“Everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to
wrath… Put away all filth and evil excess and humbly welcome the world that has
been planted in you… Be doers of the word and not hearers only.” James 2:19-23
Growing up, my mom used to scold me saying, “I know you hear
me, but are you listening?” Confident in my knowledge that there is not a
difference in those two words, I would tell her, “Yes Mother, loud and clear!”
and then ask myself ten minutes later, “Wait what did she say?” I feel like this same situation can be
applied to my relationship with God. Yes,
I read His Word in the Gospels and at Mass, and yes, I absolutely trust His
Word. But am I listening to all of what
is being said to the point where I apply it, or am I only hearing what I want
to hear? I go so far to ask my Bible
life questions and then allow it to fall open to a certain page and search for
the answer as if it’s a Magic 8 Ball.
“Bible, will I ever get a puppy?” I asked. Bible replied, “Stretch out
your hand to make frogs overrun the land of Egypt.” So I’ll take that as a no.
We know what the Bible says, we understand right from wrong,
and we hear the readings at Mass, but are we actually listening? James tells us to
be “quick to hear,” meaning to soak up what the Lord is telling us, from the
simplicity of “I have called you by name” (Is. 43) to the controversy of “Wives
be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord” (Eph. 5). James tells us to be “doers” of the Word, not
just “hearers.” If all we do is hear the Word, action will not
follow. Much like when I heard my mom
telling me to do something, but I never did it because it went in one ear and
out of the other.
Instead, if we listen to
the Word - and I mean listen to the point of note taking (you will get funny
looks at Mass for having a note book but it’s your salvation, not that of the
lookers) – we become doers. If we listen
to the Word, it will become part of us, so imbedded in our nature that we
cannot help but act upon, so inflamed in our hearts that we cannot help but set
the world on fire, so moving in our souls that we cannot help but move someone
else.
