Listening to Love

A Reflection on the Psalm for October 6th, 2019:
Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Psalm 95

R. O that today you would listen to the voice of the Lord. Do not harden your hearts!

O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! R.

O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. R.

O that today you would listen to his voice! Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. R.

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“Yup.”


“Uh huh.”


“Got it.”


All responses I’ve used when someone is talking to me to acknowledge that I hear them. The responses come naturally. But have I actually heard them? Am I truly listening? We know there’s a difference between listening and hearing. Both actions physically require our ears but the reaction that follows varies depending on whether we are passively hearing what is told to us or actively hearing (listening to) what is being said.


The other day, an acquaintance at my gym was telling me about her upcoming vacation. She’s friendly, chatty, and detailed. I was listening… or at least I thought I was, until I asked a question which I embarrassingly realized two seconds later, she had already given the answer to. Facepalm! I felt terrible for not actually listening. Not the best way to make a new friend!

"God continues to talk to me, to reach out to me, telling me: I love you even when you don’t listen"

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Sadly, I’ve noticed lately that I’m doing the same thing in my conversations with God. My “yups”, “uh huhs”, and “got its” are interspersed where they ought to be but I’m not hearing Him. I’m distracted trying to live in the middle of whatever drama, crisis, joy, challenge, or happy place that I’m in. I’m not intentionally not listening — said every child to their parent! Ultimately, I end up making my moments with God about me. Yet, God continues to talk to me, to reach out to me, telling me: I love you even when you don’t listen — said every good parent to their child! This psalm’s refrain reminds me that God continually reaches out to me regardless of my actions. And, as the verses of the psalm reiterate, God requires my active hearing of Him and my responding to what I hear to continue to build our relationship. Easier said than done. Sometimes I do not listen because I am scared of what I will hear. Maybe I won’t like what I will hear. Maybe God will ask something of me that I may not be willing to give, which sounds really selfish — considering God gave up His Son for me.  


Yet God will not force me to witness Him to others. He will not impose Himself on me. God will be with me, walk with me, be present with me, in whatever drama, crisis, joy, challenge, or happy place that I find myself in — because of Love. And in those places He constantly speaks to me and it’s up to me to listen and really hear Him because God speaks out of love to bring about more love. If I am able to soften my heart, I give God space in my heart to help me, heal me, hear me, and most importantly to love me so that I can love others. They say the longest distance to travel is between the head and the heart. Our “yups”, “uh huhs”, and “got its” can only get us so far. The psalmist pleads with us to shrink that distance for Love’s sake.


​Aurea Sadi

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