May the Lord give you peace in the Holy Spirit. It is on 25th September 2023.
Listening is integral for believing in God and God’s Word. “For anyone who has will be given more; from anyone who has not, even what he thinks he has will be taken away.” (Lk.8:18).
We reflect on Ezra 1:1-6 and Luke 8:16-18. When people fail to listen to the voice of God within them, they may not enjoy freedom and liberation. The rebuilding is possible when we are willing to listen to the voice of God.
Listening is the most crucial for learning personally, socially, and emotionally. We stick to what we believe when we find it hard to listen within and around. The integral healing of humanity is possible for all those who are willing to listen even those who dissent from others. It is easy to listen to what pleases our minds and lives. It is indeed a challenge for everyone who would be willing to those bitter and painful stories of our broken humanity within each one of us and around us.
We cannot heal the brokenness in us and around us without taking the invitation of the Lord to listen deeply and respectfully.
Listening is the ingredient and fibre of our human relationships. Listening is healing. We are given more and even more when we listen nonjudgmentally, and we lose everything if we do not listen to ourselves and around us. We need to listen to the prisoner and the stranger within every one of us.
In the first reading, we read about the king of Persia named Cyrus who listened to the voice of the Lord and freed them to build a temple for God.
God speaks to God-fearing and truthful leaders. If the leader promotes his agenda of lies and hatred, he/she may not heed the voice of the Lord because his/her own voice is louder than the feeble voice of God.
A leader who refuses to listen to the voice of God makes people in captivity of all kinds.
The responsorial Psalm praises, “What marvels the Lord worked for us.” (Ps.125:3). In the Gospel, Jesus advises us all to listen.
Our listening influences and modifies our thinking; our thinking produces the actions; the action speaks the ambiences of the hearts. Our unprejudiced listening heals the world in us and around us.
May God bless each one of us to listen more and more often than now. May you have a good day.