Turning “Hearing” into “Listening: Don’t Hear God, Listen to Him!
Joshua 5:9a, 10-12; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Lk 15:1-3, 11-32
It is impossible not admit that our times suffer from noise-pollution. The number of headsets one sees people wearing testify to the human desire to separate “hearing” from “listening,” a determination to pick and choose what one listens to and shut out what one hears. When we “hear,” we mean we are not in control, but when we “listen,” we filter out information from noises. When we listen, we learn and take instruction. In fact, some think that the noises of contemporary society lead to an inter-human chasm, no thanks to headsets and bluetooth of all kinds that separate us one from another. Thanks to science, we have a means of shutting out hearing and opt for listening. Is the same possible in our spiritual lives, to stop hearing the world and start listening to God?
From a distance, the older son could hear music of a partying crowd inside the house, but instead of stepping into it and be part of the celebration, he stays away. He needs reasons for the party, he needs an invitation to join the party, he seeks justice and restitution from his Father for his years of service and dedication. He wants to dictate the melody and choose the invitees to the party and the purpose for a celebration. To his mind, “failure,” as is the case with his younger brother, shouldn’t be rewarded, sinners have no place in the scheme of things. What a dialogue between Father and son! The Father stands his ground – we need to celebrate because “your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found”. Their conversation reorientate itself from “hearing” music in the house to listening to God for the reasons for celebration.
However, to see a physically healthy son and refer to him as having been dead and back to life doesn’t fly, it doesn’t make sense, especially when his action remain very fresh in his brother’s memory. All that the older brother remembers are the sins of the younger brother, his scam! This noise he hears threatens his ability to listen to God and see the reason for forgiveness. Their Father, on the contrary, only sees a child needing to grow up despite his mistakes. He wishes his children to tune into the melody of redemption and forgiveness, no matter the gravity of the offense. What is “fidelity” when it is a ploy for reward – the case of the older brother? What is the usefulness of wealth when it doesn’t procure salvation – the story of the prodigal son? There is the need to transit from the expectations of the world, the noises of the world that bombards our hearing, to listening to the voice of God.
Although their paths differ, the prodigal child knows the difference between the music of wealth and the party and melody of salvation; this knowledge leads to the confesses of his sins – “I am not worthy to be called your son”! The older son speaks the language of rights and entitlements to a wealth that is not his, and to a fidelity that comes from grace; he fails to cross the bridge on arrival at it – “But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf”: he prefers a dead brother to one who returns to share his wealth with him; he doesn’t realize the entrapment of selfishness and greed in himself. Our desire for justice needs purification for their true intentions to manifest. The first to accuse the other is not necessarily innocent, but surely a victim of systemic hearing without listening.
In the parable of our gospel, each one of us finds his place either as parents or children. What is our attitude towards sinners, are they too deserving of God’s salvation? Around us are the self-acclaimed saints, who are always faithful and they never do anything wrong. They taunt others, bully and calumniate them. Still, there are sinners who are every willing to cast the first stone at fellow sinners; they say their own sins are pardonable, but not those of others. There are among us, those willing to take a return journey home to face the shame of sin, ready to accept the punishment due to it, while praying for a merciful and compassionate judgment. In all these, the joy of it all is the joy of knowing that we are legitimate children, we have a Father who is ready to take us in!
The prodigal child returns home to a party, to a melody of redemption. This time around, something is different – no one judges him, the celebration is his for being a child like every other – children do stray! The fact of his return is a testimony to the power of grace; the choice of the country of his journey, the company with him and the lavishness of his life reveal the emptiness of life without true riches – the company of God and one’s homeland. Wealth couldn’t offer him joy because when wealth failed him, God’s melody takes over. The security and guarantee of a good life, which wealth promises, thins out as we mature and grow older because we are on an irreversible journey to our Father – God. The journey of life is one of discoveries of what true happiness means, and the joy is to find one’s way back to one’s creator – God.
Imagine the prodigality of God in our first reading: he offers Israel a new homeland with crops ready for harvesting! He doesn’t discriminate against the sinful in favor of the saintly Israelites – he offers them the same lot. This is another partying moment, like the return of the prodigal son of our gospel reading. Like the welcome party of the prodigal son, God assures Israel of a new beginning: “Today I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you” (Joshua 5:9). After years of physical suffering, God consoles Israel and makes her feel like a beloved child again. Spiritual torture and introspections serve as compasses and GPS for the prodigal son’s return journey. The noises, in the hearing of Israel and the prodigal son, call for discernment whether to remain in one’s situation or seek higher grounds. Amidst the noises of abandonment and rejection as the regular chorus of taunters, the prodigal son and Israel listened to and found God. Israel makes the decision to listen to God through its leadership – Moses and Joshua, and the prodigal son opts to listen to the voice of his conscience telling him to return home.
What matters today, and that is why this Sunday is called Happy/Rejoice Sunday (Laetare Sunday), is the choice we should make to listen to God’s joyful message to us that “Whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. And all this is from God” (2 Corinthians 5:17-18). Any message to the contrary of rejoicing in our dignity as children of God amounts to the noises we hear, but not the voice to listen to. The joy of a new beginning God offers us – “For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21) – should animate us. We share in the new beginning God offers Israel today, bringing her into the Promised Land; the “new creation” of the second reading, and the new beginning the Father grants to the prodigal son in our gospel reading. And Paul suggests, in our second reading, that you and I are ambassadors of this message to all and sundry – we are all God’s children here and now!
It may be the case that some of us will only listen to God after long-suffering and through the inconveniences we endure like the Israelites and the prodigal son, but some will get to listening to God because of the glorious relationships we have with him, especially the realization that we sin everyday, yet he keeps us alive and happy. Whatever the case may be, we all need headsets, earplugs and bluetooth to shut out the noises we hear that separate us from God and start listening to him! Laetare Sunday is a homecoming to God, with a sure guarantee of a party awaiting us on Easter Day!
Assignment for the Week:
Preach the message of reconciliation to someone you know needs it.