Hear and Act Upon the Word of God

Homily for Tuesday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

The Book of Ezra, which we hear this week, expresses Ezra’s conviction that the Jews in exile were able to return to their own land because of the support of a well-disposed, non-Jewish ruler. Not only did he release the Jews from slavery, he paid for the rebuilding of their temple in Jerusalem. Although the Jews did not even favor contact with such people, in this case Ezra and his fellow Jews owed King Darius gratitude.

Christians have also acted at times as if non-believers could not possibly do us any good. But experience tells us that we all depend upon each other in many ways and that dependence crosses religious and family boundaries.

Jesus points to something similar in today’s Gospel text. When told his mother and brothers are trying to get in, he says that there is a deeper relation to him than that of blood: “Those who hear the Word of God and act on it” are His mother and brothers.

This passage always reminds me of the story of two men who were walking down a very busy street in the middle of Manhattan. Horns were honking. People were talking to one another. Police whistles pierced the air. Sirens blared of a passing ambulance. However, one of the two men said to his friend, “Do you hear that?” “Hear what?” his friend replied. “The cricket, can you hear it?” At this the man looked at his friend and said, “You must be kidding!”

The man pulled his friend’s sleeve and tugged him across the street where there was a hotel. In front of the hotel were two potted plants. He parted the branches, and sure enough, there sat a cricket chirping away. “How in the world did you hear that in the midst of all this noise?” asked his friend. “Watch this,” his friend said. He pulled several coins from his pocket and dropped them on the pavement. Immediately, everyone in the vicinity turned and looked about to see if they had dropped some money.  “We choose to listen to that which we value,” said the first man to his friend.

Of course, Mary is the primary example of one who hears the Word of God and acts upon it. The first biographer of St. Francis referred to the saint as “no deaf hearer of the word.” Each day that we celebrate the Eucharist, we are privileged to hear the Word of God. We also receive the strength to act upon it through our communion with the Lord Jesus.