Last Sunday’s scripture readings challenged us to consider what it means to “see God.” This week’s readings—from the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary—challenge us to consider what it means to “hear God” because Jesus said, “blessed are those who hear the word of God.”
Most people think that “hearing God” means “listening to God.” And, they’d be correct…in part.
The word Jesus used is commonly translated as “hear” which in English is rendered “listen.” But, at a deeper level, it connotes “to comprehend by hearing”…which implies not just an auditory function but also an intellectual function joining the faculties of hearing and thinking.
That’s what the audience would have heard.
Perhaps a better translation of the idea is:
Jesus replied: “Blest are they who have good acoustics to perceive the word of God clearly.”
In other words, we can listen and think. But, if we’re to do so, then we must hear and think clearly because we oftentimes hear incorrectly and thus think about what we’ve hear incorrectly. We may also hear correctly but think about what we’ve heard incorrectly. The goal is to hear and think correctly about what we’ve clearly heard God say.
In this regard, one marvel of modern technology are those noise canceling headphones and earbuds which are able to eliminate just about any sound emanating from outside oneself! Many moons ago, I was waiting to catch a plane at Philadelphia International Airport and decided to purchase a set of Bose noise cancelling earphones—not the headset but a set of individual earphones—because I was sick and tired of all the jet engine noise. Since I was travelling a good deal at the time, I figured it was a sound investment (pun intended!).
My expectations for the earphones to deliver on their promise were low but when I first tested them, the effect was amazing! Very little ambient noise and when I connected my phone to the plane’s Wi-Fi system and turned on my favorite baroque station, I couldn’t believe the clarity of the sound emanating from those little earphones. I could hear the bows on the violin strings, the plectrums plucking the harpsichord’s metal strings, and the musicians turning the pages of their individual scores.
The acoustics were just about perfect!
“Just about” because when I’ve attended live chamber concerts, I not only heard all of those sounds but I also felt the music reverberating throughout the auditorium as it was being performed. Then there’s the slow dissipation of the sound as it dies having just filled every nook and cranny of the auditorium. That’s perfect acoustics…I could hear clearly with my ears, grasp the tonality with my mind, and feel the effects of the sound upon my body.
I first learned about the importance of acoustics when I was in the seminary and graduate school in Chicago. One of my best friends was the immensely gifted organist of St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Hyde Park, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), and a professional choir, the William Ferris Chorale. I got to know Tom when I assisted at St. Thomas on weekends and would frequently complement Tom on his fine choice of music for Mass and how its execution in that acoustically very good venue. When Tom found out I could read music and had an interest in classical pipe organ music, he began inviting me to turn pages for him when he’d be concertizing in the greater Chicagoland area. Besides all the wonderful free music I got to enjoy, I learn a lot about acoustics because even the best pipe organ in a building with bad acoustics can’t compete with an average pipe organ in a building with good acoustics. Hearing clearly, I could easily detect the difference. I also appeared on stage with the CSO turning pages for Tom when he accompanied the orchestra (although, I’d argue the CSO accompanied Tom) for a performance of Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns “Symphony No. 3 in C minor” aka “The Organ Symphony.”
In Chicago, several venues at the time boasted excellent pipe organs as well as excellent acoustics making it possible to demonstrate the immense power of what’s called the “King of Instruments.” The pitch and timbre of the sound were unobstructed, the volume could be both resounding and subdued, and the experience could be both engulfing and pacifying. In charge of it all was the organist and when the instrument spoke, those in the audience who were attentive heard it clearly with their ears and listened to through the power of their mind. Then, as the music transcended into their hearts, they experienced with their bodies.
That’s the act of hearing clearly…the ears, the mind, the body experiencing what’s said.
Blest are they who have good acoustics to perceive the word of God clearly.
But, Jesus added, “…and keep it.”
Once again, this translation isn’t the best because the people in the crowd heard Jesus say, “Blest are they who have good acoustics to perceive the word of God clearly and are vigilant in keeping an eye upon what they’ve been entrusted.”
In much the same way good shepherds are vigilant about their flock’s safety—exercising the kind of unbroken vigilance of a military guard by personally standing guard against and keeping secure what has been entrusted to them—so are those who hear the word of God and keep it. That presumes having a heart that’s intent on fulfilling one’s duty...whatever the personal cost.
Today’s Solemnity honors the one human being of all human beings in history who heard the word of God clearly and kept it faithfully. For this, Mary didn’t die but was assumed body and soul into heaven and has been called “Blessed” from the earliest years of the Church.
Hearing the word of God clearly, Mary was intent upon fulfilling her duty, experiencing joy in obeying it even amidst the seven great sorrows that pierced her heart:
- Simeon’s prophecy during the presentation of Jesus in the Temple that this child’s life would be one of “contradiction” that would lead people to reject, insult and eventually murder him—the first arrow that pierced her heart. In a nutshell, Simeon told the newborn’s mother that this kid was going to cause her a lot of grief...not the visions of sugar plums Mary has for herself, her son, and her family.
