THE LISTENING DISCIPLE

Each morning he wakes me to hear,

to listen like a disciple.

The Lord Yahweh has opened my ear.

(Is.50:4-5)

 I want to speak with you about the Assumption of Mary. We profess our belief today that she is with her Son in glory, that she has experienced the "resurrection of the flesh", that her whole human person --- body and soul --- enjoys the life that all of us long to live.

The scriptures present Mary as the ideal believer. One could choose many things to say about the Mary of the gospels. One could speak of her faith, of her motherhood, of her virginity, of her humility, of her active charity.

But today let me speak of only one thing, the "necessary" thing, according to Luke’s gospel, the secret of her holiness: she listens to the word of God. Mary hears what God is saying and acts on it.

I offer you these thoughts briefly in three parts: 1) listening in Luke’s gospel; 2) some echoes of the theme in the spirituality of St. Vincent and St. Louise; 3) some ramifications today.

For Luke, as for the entire New Testament, God takes the initiative through his word, which breaks unto the world as good news; listening is the indispensable foundation for all human response to that word.

1. Mary, in the Infancy Narratives, is the model listener

As with almost all the important themes in Lucan theology, the listening theme is introduced in the Infancy Narratives. These narratives, by way of preface, provide a summary of the theology that Luke will weave through his gospel. The listening theme is among the most prominent Lucan motifs. It is Mary, a Jewish woman, who is the ideal listener.

Mary is evangelized in Luke’s opening chapters. She is the first to hear the good news. She is the ideal disciple, the model for all believers. Mary listens reflectively, in the infancy narratives, to:

                    Gabriel, who announces the good news of God’s presence and tells her of

                     the extraordinary child whom she is to bear (1:26f.);

                    Elizabeth, who proclaims her blessed among women because she has

                    believed that the word of the Lord would be fulfilled in her (1:39f.);

Shepherds, who tell her and others the message which has been revealed to them about the child, the good news that a Savior is born! (2:16f.);

Simeon, who proclaims a canticle and an oracle: the first, a song of praise for the salvation that has come to all the nations; the second, a prophecy that ominously forebodes the scandal of the cross (2:25f.);

Anna, who praises God in Mary’s presence and keeps speaking to all those who are ready to hear (2:36f.);

Jesus himself, who tells her about his relationship with his heavenly Father, which must take precedence over everything else (2:41f.).

2. Her attitude, as the ideal disciple, is one of attentiveness

When the word of God breaks in on Mary’s life, she listens attentively. Using a standard pattern, Luke pictures Mary as listening to the word with wonderment, questioning what it might mean, deciding to act on it, and then meditating on the mystery of God’s ways.

Listening: "Upon arriving, the angel said to her: ‘Rejoice, O highly favored daughter! The Lord is with you."’ (1:28)

Being astonished: "She was deeply troubled by his words, and wondered what his greeting meant." (1:29)

Questioning:"How can this be since I do not know man?"(1:34)

Acting (accepting, obeying): "Be it done to me according to your word." (1:38)

Treasuring and pondering: "Mary treasured all these things and reflected on them in her heart."(2:19; 2:51)

3. The same theme is presented in several brief key stories later in Luke’s gospel

Luke uses three brief stories to illustrate this central discipleship theme: namely, that it is those who listen to the word of God and act on it who are the true followers of Jesus.

8:19-21 His mother and brothers came to be with him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. He was told, ‘Your mother and your brothers are standing outside and they wish to see you." He told them in reply, ‘My mother and my brothers are those who listen to the word of God and act upon it."

In this story, Luke changes the Markan emphasis (cf. Mark 3:31-35) radically. While Mark depreciates the role of Jesus’ mother and relatives, Luke extols it, echoing Luke 1:38, 2:19, 2:51: Jesus’ mother is the ideal disciple, who listens to God’s word and acts on it. Anyone who does likewise will be happy.

10:38-42 On their journey, Jesus entered a village where a woman named Martha welcomed him to her home. She had a sister named Mary, who seated herself at the Lord’s feet and listened to his words. Martha, who was busy with all the details of hospitality, came to him and said, ‘Lord, are you not concerned that my sister has left me to do the household tasks all alone? Tell her to help me." The Lord in reply said to her: ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and upset about many things; one thing only is required. Mary has chosen the better portion and she shall not be deprived of it."

Even though Jesus’ statement about the one thing necessary has been subject to innumerable interpretations, there is little doubt about the central point of this story in the context of Luke’s gospel. Mary has chosen the better part because she is sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening to his words, just as any true disciple does. While there are many other themes in the story (such as, once again, the role of women, and also the role of the home-church in early Christianity, which is reinforced here through a Lucan addition), Luke again emphasizes what ultimately grounds the following of Jesus: listening to the word of God. That is the better part (cf. 8:4-21).

11:27-28 While he was saying this a woman from the crowd called out, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!" "Rather," he replied, "blest are they who listen to the word of God and keep it."

This passage interrupts, rather puzzlingly, a series of controversies that Jesus is involved in during the journey to Jerusalem. But Luke inserts it here as an occasion for Jesus to clarify the true meaning of discipleship once more: real happiness does not lie in physical closeness to Jesus, nor in blood relationship with him, but in listening to the word of God and acting on it.

