Learning to Listen

 As a Dominican, I am asked to meet people where they stand.  Our patriarch, Father Dominic, demonstrated the importance of hearing what people say.  Unless I am able to listen, I will never be an effective evangelist.

My challenge has always been to listen, to hear the person, to think about what they have said and then to respond.  I am good at hearing them and formulating a rebuttal.  I can argue a position, sometimes well and sometimes not, but what I often fail at doing is actually hearing them and being able to put myself in their shoes so that the view they see becomes my own.

Yet, isn't that what evangelizing should be - the ability to see the world first with the eyes of Faith and Truth but then with the eyes of those we encounter.  Without that ability to empathize with 'the other' I will not be able to share Truth with them.

Truth then becomes nothing more than what I call its lowest form - subjective truth.  It becomes only that which matters to me.  If I am blessed enough to be someone who wants my reality to jive with the reality of God's Love then my subjective truth will be in line with Truth.  If, however, my wounded nature has been so damaged by my experiences then that will be a bit more difficult.  I will struggle with God's Love because it will not seem to have my best interest at heart.  It will only be a series of 'rules and regulations' - don't do this, do this on this day, don't allow that - rather than a reality that encourages me to find my highest calling, my true self and become more fully human through my unity with God.

Perhaps my focus for Lent should be to listen with the ears of the Holy Spirt.  Perhaps what I need to sacrifice this Lent is the need and want for everyone to see and hear what I see and hear and ask for God to replace that need and want with the ability to see and hear what they are experiencing, not for my own sake but so that I can better serve Him.

If I can do that, would that make me the steady, calm but bright light that illuminates the path rather than the harsh, mean and pain inducing strobe light that can also show people the path without making that path anything they would want to trod?

The Lenten Season is going to be one of reflection this year.  It is going to be far different than any I have experienced because I am both in the world and living in my little hermitage - quiet, alone and accompanied only by my faithful animals - Robbie the Rescue Scottie and Elizabeth the Mama Cat.  I will have more time for solitary thought and prayer, more chances for study and more opportunity for growth.

I look forward to another 'first' - a Lenten Season as a single widowed and orphaned woman of grace and dignity.  I get to do this - and I must confess, I am a little bit excited.

God grant you peace this Lenten Season.