At the wedding feast of Canna, Mary gives the servers some excellent instruction. She tells them, "Do whatever he tells you." The "he" in this case is Jesus. What does Jesus' mom tell us? Listen to her Son.
In this week's Gospel, Matthew 17:1-9, we hear from Jesus' dad. No, not Saint Joseph. He is important, but he was not Jesus' dad. He was Jesus' foster Father. The Father I am talking about is Jesus' true Father, THE FATHER. The great I AM. The Lord, God, almighty. What does he tell us? Well, basically, the same thing that Mary does.
"This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him"
That is what the Father tells us about Jesus. "This is my Son, I love him. Listen to him."
It's pretty simple advice. And yet, I am terrible at following it. What does it mean to listen to Jesus?
Well, for one, I think it means we should be very familiar and attentive to the things that Jesus is saying in scripture. Did you know that at the time of Jesus, by middle school, most boys and girls would have practically memorized the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. They would be able to quote large swaths of it. Why? Because it is the Word of God. How did they do it? Well, they must have worked at it. They must have spent time listening and reciting.
We modern Christians, on the other hand, well, we are not quite so committed. The Word of God made flesh, Jesus Christ himself is present to us in the Word, and we sort of read it sometimes. When we hear the Word proclaimed at Mass, we maybe try to pay attention. Do you see the contrast?
If you were called to stand before God the Father, with Mary at his side, and they were going to ask you if you had listened to Jesus, and done everything he told you to, what would you have to say to them?
Thinking about it like that is pretty convicting. Most of us, if we are sincere, are way more attentive to the television than we are to the scriptures.
Scripture is a great place to hear the voice of the Lord, but it is not the only place. Informed by the scripture, we are called to be led by the voice Spirit of the Lord. God speaks to us, through the Spirit, in prayer as well. But here is the deal, you actually have to make time to listen if you are planning on hearing that voice.
When you think about it, Most of us are saying to the Lord, "I love you. You are my God. You are my savior. But I don't have any time to spend with you, and I don't plan on changing that. Also, those letters you wrote to me so that I could know you, yeah, I'm not interested. But, we're cool, right?"
It doesn't make any sense.
Maybe this lent we should deal with that. Perhaps in addition to whatever Lenten sacrifices we are making, we should also commit to daily prayer and scripture reading.
The Father is telling us something in this Gospel. I, for one, want to do what he says.
Lord, help me to listen to you.