Hearing is one of the vital senses which man possesses. I witnessed this for the first time when I anointed a sick person. The patient was unconscious in the ICU. The nurse tried to wake him up by touching his chest and calling out his name. He remained asleep until his niece bent towards his ear and called out his name: “Tito Antonio! Tito Antonio! We are here to pray for you.” Hearing a familiar voice, the patient moved his head and with much difficulty, he nodded. I administered the sacrament to him, presuming that he was listening intently to the text I was reading as he kept nodding his head.
A lot of things come from hearing. We learn our ABCs by listening to our teachers. We come to know what we should do in an exam by listening to the instructions given to us. We believe in God, as we receive our faith by hearing His voice calling us by our names and directing us with His gentle words. On the contrary, deafness disables us. We fail to hear what we ought to hear. Eventually, deafness leads to muteness, as deaf people grow accustomed to silence; unable to utter words properly as they themselves could not hear what and how they articulate words.
Having healthy auditory sense, however, is no guarantee that we will be able to do good things in life. We may be able to hear, but unless we truly listen, we shall not understand a single thought or phrase communicated to us. There is a big difference between hearing and listening. Hearing (naririnig) implies that one senses the words spoken to him but does not necessarily mean he comprehends it. Listening (nakikinig) does otherwise. We may have been hearing the words of God every Sunday and in all masses we attended, but it is possible that we have not truly listened to them, as we have not yet fully integrated their message in our life. We might have been listening to other words besides His, leading us to disobey His will. In the case of Adam and Eve, for example, they heard God's command but they chose to listen to the serpent and fell to the temptation to be like god. Thus, by listening to a wrong object, man was led to disobey God and fall out of His grace (Genesis 3:1-8).
More than hearing by our ears, we are to listen with the ears of our hearts. It is these ears that we have to open before our Lord so that we may fully listen and receive the life-giving words he gives to us. It is through these ears that we can truly listen and discern the will of the Father for us. No voice and sound may be heard. Fear not. After all, the open ears of our hearts can understand the silence of God.
At the middle of our celebration of the sacrament of healing, Tito Antonio stopped nodding his head and ceased to make any movement. I continued the celebration nevertheless, believing that my words fell not on deaf ears but to the open “ears” of his heart. After I anointed him, there was a visible peace and calmness in his face. He had truly heard and listened to the comforting words of God.
To whom or what do we listened to? Do we listen to the false promises of Satan or to the powerful words of Gods? Through which are we listening to: simply through our ears or through the open ears of our hearts?
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