Pay Attention

Twenty-fifth Sunday of the Year. Fr Benjamin Earl urges us to listen attentively to the Lord.

Today’s gospel passage describes two distinct moments in which Jesus speaks to his disciples. In the first part, they are making their way through Galilee, presumably on foot; in the second part they are sitting down in a house in Capernaum. It is interesting to see how the dynamic between Jesus and the disciples changes as the scene shifts.

When there is a group of people walking together it’s very difficult to have just one conversation. These days tour groups with guides have radio mics and earphone receivers, but not so in the first century. The disciples probably couldn’t hear Jesus too well as they walked through Galilee – which perhaps explains a certain perplexity I have.

Here’s the perplexity: today, Jesus is talking about his death. In other places in the gospels he talks about his death in a rather oblique way: for example, about the grain of wheat that falls into the earth and dies in order to produce much fruit (cf. John 12:24). This symbolic language might well be hard to understand. But today Jesus does not use symbolic language; rather he is talking very literally: ‘The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men; they will put him to death; and three days after he has been put to death he will rise again.’ It’s very clear. Perhaps it is difficult to believe, and it is certainly an alarming prospect. But the text of the gospel says that the disciples didn’t even understand what he said.

Maybe it is precisely because the disciples were on a hike. Maybe some of them had fallen a little behind and couldn’t hear very well. Others, we will discover, were chatting among themselves about which of them was the greatest, and weren’t really listening to Jesus. Maybe some thought they must have misheard, because what they thought he had said was somewhat strange.

And then we arrive at the second moment in the gospel. Jesus and the disciples have arrived at Capernaum and are in the house. Now the disciples can hear fine: they aren’t chatting like tourists, but they are like attentive students in a classroom paying attention to their teacher. There’s just one conversation, without distractions. The disciples’ earlier inattention becomes clear – even if they are too embarrassed to admit it. And Jesus’ words become clearer: the Son of Man, the firstborn of the Father, will ‘make himself last of all and servant of all’.

We too call ourselves disciples of Jesus, so what of us? We have to recognise that our Christian life is a journey. Even if the Lord speaks to us with clear words, we sometimes don’t hear him well, or we don’t listen to him well, or we are occupied with our own chatter as we plod along. Yes, we know that the Lord is calling us, but, given all the distractions, all too often we don’t understand exactly what it is he means. And instead of welcoming one of these little ones – the child, the poor, the sick, the refugee, the prisoner – we debate how great we are.

The day will come, though, when we must enter into the Lord’s presence, a place where it is no longer possible to indulge in idle chatter; our chatter, our injustices, our cruelty, and all our other sins of the past will be exposed, notwithstanding our embarrassment and our fear. Our shortcomings in responding to the divine call will become clear.

We don’t need to wait until the end of our lives to meet the Lord in his house. The Church – and indeed even the church building – is the Lord’s house and classroom. Here we can take a break from the journey of life. However great or reverend we might think we are, here it should be clear that we are simply sinners on a journey. Here we can – and we must – stop to confess our sins to the Lord, to listen to his words, and to receive from him the food for our journey.

And so, once the Mass is ended, we go forth in peace, with the wisdom that comes down from above, welcoming all the ‘little ones’ in love, and in welcoming them, welcoming Christ himself.

Readings: Wisdom 2:12,17-20 | James 3:16-4:3 | Mark 9:30-37