world.”
Reflections
“Mary sat down to listen to his words.”Ordinarily, the function of “listening” is to know, to learn something. (It is an intentional or deliberate act. It is not a passive mental act.) But more than this function, a corollary product of listening is that: it prepares one to take action.Have we not experienced in our lives, when we were at a crucial point of making a difficult decision, we took some time to pray, to listen to the Spirit for guidance? In the case of being attentive to God’s word, liste- ning supplies spiritual courage and strength. Genuine listening empowers one to take action.Assuming a listening attitude or preparing the heart to be at- tentive is the kind of hospitality God seeks from us, that is, the “hospitality of loving attention and listening” (Brendan Byrne). This is Mary’s “seemingly pas- sive” action, but to Jesus the one thing that is profoundly impor- tant. There is nothing more im- portant to Jesus than to give him our undivided attention.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2019