The central place of listening, within the context of spirituality, is not explicit in the conferences and writings of St. Vincent and St. Louise. But the spirituality they proposed includes several key themes in which the importance of listening is evident.

a. Humility as the foundation of evangelical perfection

Vincent calls humility "the foundation of all evangelical perfection and the core of the spiritual life". For him, the humble person, on the deepest level, sees everything as gift. The humble recognize that that God is seeking to enter their lives again and again so that he might speak to them. So they are alert, they listen for God’s Word, they are eager to receive God’s saving love. The humble know that the truth which sets them free comes from without: through God’s Word, through the cries of the poor, through the Church, through the community they live in.

There is probably no theme that St. Vincent emphasized more. He described humility as the origin of all the good that we do. He told the Daughters of Charity: "If you establish yourselves in it, what will happen? You will make of this Company a paradise, and people will rightly say that it is a group of the happiest people on earth…"

Humility and listening are closely allied, in that listening is the basic attitude of those who know that fullness of life, salvation, wisdom, truth, love, come from without. Brother Robineau, Vincent’s secretary, whose reflections about the saint have just been published, notes that this attitude was especially evident in Vincent’s conversations with the poor, with whom he would sit and converse with great friendliness and humility.

St. Vincent loved to call the poor the real "lords and masters" in the Church. It is they especially who must be listened to and obeyed. In the reign of God, the world of faith, they are the kings and queens; we are the servants. For the Daughter of Charity, the privileged listening-post is the poor person. There she meets Christ; there he speaks to her.

b. Reflection and meditation

St. Vincent and St. Louise were both deeply convinced that God speaks to us in daily prayer. They asked their followers to set aside a substantial period of time every day for quiet mental prayer, urging them to do it together so that they might support one another. The two saints believed too that the gospels play a key role as the foundation for prayer; the teachings of the gospel are like "a house built upon rock". We know from the orders of the day that St. Louise used during her retreats that she frequently meditated on the gospel read at daily Mass. Basically, both saints yearned to listen to the word of God and to make it the foundation of all they did.

Abelly notes, in a colorful passage, how devoted St. Vincent was to listening to the word of God: "He seemed to suck meaning from passages of the scriptures as a baby sucks milk from its mother, and he extracted the core and substance from the scriptures so as to be strengthened and have his soul nourished by them --- and he did this in such a way that in all his words and actions he appeared to be filled with Jesus Christ".

In a conference on the "Gospel Teachings", given on Feb. 14, 1659, Vincent emphasizes how well Mary listened to the word of God. "Better than anyone else," he states, "she penetrated its substance and showed how it should be lived."

c. "Obeying" everyone

The word "obedience" (ob + audire = to listen thoroughly) is related etymologically to the word "listen" (audire). For St. Vincent the role of obedience in community was clearly very important. But he also extended obedience beyond its usual meaning, in which all are to obey the legitimate commands of superiors. Using a broadened notion of obedience, he encouraged his followers to listen to and obey everyone, so that they might hear more fully what God is saying and act on it.

Our obedience ought not limit itself only to those who have the right to command us, but ought to strive to move beyond that.... Let us therefore consider everyone as our superior and so place ourselves beneath them, and even more, beneath the least of them, outdoing them in deference, agreeableness, and service.

Obedience, moreover, is not the duty of "subjects" alone, but of superiors too. In fact, superiors should be the first to obey, by listening to the members well and by seeking counsel.

There would be nothing more beautiful in the world, my Daughter, than theCompany of the Daughters of Charity if... obedience flourished everywhere, with theSister Servant the first to obey, to seek counsel, and to submit herself.

In his wonderful book on community, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote:

The first service that one owes to others in the community consists in listening to them. Just as love of God begins by listening to His Word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to them. It is because of God’s love for us that he not only gives us his Word but also lends us his ear. So it is his work that we do for our brother when we learn to listen to him. Christians, especially ministers, so often think they must always contribute something when they are in the company of others, that this is the one service they have to render. They forget that listening can be a greater service than speaking. Many people are looking for an ear that will listen. They do not find it among Christians, because these Christians are talking where they should be listening. But he who can no longer listen to his brother will soon be no longer listening to God either, he will be doing nothing but prattle in the presence of God too. This is the beginning of the death of the spiritual life.

If listening is so crucial to healthy spirituality, then how might we grow in it?

From reflection on the Church’s long spiritual tradition one might glean a number of qualities that characterize good listeners. Here I will touch briefly on four, which seem to me crucial for growth in listening.

a. Humility

The indispensable quality for good listening is humility. It is "the foundation of all evangelical perfection, the core of the spiritual life," as St. Vincent put it. The humble person senses his or her incompleteness, her need for God and other human persons. So she listens.

