Discernment and the Word of God

In today's gospel we hear Jesus point out one of the key paths towards holiness: ‘Still happier those who hear the word of God and keep it!’  There could be no better gospel to reflect on what the Book of Life invites us to do. Incidentally, Jesus' words here are not a rebuke to his Mother in whose womb he took flesh and at whose breast he suckled. Rather, these words highlight one of the key virtues of Mary that COLW particularly meditates on: her obedience to God. Mary is the first of the saints - those whose inner life is the life of Jesus - who listens and does what God requires. Let it be done to me, according to your word.

Who is it that hears the word of God? This is a theme that comes up later in the gospel when Jesus points out that not all those who hear the word are in fact listening. To hear God's word requires us to do two things: to set aside our own thoughts and preoccupations and to allow God to reshape our minds with his truth. To listen to the word is to accept that we can only see so far, even in the matters that affect us the most. Usually, our vision is bound to this earth and often restricted by the appearances of things: our defeats wound us, our disasters depress us and the dashing of our hopes can leave us despondent.

In contrast, God's word comes to show us how those concerns of our daily life can be understood in His eternal light. And when we stand regularly in that light, when we think often on His word, we begin to hear more clearly His call to us to come further up and further in, and to perceive the mystery of His love for us. We are loved individually with a boundless love and He wills us only to say 'yes' - to say our 'fiat' (let it be) in joy and sorrow - to His plans for us.

Our lectio divina gives us this opportunity to listen to God. Day by day, line by line, thought by thought, our lectio divina is a way of slipping our hand into the hand of Jesus and holding our ear close to His heart which "thinks thoughts of peace, not affliction" (Jer 29 : 11). Keeping a journal of our thoughts during lectio divina from time to time is a way of helping us dwell on the fruits of that listening. In fact, if we wish to keep the word, as Jesus says in today's gospel, then keeping a note of what we have reflected on can help us to preserve the insights of this precious time, and to take a step forward in our commitment to being obedient to the gospel. 

Hearing the word of God and keeping it: this is what Mary does and what Mary has always done. We saw in the gospel of the Feast of the Holy Rosary that Mary heard the angel's word and embraced it. She kept it as she bore the child Jesus in her womb; she kept it as she raised him in Egypt and then in Nazareth; she kept it as she followed His ministry; and how firmly she must have clung to it when she followed her Son to Calvary where once again she heard the word of God spoken seven times from the Cross. 

This is the true form of discernment that everyone seems to be talking about these days: to hear the word of God and allow it to remold us into something new, like Mary who, having heard the word of the angel, declared her obedience to God and wandered away into the hills of Judea.

Photo of the hills of Judea from Susanne (COLW Group 1)