Listening to that Voice

 ‘…they know his voice’ (John 10:4)

From John 10:1-10 (Year A: Easter 4)

Recognising voices and faces is a skill.  Habits of a lifetime can help or otherwise.  Sometimes, there is too much to process. Too many faces, too many voices and too many messages.  Facebook, email, twitter are wonderful means of connecting and staying connected. But, we can drown in a sea of voices and images. Listening is at the core of what it means to be human. It is more than hearing. It is about entering into a relationship – even fleeting – with someone or something else. It can mean noticing, responding, feeling, acting. It can change us. Aude alteram partem is a Latin phrase which means ‘Hear the other side too’. Now, that does not come necessarily so easy especially when we think we know we are right and the other is wrong – always. A lot of reconciliation work is about giving space to others to tell their story. Much of the suffering undergone by those who suffered abuse at the hands of institutions was greatly worsened because they were never listened to. And even when they got some type of hearing it was not acted upon. In other words, authorities were and still are not listening enough or at all.

Listening to the other is possible if we listen to ourselves. This may seem counter-intuitive – even contradictory because following our own voices is often the very blocker that prevents listening to others. However, a failure to really hear and listen to the other can be born out of a failure to attend to that tiny, simple voice deep within each of us. Being still and taking the time to be open to those inner sources is important – even essential to becoming better listeners.

Ausculta fili – Give ear O Son (Proverbs 31.2) – the very opening words of the Rule of St Benedict (or the familiar phrase ‘Éist a Mhic’ in Irish) makes the point – we need to listen to the Voice of the One who can give life and give it to the full.

Too often  we settle for less than the full life that is on offer because we don’t take time and space to listen  - really listen to ourselves, to others and ultimately to that continuing voice of Love which whispers to us every day in events, persons, emotions, thoughts, failures, joys and sorrows.

As one writer put it: ‘All that is asked of me is rapt attention, here, now, to others. And I’ll find the good life.’
[But How do we know that Voice? How? It has three marks: Gentleness, Kindness, Inviting (more than compelling).]