“Responsiveness to God cannot be copied;
it must be original with every soul.” ~ Evelyn Underhill
The purpose of listening is to hear. The purpose of hearing is to receive. Sometimes, at the deepest level, the point of receiving what is heard is to be moved and to respond whether what is heard is birdsong or a lover weeping or a night siren signaling trouble and help on the way or leaves skipping down the street or the pathos of Nina Simone singing her lament “Baltimore” or the breathy attempt of your child or grandchild learning to whistle. This is the antiphonal nature of being alive, of being awake, human, grateful. Not to be moved is to be unresponsive which conjures up images of someone who is defended or indifferent, unconscious or dead.
In many areas of the spiritual life, less is more. When it comes to listening and looking, the embodied wisdom of mystics indicates that more is more. Mystics suggest that the more we listen and the more loudly we listen the more intently we hear. The more intensely we hear, the more profoundly we are moved. And to be moved is both a testament to our humanity and an occasion for the full expression of it since being moved only comes to fruition in some kind of fitting response, whether in attitude or action, to that which or who has moved us. To respond means “to promise in return.”In daily life, in human-to-human and human-to-other-than-human relationships, being responsive is one vital way we fulfill our obligation and tacit agreement with all other creatures to play our part in the sacred community of creation. In the human-divine relationship, listening and responding is a privileged way way we participate in the beloved community who is God.
Listening and responding are two essential movements and actions of grace of any authentic spirituality and are sure signs that we are truly alive. Theologian Matthew Fox defines prayer as “a radical response to life” but it is good to remember that contemplative looking and deep listening, prayers in their own right, are the necessary preludes to a life of radical responsiveness. What makes the interaction vibrant and re-creative, what makes the liturgy of life one of resplendent beauty, is that each person and each living form, is invited to respond in an utterly unique and singular way. Whatever moves you.
Dia Dhuit,
Dan