Homily for the Thirty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time (B)

Homily for the Thirty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time (B) St. Joseph’s Neier November 3-4, 2012 Rev. Kevin Schmittgens

Central Idea: The center of our religious lives, the center of our lives at humans, the center of our call to love is to listen.

Which is the first of all the commandments?" Jesus replied, "The first is this: Hear, O Israel!”

If you noticed a decline in my homilies this fall, there might be a reason for it. I am no longer teaching first semester sophomore classes. In that class, I gave them the assign- ment to write reflection on the Sunday readings. Believe it or not, I got some amazing in- sights from my students and it is always a good preparation for my Sunday homily. One I remember from almost twenty years ago.

One of my students told me that her uncle was working on the cooling towers of the nu- clear power plant at Calloway, just west of us. He was in charge of a crew who had to scale the mighty towers, doing repairs and such. He was always after one of his crew who steadfastly refused to follow safety guidelines. Again and again, he warned the man to do as he said and again and again the procedures were not followed. Finally, one day, as you might have guessed, the man fell from the tower. All of his coworkers and my stu- dent’s uncle rushed to the injured man. And with his dying breath he said six words, one sentence that has haunted my life ever since I heard the story. Kids, you do not want this to be your final statement on earth. He whispered: I guess I should have listened.

I guess I should have listened.

I tell my students constantly that the first duty of love is to listen. Do not tell anyone, anyone that you love them if you are not willing to listen to them. And that is the core of our Scriptures today. The central prayer of the Jewish nation is the Shema. In our Chris- tian tradition we call it the Great Commandment. (dazzle them with Hebrew) It is about loving God, our neighbor and ourselves. But it is that first word, Shema, Hear that gets me. I suppose if you had to boil down our lives, our faith, our mission to one word, you probably could not do better than Hear. It is the basis for everything in our lives of faith. When I was studying theology in the seminary, I always heard the line faith comes through hearing, that’s why what I do here in this pulpit is so important to me. But it not just about paying attention here at Mass and that is what I would like to discuss, very briefly.

Pope Paul VI once said: Of all of our activities, our listening to God is the supreme act of reasoning and will. And I believe that this process begins when we shut up (and I mean that in a nice, life giving way). “Shutting up” means quieting ourselves outwardly and inwardly. It means letting go of our selfish, petty, inconsequential agendas and focusing on God, others and that which is most vital and important. This is no small task. And yet, there is no task in our lives greater than this. When I am focused on my own needs, my own thoughts, my own opinions is blinds me to others, it blinds me to what God has in store for me, it blinds me to the fullness of life.

Second, listening is an active, energy draining activity. Make no mistake about it, it takes a lot of work to listen. Maybe that is why people avoid it so steadfastly. It is much easier to have one’s mind all made up, refuse to see the other side, refuse to even acknowledge the possible truth of another’s thoughts. I just adequately described this past election sea- son, didn’t I?

Finally, it could be said that in our present world there is far too much to listen to. Lis- tening was easier when we just had our families, our neighbors and maybe the daily paper to listen to. That is why it is important to be a tad discriminating when listening to others. I found two quotes that point this out rather well. One is from the esteemed social commentator and rock star Alice Cooper, AKA Vincent Fornier. He once said that if you are listening to a rock star to get information on who to vote for, you are a bigger moron then they are. Well said Alice. The other is from the writer and explorer Thor Heyerdahl who said: One learns more from listening than speaking. And both the wind and the people who live close to nature still have much to tell us that we cannot learn within univer- sity walls.

That is actually one of the reasons why I like living out here at Neier with the hunters (though I do not hunt) and the farmers (though I do not farm), because you have to listen to nature, you have to listen to the weather, you have to listen to God.

I doubt if any of you will be saying as you die: I guess I should have listened.