We can be deaf to God, deaf to his Word, to his calls. Jesus tells his disciples that we can refuse to listen to him, fear to be healed of this deafness (Matthew 13v14-15); this is why it appeals to the will: “He who has ears to hear, he hears! » (Mark 4v9). But when we are ready to open our ears to hear God, He opens doors for us and does healing work. And the Word becomes alive. (But above all, let us remain humble: we easily mistake our own thoughts for those of God…)
If we can be deaf to the voice of God, we can also ears to others, and put earplugs in the ears at certain times. Be deaf to othersit is also a terrible handicap: for others who call, for ourselves (because we lock ourselves into egocentrism), for God (because he wants to use us in his plan).
How to translate this deafness towards others ? What are the reasons that make me close my ears?
Conferences Luke 10v35-43; Mark 2v1-12; 5v23-43; 1 Thessalonians 5v14
1) On the origin of others because of indifference:
While we live in a world of communications, mutual ignorance is often the reality.
A cartoon draws on this reality: “One invents lots of devices for speaking, hearing, seeing; Even to order your pizza! And in reality, he didn’t see anyone: he stayed at home! This, yes! »Here is a white that has turned sour…
We can be deaf to others like summer, in the parable of the good samaritan (Luke 10v25-37), the priest and the Levite – religious men par excellence! – who refused to hear the suffering of the one who had been beaten. Indifference certainly all of the fear to be attacked in turn; safety required! Their planning perhaps cannot bear to be disrupted… And then, it must be recognized, it is not with their small means that they can help this man; too injured to be helped.
Moses made anyone who touched the dead unclean; and to accomplish what you need to know about Jericho, it’s impossible not to keep your commitments… So many plausible reasons to take a detour and not help.
So many reasons that we have called “valid” so that we remain deaf to the needs of others.
In fact, Jericho is often the symbol of the world; If this is what Jesus had in mind to do with these men from Jerusalem to Jericho, it is perhaps to show that allowing ourselves to be attracted by the world, self-love prevails over love for others and us. deaf to his needs.
Indifference or lack of awareness of this need of selfishness.
Another episode which passes near Jericho: a blind man, Bartimaeus, cries out and calls Jesus (Luke 18v35-43); but his neighbors rebuke him: “Shh…! On listen what Jesus said! “. But Jesus stops: he does not remain deaf to those who call: “What do you want me to do to you? “.
“He who closes his ear to the cry of the poor will cry himself and must not answer” (Proverbs 21v13).
On the other hand, what some of us do towards our neighbors encourages me not to remain deaf towards my neighbor (occasional or permanent). “Lord, open my ears so that I may love with your love and listen to others.”
2) I am the source of my personal problems:
There we talk about our limits in carrying the weight of other burdens in addition to our own. I am even less attentive when I am going through difficulties. When we come home after a tense day with work colleagues, it is to help the family’s problems; the tendency is to close your ears and turn on the television or computer. Or when we experience family problems, commenting in addition to those of outsiders?
Again, the example of Jesus makes us meditate: he encountered difficulty Difficulty : the almost systematic opposition from the religious side, the incomprehension of the family which is rejected, not to mention the problems caused by his close friends, the disciples; his days were full; he reached sick after sick.
In this context, Jairus comes to implore Jesus: “My daughter is near death” (Mark 5v23-43); and Jesus listens to him, changes his program and leaves with him. But here comes the journey, a sick woman comes to touch Jesus and she is healed. Then Jesus stops: he takes all the calls – even silent ones – and he answers them; because he is God…
But we, we’re who’s who’s human people limited.
“But, Lord, open my ears to the needs of others, despite my own problems; and renew in me your love and your strength. »
3) We are also on the verge of no longer having problems:
A child has a stomach ache; the easy solution is to give him a medicine which would relieve him (normally…). But it sure remains deaf to his problem (which triggered the physical pain) to react like this. Help is listening to try to understand; and listening to it is the beginning of true healing.
