Listen Out of Need

December 16 Tuesday the Third Week

ZEPHANIA 3:1-2, 9-13; MATTHEW 21:28-32

Click here for the complete text of today’s readings.

What are you waiting for during Advent?

Is it for God to hear your prayers? The Responsorial Psalm says:

“The Lord hears the cry of the poor.”

Are you “poor”?

“Poor” means you don’t have what you need – financially, physically, intellectually, spiritually, whatever. The “poor in spirit” are those who know they “haven’t got it made.” God hears their cry.

Why? Because they can hear God. They listen.

God calls Nineveh a “soiled, defiled, oppressing city!” Because “It has listened to no voice; accepted no correction. It has not trusted in the LORD or drawn near to its God.”

Those who think they “have it made” don’t think they need to listen to God.

Those who think keeping the rules makes them “good Catholics” don’t see any need to read the Bible. They already know all they have to do. They “accept no correction” from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, chapters 5-7).

Those who pride themselves on their “doctrinal orthodoxy” don’t need to listen to the “prophets.” They know what they were taught in grade school. Anything more is suspect.

Like the second son Jesus talks about, they say “Yes” to the mysteries of Christianity without trying consciously to experience them in practice.

So what are you waiting for?

Pray (all day): 

“Lord, my hope is in you. Hear my prayer.”

Practice: 

Admit you are poor. 

Open your mind. 

Seek. Read. Listen. Learn.