Humility acknowledges that everything is gift; it sees clearly that all good things come from God. St. Vincent writes to a priest of the Mission (probably Robert de Sergis or Lambert aux Couteaux): "Because we recognize that this abundant grace comes from God, a grace which He keeps on giving only to the humble who realize that all the good done through them comes from God, I beg Him with all my heart to give you more and more the spirit of humility…

But consciousness of one’s incompleteness has a further dimension. It is not only "vertical", so to speak, but "horizontal"; we depend not only directly on God, but also on God’s creation around us. Truth, then, comes from listening not only to God himself, but to the human persons through whom God’s presence and words are mediated to us.

b. Prayerfulness/Reflectiveness

It is only when what is heard is pondered, that its full meaning is revealed. The quest for truth, therefore, involves prayerfulness and reflectiveness. While at times one can hear God speak even in a noisy crowd, it is often only in silence that one hears the deepest voices, that one plumbs the depth of meaning. The Psalmist urges us: "Be still and know that I am God" (Ps. 46:10).

The gospels, particularly Luke’s, attest that Jesus turns to his Father again and again in prayer to listen to him and to seek his will. Prayer is then surely one of the privileged ways of listening for Jesus’ followers.

Moreover, since prayer is a meeting with God himself, what we say in prayer is much less important than what God says to us. When there is too much on what we say or do during prayer, it can easily become a "good work", an "achievement", a "speech", rather than a "grace", a "gift", a "gratuitous word" from God. Naturally, prayer, like all human activities, involves structures, personal discipline, persevering effort. But the emphasis must always be on the presence of the personal God, to whose word we must listen attentively as he speaks to us the good news of his love for us and for others.

But our prayer must always be validated by life. One who listens to "what God is telling me" in prayer, but who pays little heed to what others are saying in daily life is surely suspect. Prayer must be in continual contact with people and events, since God speaks not only in the silence of our hearts, but also (and often first of all) in the people around as.

c. Respect for the words of human persons

Today, perhaps more than ever, we emphasize the need to listen to the persons around us.

Many contemporary documents put great emphasis on the dignity of the human person and on the importance of hearing the cries that come from his heart. Gaudium et Spes and Redemptor Hominis see the human person as the center of creation. In a slightly different context, Centesimus Annus puts it very directly: "Today, The Church’s social doctrine focuses especially on the human person…".

Respect for the human person acknowledges that God lives in the other and that he reveals himself in and through him or her. It acknowledges that words of life come from the lowly as well as the powerful. In fact, St. Vincent became gradually convinced that "the poor have the true religion" and that we must be evangelized by them.

Many of the recently published texts of Brother Louis Robineau attest to St. Vincent’s deep respect for persons of all types. Robineau notes how well the saint listened to them: poor and rich, lay and clerical, peasant and royal.

But such respectful listening is not so easy as it might seem. In an era when there is much noise, where the media, if we so choose, speak to us all day long, sometimes deafeningly, one must surely ask: are we able to distinguish the voice of God among the many voices that are speaking? is God’s word able to say "new things" to us? are we still capable of wonder?

As we attempt to develop increasing respect for the human person., surely we must ask some challenging questions. Are we really able to hear the cries of the poor, of the most oppressed: the women and children, who are often the poorest members of society; those discriminated against because of race, color, nationality, religion; the AID’s victims, who are often shunned by their families and by the physically healthy; those on the "edges of life", the helpless infants and the helpless aged, who are unable to speak up themselves? Are we able to hear the counsel given to us by others: by spiritual directors, by members of our own communities, by the documents of the Church and the Congregation? Are we alert, "listening", to the "signs of the times": the increasing gap between the rich and the poor and the repeated call for justice made by the Church?

d. Attentiveness

One of the most important signs of respect for the human person is attentiveness.

The contemporary documents of both the Vincentians and the Daughters of Charity put great emphasis on the need to be attentive. The Daughters’ Constitutions see it as the prerequisite for achieving the apostolic goal of the Company: "Attentiveness, the indispensable foundation of all evangelization, is the first step toward it (the service of Christ in the poor) ...

The Vincentian Constitutions emphasize it in the context of community life: "We should pay close attention to the opinions and needs of each confrere, humbly and fraternally".

Likewise, attentiveness as one seeks counsel is of the greatest importance. Robineau relates how often St. Vincent asked others their opinion about matters at hand, "even the least in the house". He often heard him state that "four eyes are better than two, and six better than four".

Robineau relates an interesting incident in this regard:

One day he did me the honor of telling me that it was necessary to make it our practíce, when consulting someone about some matter, always to recount everything that would be to the advantage of the opposing party without omitting anything, just as if it were the opposing party itself that was there to give its reasons and defend itself, and that it was thus that consultations should be carried out.

Today Mary stands before us as the listening disciple; she hears the word of God in its many varied forms and acts on it.

If we are listening disciples, like our Mother, we will surely grow, since listening is the foundation of all spirituality. To the listener come truth, wisdom, the assurance of being loved. To those who fail to listen comes increasing isolation.

Jesus, like the prophets, knew that listening was demanding and consequently often lacking. He lamented its absence: "Sluggish indeed is this people’s heart. They have scarcely heard with their ears, they lave firmly closed their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn back to me, and I should heal them" (Matt. 13:15). He also rejoiced in its presence: "But....blessed are your ears because they hear" (Matt. 13:16).

Are there ways in which we can listen better?

May Mary, the listening disciple, be your light and your encouragement.