minds and hearts a chance to settle, it will help us to have those listening and learning hearts when it comes time to listen to God’s Word.
It is worth it to open our hearts and minds to God’s word both at Mass and in our own personal prayer because in the Scriptures, we encounter Jesus Christ, the One who can change our hearts and minds for the better. Remember the authoritative interpretation that Jesus gave when He read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah in today’s Gospel! Jesus proclaimed that He, through the Holy Spirit, would bring glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind and freedom to the oppressed. When he finished speaking, Luke tells us that “the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.” They were obviously listening attentively. They knew that this Rabbi was unlike any other. His words spoke to their hearts which were poor, captive, blind and oppressed. In one way or another, our hearts fall into those categories, too.
When we become saddened by the poverty of sin, Jesus comes to lift us out of that poverty into the gladness of His grace and redemption. When we are caught in the slavery that sin brings, only His grace can make us free. When we’re blinded to the goodness of God, Jesus restores our sight. When we feel oppressed by sin and all of the stresses and strains of life, Jesus gives us freedom through the peace and strength that only the Holy Spirit brings. Whenever we come to the Scriptures with listening and learning hearts, we come ready to receive the new life that Jesus wants to bring. His words aren’t just any words, they are the words of everlasting life! Let’s allow them to guide, heal, strengthen, challenge and encourage us every day!
+ Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to encounter Your Son, the Word in the Scriptures. Jesus, thank You for allowing our hearts to be changed through meeting You in the Scriptures we read and hear. Holy Spirit, by Your grace, help us to have listening and learning hearts whenever we approach the Word of God. We ask this through Christ, Our Lord. Amen. +