Listening in Prayer

Homily for Wednesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

When Eli finally understands that it is the Lord who was calling Samuel, he gives him good advice: “Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” While it is Eli that understands what is happening, it is Samuel who has been attentive enough to hear a voice calling for him.

We give so much value to talking, even, in a sense, to thinking, to all the ordinary activities, that there is little space left in our interior life for listening. Eli’s suggested response, like the Blessed Mother’s words to the angel, can be taken as a model for our attitude in the face of God. To imagine that our thinking, planning, talking, and doing are all that counts, is a pretty narrowly human-centered approach. Our usually self-seeking and self-absorbed will and mind need to stop and allow God to be heard, to make an impression.

In the Gospel text for today, after spending much time healing the sick and driving out demons, Jesus tells his disciples that it is time to move on. Like Samuel, the disciples are attentive to Jesus’ desires and teachings. They hear him, and obey. Eli, Samuel, and the disciples all hear God’s word, though in very different ways. In order to do so, each of them has to be open to it – to create a place in their hearts for the word of God to dwell.

Too often our life consists of headlong movement supported by very little reflection but simply impelled by energy and, possibly, goodwill. Listening doesn’t mean by any means that we expect to hear a divine voice address us but to be open to the much more subtle influence of God that comes when we pray and are quiet. Further, we need to be quiet to understand what the world around us, our families and friends, are saying to us.

The word “attentive” is a great word. It is an adjective with two parallel meanings: concentrating and considerate. We might think of the first as dealing with the mind – the intellect – and the second with the heart – the will. These are both intrinsic aspects of what it means to be human. We have hearts and minds; we are sent by God with our intellect and our will. So we cultivate an attitude of awareness of God in our lives by being mindful, heedful, and vigilant. As we grow in devotion and with grace, we become more accommodating and obliging to the promptings of the Spirit. We hear God’s word. We listen to what it says. Then we act on what we are called to do.

Every day there should be some time when we put aside the noise of the world around us and of our own hearts and minds to say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”