Reflection
Take care what you hear.
-Mark 4:24
The readings for today reflect the importance of listening to the voice of God in our hearts and seem most appropriate for where we are today. The reading from 2 Samuel is King David’s prayer of praise and request for blessings. The first time I read it, it sounded like a rambling prayer. The third time through, it was more like a gushing out of love and praise for what God had done for David. The sentence that caught my attention was . . . “you are God and your words are truth. . .” God’s words are truth. Taking time to ponder the Word of God can open our hearts to what God is revealing to us.
It never ceases to amaze me that while doing group lectio, everyone hears the passage differently. Things that I never heard before come to light or a different perspective of the passage. In the Rule of Saint Benedict, it speaks about “listening with the ear of your heart.”
The word “heart” in Saint Benedict’s Rule is not our fleshy heart, but the center of our being, our essence, our core. This is where God speaks to us.
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is speaking to his disciples and tells them to “take care what you hear.”
We do need to take care of what we hear or listen to. Taking time to discern what we hear is important in our modern society, where there is so much to listen to or read. Christians throughout the history of the Church have been challenged by what they heard, and the Church keeps moving forward in Faith, Hope, and Love because of the message of Christ to be light for the world.
May we all pray for one another and for those who are struggling in any way.
