Two passages in the lectionary
next Sunday may seem to be at odds. One
is from the Letter of James: Not many of you should become teachers, my
brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with
greater strictness. For all of us make many mistakes. And the other is in Isaiah: The
Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to
sustain the weary with a word. Morning
by morning he wakens my ear to listen as those who are
taught.[1]
And right there is a fine definition of
a teacher… someone who listens as those who are taught.
One of the central features of
Christian Meditation, it seems to me, is what contemporary jargon would call
listening mode. Just for a little while
we stop fussing and fretting, planning and directing things… directing people...
we stop justifying ourselves… giving our opinion… we stop in order for
listening to be possible. As St John of
the Cross puts it, My house being now all stilled[2] – this is the space in which we “hear”,
or we are open to hear, God’s Word, God’s Truth, and we are open to grace,
mercy and love. It is not that we see
visions or hear voices, but in the Apostle James’ lovely phrase, we welcome
with meekness the implanted word.[3] I realised when writing this talk how in
meditation we are actually passive, receptive.
It is startling because it is not normally how we think we should be – we
should be active – in fact, we have invented a new word, proactive, which I
presume is even better than active… we are helpers, rescuers, we make people
feel better. But here, our house
being now all stilled, we are doing something else, we are doing what is primary.
It is what Jesus said about Mary, Martha’s
sister in the home at Bethany; Mary had made the better choice, he said[4].
Once we stop and listen, God can initiate and continue the work of creation in
us, the work of love and recreation, day by day.
So, in a discipline of
meditation, listening, says Isaiah, as those who are taught -- we
reinforce our listening in all of life. The
stillness makes us more present to other people at other times, because we
remember the gift of listening, we get better at it, we hear more accurately
and with compassion. Paul speaks of the
eyes of your heart being open… We become
less inclined to react to each thing we hear with some response about ourselves...
what happened to me. We recognise the
many times when it is better not to say anything. Simone Weil, the young French Christian philosopher,
said the act of attention that we give to someone is the greatest act of
generosity we can make. It is a
moment of setting self aside, the first ingredient of love. …he wakens my ear to listen as those who
are taught, says Isaiah. So we can
say to the Apostle James that it is good to be a teacher, although he thinks it
is hazardous – provided we know how to listen.
Knowing that is good anyway, teacher or not.
[1] James
3:1-2; Isaiah 50:4
[2] St
John of the Cross: The Dark Night
[3] James
1:21 - ἐν πραΰτητι δέξασθε τὸν ἔμφυτον λόγον. “Welcome” is a verb for receiving guests
cordially in your house. “Implanted” is
what we do when we plant or graft a seed or cutting where it can be nourished
and grow.
[4]
Luke 10:42
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