- The hasty flight into Egypt because King Herod of Judaea—worried about a newborn “King of the Jews”—ordered the killing of all boys in and around Bethlehem who were 2 years of age or younger. Having to walk the difficult path away from her homeland with only a vague hope that her family would return was the second arrow that pierced Mary’s heart, one Mary later would learn was the difficult path she would watch her son walk.
- The loss of the 12-year-old Jesus in Jerusalem for 3 days. Filled with distress, Mary and Joseph rushed back to Jerusalem and, after an additional 3 days of desperate searching, they found Jesus unharmed in the Temple conversing with teachers of law. Jesus wasn’t lost and having not realized his parents’ absence asked them, “How is it that you sought me?” Painful as that was to hear, even more painful—the third arrow pierced Mary’s heart—was the recognition that her son belonged first and foremost to God.
- Being present when Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified was surely painful enough, but meeting Jesus on the path leading to Calvary surely caused Mary intense pain. But, witnessing her son—unjustly accused, stumbling, falling with the cross three times along the path leading to the place he would die—surely had to generate agonizing sorrow. The four arrows piercing Mary’s heart was beholding her son’s bleeding, swollen, pitiable state of helplessness, desolation, and abandonment.
- Standing there beneath the cross of a common non-Roman criminal, Mary wept as she watched her son cruelly nailed to a cross, the soldiers gamble for his clothes, and his slow, torturous death. It’s awful for any parent to watch a child die. The fifth arrow that pierced Mary’s heart was enduring an even more painful agony because Mary was the only person who truly understood who her son was.
- Michelangelo’s “Pieta” best captures the sixth arrow. When Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus’ body of down from the cross, he laid the body in the grieving mother’s lap. The bruises and wounds—evidence of all the physical torture Jesus had endured, including the open wound caused by the Roman soldier’s lance—were bad enough but Mary made a crib of her lap for her lifeless son, God’s only begotten Son, and Mary grasped him with her arms holding him close to her pierced heart.
- The seventh and final arrow to pierce Mary’s broken and grief-filled heart was to watch on as Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus placed her son’s corpse in the tomb. After the ritual burial rites prescribed by the Mosaic Law were completed, the tomb was sealed. All Mary had left—widow that she was—were the horrific memories of what was done to her son.
As Simeon predicted, anguish pierced Mary’s heart and her heroic witness from the crib to the Crucifix teaches us what being a faithful Catholic requires of each of us.
To develop good acoustics to perceive the word of God clearly and be vigilant in keeping an eye upon what we’ve been entrusted.
Today, a lot of self-identifying Catholics embrace a “Christmas crib faith”—grasping hold of it like Linus clutched his security blanket—because it allows them to deny the pain and suffering that, try as we might, none of us can escape. A “crib faith” is all about “feeling good” about oneself, first, and maybe about God…as long as that doesn’t require having to endure any pain or, more importantly, suffering. There’s no need to serve more, pray more, give more, or forgive more.
Hearing the word of God is one thing, listening to it is another thing, but allowing in to pierce our heart is where most folks who call themselves faithful Catholics aren’t willing to venture because, as today’s Solemnity of the Assumption reminds us, it means saying “Thy will be done” and accepting the inevitable and, yes, suffering that will come our way, as Mary’s life attests, by trusting in God’s good providence.
We’d rather live in the fantasy world of:
- a marriage where both partners have been immaculately conceived;
- raising children, each of whom was immaculately conceived by immaculately conceived parents; and,
- being a family, each of whose members has been immaculately conceived.
That’s not just insanity but also to deny the reality of Original Sin. As the Church teaches, none of us—that each of us and everyone around us—was immaculately conceived. Living in that fantasy world weighs us down to the things that are below, making us incapable of elevating our minds and hearts to the things that are above.
Living a “crucifix faith” requires giving up those fantasies and accepting the fact that none of us is perfect. But, that’s just the beginning because a “crucifix faith” requires accepting the suffering that will come our way because, like Mary, we love and trust God and have committed ourselves to live each day fulfilling what we say with our mouths: “Thy will be done.”
That represents our challenge from scripture for this coming week: To leave that fantasy world of sugar plums and Christmas cribs behind by contemplating how we’ve become weighed down by our concern with the things that are below which makes it impossible to elevate our minds and hearts to the things that are above.
Then comes the “crucifix” part: Each morning, identify one thing that’s weighing you down and give it up for the day. In its place, take time during the day to contemplate one of Mary’s sorrows because she heard the word of God clearly and kept it. There’s one sorrow for each day of the week!
This is how, as Catholics, each of us can live a “crucifix faith” by developing good acoustics. Perceiving the word of God clearly and becoming more vigilant in keeping our eyes fixed upon the things of God. Then, “when that which is mortal clothes itself with immortality,” as St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, each of us will be raised body and soul into heaven at the resurrection of the dead, giving thanks to God who has given us the victory through Mary’s son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
“Blessed are those who hear the word of God clearly and keep it.”
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