Faced with violence in certain neighborhoods, we think that by providing subsidies to solve the problem, it will be resolved. But beyond this cry of violence, there is inner emptiness, in an often disastrous family context.
Faced with this problem, in Africa, for example, the solution is to open the wallet, but it is much more difficult to learn to manage cultures and make populations autonomous.
Jesus is before this blind man; he sees clearly that he has a face of his being blind! But he wants to listen to her: “What do you want me to do to you? »(Luke 18v41), to meet his need.
One of the first miracles of Jesus met with emphasis on need to seek to respond to what is most essential : four men who showed themselves paralyzed in front of Jesus by making a hole in the roof because the crowd was so large (Mark 2v1-12). And Jesus doesn’t begin by saying, “Get up and walk! » But by: “My child, your sins are forgiven you” (v5). This shows that for God, the marquise is in the interior life. God does not turn a deaf ear to the needs of the deepest.
“Lord, help me to listen and perceive the real problems (and not just the ones that I don’t need to be healed); open my ears.”
4) We are deaf when we judge others:
A very common problem is that I easily see others through my journey.
If someone doesn’t progress the way I have progressed (I just forget the years it took…), I tend to judge and find abnormal behavior.
It is not a question of being tolerant at all costs, but of being understanding, … as the Lord is of each of us; otherwise we would have long been doomed.
We support each other despite the areas of our lives that are not yet resolved, and love each other anyway. He views us, in his grace, through the work of Christ.
We are senders towards others; the Lord is patient with us. “Often we give others a hard time; Jesus washes our feet. »
Jesus hears Martha’s remark about her sister Mary who calls Jesus, as long as she worked hard! She even accuses Jesus of being deaf to her needs: “It doesn’t matter that I offer everything! “. She judges and her sister and Jesus.
In his response, he puts his finger on the fact that she is locked into her concerns; he doesn’t say who they are but her stress cuts her off from others and from priorities: she is deaf across the board.
Paul gives four possible ways of hearing and reacting to people who are not perfect (1 Thessalonians 5v14):
- Some lead a disordered lifeSO: “ Warn them »that is: do not be deaf to what is a problem in which they may be complacent, challenge them to think and come back from their bad behavior.
- Others are discouraged, the downcast, the fearful; comment help them? “ Comfort them », instead of hell even more by judging their lack of confidence; notice what is positive about them, encourage them to get involved.
- Still others are weak, They are easily intervened, they are not solid in their faith; the easy reaction is again judgment: on one who finds it difficult to accept, who delights in passivity; and Paul says instead: “ Support thembear with them ».
- And then there are the others, the normal »… And there – surprise – Paul says: “ be patient towards all » ; why the patience!? Quite simply because, at one time or another, we all disappoint; and there, it is all the more difficult to accept that there are falls.
I may be part of this last category, and the risk is to believe myself superior to others, to be deaf… to my own needs.
If we are ready to help, to give, to take, to become aware of our desire to receive: to receive from others, to receive from the Lord, from his Word; as Mary understood who wanted to listen to Jesus. With humility.
“Lord, open my ears so that I do not condemn but, through my reaction and my words, I propose everything to make my neighbor stronger; and that I agree to receive from them myself. »
Some time ago, ten people who are one launched; they were all with disabilities: there were four blind people and six deaf and mute people. Their challenge? Travel 2000 km in the desert for three weeks, with but buts: it is possible to communicate, despite their disability, and live together by helping each other.
We are all more or less disabled, and we are easily deaf to others. But it is necessary for the Holy Spirit to teach us this miracle in us, between us: to always learn in order to get along, and to be happy together despite our differences and our problems not yet resolved, by moving forward together, even if it is to cross the desert. But we are walking towards the same goal: the promised land.
Just as the two most important commandments are to love God and to love our neighbor, God calls us to open our ears to His Word and, in turn, to listen to our neighbor. That is to say, to love.
Jean-Ruben
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