On the web site “YouTube” millions of clips have been downloaded from homemade videos.  Cyberspace must be clogged with “blogs” personal logs made available to anyone anywhere to read.  Everybody wants to talk.  People are curious in an impersonal way about what they are saying.  No one seems to care whether or not they are being heard and no one seems to care much about what is being said.  Is anyone really listening?  Everyone can hear.  In fact, we feel bombarded with too much in the name of communication.  We are more concerned about a different kind of listening that no longer seems possible.

We remember from our childhood being alongside our parents and able to see how adults behaved and listening to what they talked about.  One of Jim’s favorite memories is going to a coffee shop before dawn with his father to hang out with the other produce workers.  Sitting on a stool at the counter with the men, he listened and heard what men out working for their families might talk about.  I remember helping the women in the kitchen at family gatherings.  Shelling peas or peeling potatoes provided an excuse to hear what grown women thought about and talked about.

One of the women in our church had a luncheon for a few women last week.  We gathered at her home at 11:30 and we left the luncheon table about 3:30 p.m.  In between I learned more about family triumph and tragedy in a small town than if I had spent weeks delving into local genealogy.  It was all there for the listening.

Real listening needs to be done in the physical company of others.  Listening involves both the eyes as well as the ears.  A raised eyebrow, frown, tremor in a voice conveys far more than a text message on a cell phone.  Listeners have to let go of personal agendas and journey into the joy and sorrow of someone else.  To listen means to value the person who needs to be heard.  Perhaps our children lack self-esteem because many of them have never felt the value that comes from being listened to.

This week, we remember the Israelites listening to Joshua as he spoke words that bound them to their homeland and to their God.  In this week’s gospel, people heard Christ but missed his message.  If we are no longer able to listen to each other, how can we hear the voice of God?  King David, and his son Solomon, the prophets, Mary sitting at Jesus feet while her sister worked in the kitchen, Paul on the Road to Damascus, and Peter and the Apostles in the upper room had no form of mass communication, and yet they heard the voice of God.  We can’t help but think God may still be speaking.  We are too distracted to listen.