Dear Parishioner
‘What is the greatest commandment?’ the scribe asks Jesus. Well, we probably all know the answer to that: to love God with all our heart and soul, and to love our neighbour as ourself’; two commandments, repeated in our first reading and gospel today.
The reading in Deuteronomy is at the centre of the Jewish faith. Jews pray the Shema (Hebrew for ‘Listen’) twice a day, so that it slowly permeates and becomes written in their hearts shaping their actions.
If, however, we look closely at the text we see that there are not two commandments, but three. Shema, Listen, is an imperative too. God commands us to listen, not simply to hear His voice as did Samuel, but to listen to it and to take it to heart. It is not by accident that the word ‘listen’ translates the verb obedire in Latin…. We can easily see the link to the word ‘obey’.
But what if this command to listen to is also an invitation to listen out for? ‘Listen’ also implies an active alertness so that we are able to hear God even in the whispers that touch us every day. So often we think that God is not there, is not speaking to us and consequently not really interested in us. But God does speak, if indeed we have an ear to hear. God speaks to us in the small moments of joy and strength and courage and love which we often experience in our day, but are too busy or too caught up in ourselves to notice. These small moments are just as important, and sometime even more true, than the big moments of revelation which we often tend to expect but rarely experience. We need to listen out for them.
It is a good practice, as Ignatius suggests, to review our day* in order to become aware of these moments and give thanks. This will help us love God more and over our neighbour more. Then indeed shall we find His law written on our hearts, not merely in terms of memorising its content, but rather in living out of the new and transformed hearts which God gives us.
Sister Josette IBVM
*St Ignatius calls this prayer the ‘Examen’. You can find out how to pray it on the pray as you go or Re-imagining the Examen apps.
