WE MIGHT HEAR WHAT IS BEING SAID BUT DO WE TRULY LISTEN?

Jesus Heals a Deaf and Mute Man. Mark 7: 31-37 Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him. After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

We have been blessed with the ability to hear but do we listen? Watch me! We have been blessed with the ability to hear but do we listen?

How do you think this made that person feel? When you are talking to others are you just waiting until its your turn to talk or are you really listening? Or even worse, have you actively ignored someone by playing on your phone whilst they’re trying to talk to you? How do you think this made that person feel?

How can we be good listeners and show our family and friends that we care? In pairs discuss a time when you feel that you have not been listened to. What was that person doing to make you feel that way?

Class discussion: How can we be better listeners and what benefits would we gain from listening?

Teach me to listen, O God, to those nearest me, my family, my friends, my teachers. Help me to be aware that no matter what words I hear, the message is, “Accept the person I am. Listen to me.” Teach me to listen, my caring God, to those far from me– the whisper of the hopeless, the plea of the forgotten, the cry of the anguished. Teach me to listen, O God my Mother, to myself. Help me to be less afraid to trust the voice inside — in the deepest part of me. Teach me to listen, Holy Spirit, for your voice — in busyness and in boredom, in certainty and doubt, in noise and in silence. Teach me, Lord, to listen.  Amen.