This verse of Luke is quoted by Benedict under the heading of Obedience, part of our January reading cycle. (p 58 in the Sutera translation with commentary)
Obedience is all about listening. Sister Judith (Sutera), in her commentary for January 22, reminds us that “the word ‘obedience’ shares a common root with the Latin word for hearing/listening.” (p 57-8)
As a teacher, I often remind my students that we cannot listen well to each other in the classroom when we are preparing our answer in our head during another student’s turn to share. I remind students of this knowing from my own experience as a student that this is a nearly impossible task. I offer more than reminders; I create opportunities to practice by allowing students time to think and write as a group before they share individually in order to allow them to focus on each other rather than to be thinking about what they will say when it is their turn. I take out the guess work of when their turn will come by sharing the speaking order ahead of time, and I assure them that passing or skipping until later is always ok. Still, listening to each other in class rather than thinking of what we will say when it is our turn is not easy.
As pastoral care providers and lay chaplains, I wonder what we do to better listen in pastoral care settings? What tools do we have to be obedient to God in the moment, to hear Jesus in the voice of our care recipient so that, in turn, they can hear Jesus in our voice? Another question we might ask ourselves is, simply, how do we use our good listening to get out of the way to let God do what God does?
I learned recently that the word tolerant is derived from Latin tolle or tolerare which mean, respectively, “to lift/remove” and “to bear.” I’ve never thought of the word “tolerate” in this way. With this new derivation in mind, I am coming to think of Jesus as tolerating the cross. If I am to be like Jesus, “to accept this sin sick world as it is and not as I would have it” (Niebuhr, Serenity Prayer), then am I not called to “tolerate” also?
Perhaps that is the greatest tool, then, that I have in my obedience and listening. I must tolerate, first, myself and my own thought process. I must lift and remove myself from the situation. Then, I must tolerate that which I am receiving. I must bear the words I hear.
Whether I am in a classroom waiting my turn to share, I am listening in pastoral care, or living in this sin sick world, I can lift and bear it. I can tolerate it. Can you?
