Listen, God Listens

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, help us grow in sensitivity to your voice, remembering that you listen to us always.

Listening to God is central to the life of faith. Whether we listen to God or not, God is always listening to us. Keeping these two facts in focus, we have to reflect on this Sunday’s readings.

The first reading from Genesis (12:1-4) portrays Abraham as an epic of faith. His faithful listening to God was matched by an equally firm faith that God also listened. He lived his life within the parameters and from the strength of that ongoing conversation. Listening to this one and only God, travelling in both physical and spiritual sense to wherever God would lead, Abraham also put his faith in what seemed to be God’s impossible and impractical promises of progeny, prosperity and land. For his faithful following and listening, Abraham was blessed by God to the extent that his very name, i.e., his very self would be a source of blessing for all the earth’s peoples.

As is reflected in today’s 2nd reading (2Tim 1:8-10) each of us has been “saved by God and called to a holy life”. Paul’s life-changing experience took place on the road to Damascus when he heard the voice of the risen Jesus questioning the manner in which he was living his life. This experience resulted in Saul the persecutor of the faith, becoming Paul, the preacher of the Good News of Jesus Christ to the gentiles. Also referenced in the excerpt from 2 Timothy is the assurance that no life-altering word is spoken by God without the accompanying grace that will be needed to respond to that word thoroughly, faithfully and perseveringly.

In today’s Gospel, (Mt. 17:1-9) the directive given to Peter, James and John deserves our attention: “Listen to him”. Spoken from the cloud, the voice directed those who heard it then and those who hear it now to attend carefully to Jesus. Jesus has the words of truth, light and life that transforms the lives of those who listen to him. Jesus speaks of love and forgiveness, and human beings begin to live in the knowledge that they are cherished by a merciful and compassionate God. Jesus speaks words of challenge, and mere acquaintances become companions, companions become disciples, disciples become sharers in His suffering, dying and rising to new life. To put it more simply, listening to Jesus changes lives.