A listening heart

Today's readings: Isaiah 55, 10-11; Romans 8, 18-23; Matthew 13, 1-23.

We speak and act as if being busy were a force beyond our control, and we struggle to cope with being too busy. We seem to be stuck with a way of life that is a breathless rush. It's easier to message someone, rather than having to talk and listen. In a world where we seem to be so much more connected, we are finding it harder to listen to each other. No wonder it's becoming harder to listen to God.

This is what the parable of the sower in today's Gospel is about. It highlights how and to what extent modern-day culture is conditioning us in many ways and making it difficult for God's word to reach, the heart. The general theme of the three readings this Sunday may at first look contradictory. Isaiah is reassuring, affirming that God's word "does not return without watering the earth", it does not return empty without carrying out what it was sent to do. On the other hand, it is so easy for this same word to go unheeded.

There is the idea that God is mighty but also that there are other forces working in us that can outweigh God's power. We are still part of creation which "still retains the hope of being freed", as Paul confirms in the second reading. So even if God's promises have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ, meaning that God's word did not remain merely an uttered word but has become flesh, we are still groaning inwardly as we wait for our bodies to be set free from creation.

The parable and its explanation as part of the third major discourse of Jesus in Matthew, assumes pivotal significance in coming to terms with the mystery of our rejection or acceptance of the Kingdom of Heaven. We acknowledge that there are varied reactions to the Gospel proclamation, both on the personal as well as on the collective levels in life.

Through the imagery of the seed and the soil we can understand what makes us close our hearts to God and what are the conditions of a true and profound listening to the word that can lead to understanding, which is mainly a matter of the heart. This understanding is about overcoming barriers to listening which ultimately are also barriers to self-awareness and to personal growth.

In our daily lives there seem to be blockages everywhere that make it hard for us to listen. Our culture is too noisy. And God's voice is the voice of a subtle silence that demands that we be still in order to really connect with Him as the source of true life. We need to become desert apprentices to be able to capture what God is saying, given that God tells His story not just through words that are proclaimed, but through events and experiences.

The different types of soil that Jesus identifies in the parable depict our different situations that can, from time to time, make it hard, for us to listen carefully or clearly. We have problems listening to Jesus. Listening is important because it is God's word that helps us to diagnose who we are and at the same time provides the therapy we need.

It is only true listening that can lead to understanding God's word, which implies the will to be changed and to be healed by Him. It is an exercise of listening with the heart. There are situations when it is difficult to listen. There are moments when we are blocked from listening, and just do not want to listen or even find it impossible to listen to ourselves.

But if you are looking for sanctuary in your life, then St Benedict invites you into that place of peace with the opening words of his Rule: 'Listen carefully, child of God, to the master's instructions and attend to them with the ear of your heart'.