Listening with love to others
Matthew 14:13-19
When Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist, he withdrew in a
boat to a deserted place by himself. The crowds heard of this and followed him
on foot from their towns. When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart
was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick. When it was evening, the
disciples approached him and said, “This is a deserted place and it is already
late; dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food for
themselves.” He said to them, “There is no need for them to go away; give them
some food yourselves.” But they said to him, “Five loaves and two fish are all
we have here.” Then he said, “Bring them here to me,” and he ordered the crowds
to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking
up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the
disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds.
Do babies that cry
in church annoy you? I know that really
bothers a lot of priests. One priest I
know would actually stop in the middle of Mass if a baby cried and give the
mother the evil eye until the baby stopped or the mother took the baby into the
vestibule. I always try very hard NOT to
look in the direction of the crying baby and embarrass the family. I figure, there’s probably no one in the
whole church who wants that baby to stop crying more than that mother or
father. One day a baby was crying during
Mass while Archbishop Fulton Sheen was preaching. Eventually, the mother took the baby
outside. After Mass the archbishop found
the lady and said, “Madam, your baby was not bothering me.” She replied, “No, but you were bothering the
baby.” Everyone loves to see a cute
baby, but not when it’s crying at Mass.
In the readings
today we see babies are not the only ones who cry, so do grown ups. In Exodus, the people cry out to Moses
because they are sick of eating only manna and want some meat instead. And Moses can’t stand their crying and
complaining so he says to God, “Please do me the favor of killing me at once,
so that I need no longer face this distress.”
There’s probably a priest or two who has prayed that prayer at Mass
listening to crying babies, “Just kill me, Lord!” In the gospel, the people are also hungry and
the apostles cry out to Jesus to dismiss them, and maybe the people were also
crying out for healings and blessings.
But unlike Moses who wanted to die rather than hear their cries, Jesus
listens lovingly to their crying and feeds them. You see, like Archbishop Sheen, Jesus says,
“Your crying does not bother me.”
My friends,
sometimes we all feel like crying out, and we need someone to listen to our
crying, and not to tell us to shush. I
sometimes wonder that if married couples
would just listen to each other’s crying and complaining more often, without
jumping to solve their problems, that loving listening would heal much deeper
problems. When someone comes to my
office and cries, I tell them, “It’s okay to cry. I consider crying a compliment because you’re
willing to be vulnerable with me."
Last Saturday I met a man in the parking lot who asked if he could come
talk to me about his life. He just
needed to talk to someone who was willing to listen. A young lady sent me a Facebook message
asking to talk to me about a religious vocation. You see, the whole world is crying out, like
babies at Mass, hoping someone will listen to them and not tell them to shush. We should answer like the archbishop: “Your
crying is not bothering me.”
Praised be Jesus
Christ!
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