Selective Hearing

Learning to open our ears to the Holy Spirit

05/21/2017

Acts of the Apostles 8:5-8, 14-17 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Christ to them. With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing. For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice, came out of many possessed people, and many paralyzed or crippled people were cured. There was great joy in that city. Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who went down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for it had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

         This may sound like a sweeping generalization, but I believe we all suffer from “selective hearing disorder.” Selective hearing is when you focus on some ambient sounds, but ignore others. Children ignore their parents voices telling them to turn off the ipad and come to dinner. Husbands tune out their wives telling them what’s on the “honey-do list” and instead keep watching the baseball game. Catholics miss the part in the sermon where the priest says give more in the collection. Huh? What?

          Selective hearing disorder can even affect monks. A new monk arrived at the monastery. He was assigned to help the other monks in copying the old texts by hand. He noticed, however, that they are copying copies, and not the original books. So, the new monk goes to the head monk to ask him about this. He points out that if there were an error in the first copy that would be continued in all of the other copies. The head monk says: “We have been copying from copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son.” So, he went down stairs into the cellar with one of the copies to check it against the original. Hours later nobody has seen him. So, one of the monks goes downstairs to look for him. He hears sobbing coming from the back of the cellar and finds the old monk leaning over one of the original books crying. He asks, “What’s wrong?” The old monk cried, “The word is ‘Celebrate.’ ‘Celebrate’.” I guess you have to be a celibate priest to truly appreciate that joke. So, sometimes selective hearing disorder works in our favor (we hear what we want to hear), and sometimes it doesn’t (we miss something significant). It’s hard to discern which voices to focus on, and which ones to tune out.

           In the first reading today, the apostles help the people to focus on the voice of the Holy Spirit instead of listening to unclean spirits. In classic Catholic spirituality, this is called “discernment of spirits,” that is, tuning our selective hearing to the Holy Spirit. First the apostles cast out unclean spirits, that is, they helped the people hear that certain voices were harmful and do not lead to happiness. Then the apostles, through the laying on of hands, bestowed the Holy Spirit upon them. By the way, this happens to modern Catholics at Confirmation, when the bishop lays his hands on them. In other words, Catholics learn when the Holy Spirit says “celebrate” (and calls you to marriage) and when he says “celibate” (and calls you to priesthood). The apostles were correcting the people’s “selective hearing disorder.”

           People sometimes ask me how I prepare my Sunday homilies. And to be honest, it requires that I adjust my selective hearing so that I can hear the Spirit. Maybe the tips I use to preach will help you be more sensitive to the Spirit as well. I try to do three things to prepare my homilies: (1) listening in prayer, (2) listening to people, and (3) listening in the silence. Let me explain each one.

First, listening in prayer. Before I preach any homily, I always whisper this prayer I made up myself, saying, “Come, Holy Spirit, help me say what you want me to say, and help them to hear what you want them to hear.” Have you seen my lips silently moving before I preach? Now you know what I’m saying. I am constantly amazed how people thank me for a certain point in a homily that I never actually made. The Spirit spoke to them. And sometimes they thank me even when the deacon was preaching – and I definitely do not want credit for their preaching. Maybe you could say that prayer before having a serious conversation with your spouse, or with your elderly parents, or with your teenagers. Prayer helps you correct some of that “selective hearing disorder” because the Spirit helps people to “hear what he wants them to hear.”

           Secondly, listening to people. I always warn people to be careful what they say around me because it may end up in next Sunday’s sermon. But I think some people are inspired by that, and hope they will end up in the sermon – enjoying “their 15 minutes of fame” as Andy Worhol once said. Two people I want to make famous in today’s homily are Bishop Taylor and Pope Francis. Now, I gotta tell ya, I don’t always agree with or appreciate they say – please don’t tell them that! Nevertheless, I believe they are the authorized and apostolic voices of the Holy Spirit, and if my opinion differs from theirs, then I should be suspicious of my own opinion not theirs. As early as the second century AD, St. Ignatius of Antioch taught, “Be subject to the bishop and to one another, as Jesus Christ was subject to the Father” (Letter to the Magnesians, 13:2). In other words, let the voices of other Christians, especially church leaders, correct your “selective hearing disorder.” Who knows, the pope could actually change “celibate” to “celebrate”! Go, Francis! Go, Francis! But you have to listen to him to hear that.

           And third, listening in the silence. Do you remember how Elijah heard God’s voice in the Old Testament? God’s voice was not in the earthquake, or in the strong wind, or in the fire. Rather he spoke in a “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:11-12). You need silence to hear that still small voice. C. S. Lewis said that the two things you won’t find in hell are music and silence. Listen to Screwtape’s (the devil’s) strategy: “Music and silence – how I detest them both! We will make the whole world a universe of noise in the end” (Screwtape Letters, XXII). Folks, when every second of your day is filled noise – car radio, ipad, television, ear buds, your playlists, the 24-hour news cycle, etc. – your life resembles hell more than heaven. Hell is noisy with the voices of unclean spirits, whereas heaven is silent with only the whispering of the Holy Spirit. In the silence I hear the ideas for my homilies, and in the silence you will hear the Spirit, too.

           My friends, it doesn’t matter if you didn’t hear a word I said in this homily, or if you took a nap. The Spirit knows what you need to hear. Just don’t tune him out with your selective hearing disorder. He may be saying “celebrate” but you only hear “celibate.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!