Listening With All Our Heart, Soul, Strength,
and Mind
by
Craig Phillips
In the early morning I often sit with my
coffee on the deck in my backyard and listen to the sounds around me. I’ve
learned to identify the song of the male cardinal calling from the trees. I
hear an owl still hooting an hour or so after the sun has come up. After a
while, I hear an increase of traffic on the road nearby. All these sounds would
be easy to miss if I did not create the time and space to listen to them.
Listening to them brings me a sense of peace and joy.
On three occasions before his entrance into Jerusalem on
Palm Sunday, Jesus warned his disciples that he would be killed and after three
days rise again, but “they did not understand him.” Their responses demonstrate
that they were unable to hear what Jesus was telling them. They did not hear
him, because they were not truly listening to him. They shut their ears to what
they were unwilling to hear, that he in fact would be killed.
The Gospels portray Jesus fulfilling the words of the
prophet Zechariah, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! … Lo, your king comes to
you… humble and riding … on a colt.” As Jesus rides into Jerusalem he hears the
noisy expectations of the crowd. They shout, “Hosanna!”—“Save us now!” Some
have hopes that Jesus will expel the Romans who occupy the land, and begin to
rule an earthly kingdom as did their ancestor David. At the beginning of the
week, the crowds greet Jesus with hopeful expectations, but by the end of the
week, when he does not fulfill their hopes and dreams, the crowds turn on him
screaming, “Crucify him, crucify him!” The sound of excited voices and
expectations surround him, call out to him, but Jesus mysteriously remains
silent. Jesus heard the clear expectations of the crowd yet remained intent on
what he had to do, even as he recognized what would happen to him in
Jerusalem.
Most of us know what it’s like to be surrounded by other
people’s expectations of us. Sometimes they are realistic expectations, other
times they are not. How do we listen to the expectations of other people
without losing our own identity or being untrue to ourselves?
When we listen to the events of Holy Week with all our
heart, soul, strength, and mind, we encounter a wide range of human emotions
from extreme sadness to overwhelming joy. If we can be attentive to the range
of emotions we feel as we enter into that story, we open ourselves to being at
one with the hope hidden in the inner ground of our being.
Living
Well Through Lent 2021
Copyright
©2021 Scott Stoner.
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rights reserved.
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