Litening Heart to the Word of God

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Over the last number of years there seems to be a problem in modern society. It is summed up in a title of a book that I have on my book shelf in the office “ The Lost art of listening” The book laments at the fact that in modern society we have forgotten or at least many of us have forgotten how to listen . It stresses that for many people we have been so busy with our lives that we have not slowed down sufficiently enough to listen to the world around us and more importantly to each other.

This weekend the readings focus on a new kind of listening. It is listening of the heart but not to meaningless words but to the most important words in the world. The word of God. Jesus uses that beautiful image of the word as seed penetrating different kinds of soil. This soil is us. We are the ones who hear and read the word of God. And yet I am sure that we can see ourselves in all the different kind of soil. We do not hear the Word of God because of who we are or what is happening to us.  And yet the word of God is alive and active it helps us ion times of need when we are caught up by what the world throws at us. When we are not really listening and when we do not really want to listen because we are so challenged by the message that we hide behind it.

Sometimes in our lives the words that people speak to us penetrate our innermost being it touches us.  Why does this happen? Because they have penetrated our heart. The words have landed on rich and fertile soil and helps us to grow. The Word of God does this too. Have you ever been in a crisis and you happen to go to the bible sometimes as a last resort and the words just speak to us about what it is all about the Word of God penetrates our hearts.

 

In the Second Vatican council one of the most important documents to come out was called Dei Verbum. On the Word of God. It encourages us to dust down our Bible and read it. I wonder how many people have a Bible and never really dip into it. This week we celebrated the feast of St Benedict and the Benedictines have a wonderful tradition of praying with the scriptures. So I want to encourage you to dust of your Bibles if you have not pick it up for a long time and take your time to read and pray with the Scriptures set yourself down in a quiet place and allow your heart to be rich soil to let the Word of God speak to you.   

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