Why God created us with two ears and one mouth

(This is a reproduction of the homily I gave at the 6pm anticipated Mass in St. Francis of Assisi parish in Maa last Saturday July 12, at the 6:30am Mass in San Pedro Cathedral on Sunday July 13, and at the 12 noon Mass in Sta. Ana parish on the sameSunday. After each of the three Masses several people thanked me and said it was a good homily. At the Cathedral a lady asked that the homily be published in the Davao Catholic Herald.)

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A Greek wise man whose name I cannot now remember – but it sounded  like Epimachus – used to say that the reason why God created human beings with two ears and only one mouth was for us to listen twice as much as we speak. That was before the time of Jesus Christ, God-in-human form.

By assuming human nature Jesus dignified human ears and mouth. For, it is through parts of human culture like listening and speaking that personal and inner faith in God can be known and manifested. God speaks to us through the Scriptures, the Church, and the events that happen to us. And we must listen.

The first and second readings ( Isaiah 55:10-11 and Rom 8:18-23) tell us about the power of God’s word to change people. In the first it is likened to the rain that makes the plants grow; in the second it liberates creation from slavery into freedom. And in Matthew’s gospel (13:1-9) Jesus compares the word to a seed that needs good soil to grow and bear fruit.

We have to be good soil and we must know how to listen to the seed-word.

To be a good soil/listener we have first to be present to the Word. Physical presence should be such that we can easly listen to the speaker/reader/communicator of the word. A good sound system facilitates this. Also a good reader/commentator/cantor/choir. But it must be understood that the Word of God has its own power irrespective of the human expertise or defects in  communicating. Now this presence must be a quality presence.

Good listeners are said to have quality presence when we are Respectful. This is why we stand at the gospel proclamation, we hold high the book of the gospel while we welcome it with song and honor it with incense. Next, we have to be Interested because something good is coming; we have to be Open to new ideas, new insights, new wisdom; we have to be Humble because pride and vanity prevent us from listening attentively well; we have to be Poor in spirit, that is, we need to be fed and enriched by God’s word; we have to be motivated by Love. This is what is meant by “listening with third ear of the heart”.

More importantly we also should know how to listen. We tend to listen on three levels. We listen on the level of Words when we pay attention to How the word is pronounced, enunciated or spelt; we listen on the level of Meaning when we mentally ask What the real meaning of the word is because culturally some words have different shades of meaning; and more frequently we listen on the level of the Person. Here we mentally ask ourselves Why is the speaker happy or sad, relaxed or tense, peaceful or angry. So religious faith becomes a person-to-person relationship, that is, God and ourseves brought closed through the medium of words delivered by human speakers and instruments.

Finally, let me share with you two important principles I have been trying to follow in regard to listening and speaking.

First, without silence words lose their meaning. Second, without listening speaking cannot heal anymore. There are three kinds of silence that can empower our speaking. They are silence of the body, silence of the mind and silence of the heart.

Silence of the body means we should be physically healthy and in good sitting position. Headaches, backaches, stomack aches and awkward body poise prevent us from listening. Silence of the mind means we have no disturbing and distracting thoughts. And silence of the heart means we are at peace with ourselves and with everyone one especially with God.

So when we listen with the so-called third ear of the heart, that is, on the level of the person because we are motivated by love and our hearts are peacefully silent, then our words, spoken, written or sung, will have power to heal, to enlighten and to touch. Because then it will be the Holy Spirit doing it through us.

Let us pray to the Holy Spirit for that grace in this Holy Mass. Amen.