Listening
Scripture
Luke 10: 38-42
Reflection
Dear sisters and brothers,
Listening is a skill.
Speaking is a skill.
Doing something is a skill.
Hearing is not a skill.
Now, we may wonder why there is a difference between listening and hearing.
We can hear many things.
We may not register it in our memory.
We ignore certain sounds.
We hear a conversation.
However, we concentrate on what we want to hear.
Here comes the listening.
We listen to a person.
We listen to a person with full attention.
There is no distraction in listening.
Mary listens to Jesus.
We do not know exactly what the conversation is about.
We draw a conversation from the first sentence: "As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him."
Jesus is on his way.
Where is he going?
He is going to Jerusalem.
He is going to face pain, suffering, passion, and death.
It disturbs him.
He wanted to share his anguish with someone who could listen, not someone who could hear.
He has not come here to eat and drink.
Eating and drinking are not a priority.
Sharing and listening are a priority now, in this moment of restlessness.
And Mary does it perfectly.
Martha fails.
We all go through the same thing like Jesus in our lives.
It may be small or it may be big in our lives.
Jesus, the Saviour, is there for us, listening to us all the time.
Are we ready to give a listening ear to others as his followers in our lives?
May the heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all. Amen.
