Spirituality: “If Only You Had Listened” by Macrina Wiederkehr

If only you had listened to my commandments! Your prosperity would have been like a river and your saving justice like the waves of the sea.

Isaiah 48:14, NJB

In the fuller text, Isaiah 48:12-21, we can observe the hardening of the heart of Israel. We note the people’s refusal to listen. This theme can certainly be extended to our own hearts in our own age …. However, rather than remaining stuck in the sorrows that have come from not listening, let’s choose to draw strength from those who have listened well, including,

Isaiah, age-old prophet, who turned his ear toward a voice that asked him to speak for God …

Mary of Nazareth, who listened to an angel inviting her to say yes to what she could not yet understand …

Joseph, foster father of Jesus, who listened to a dream and had the freedom to obey the voice he heard …

John the Baptist, who listened and became the voice of one crying out in the desert …

Dorothy Day, who listened to a love that heard the cries of the poor …

Martin Luther King, Jr., who listened to the beauty and integrity of a people, crying out in their exile …

Oscar Romero and all the Central American martyrs, who listened to the powerless and dispossessed …

Let us pray during these Advent days that we, too, may listen and, hearing the voice of God, respond freely to God’s call to serve …

Source: Macrina Wiederkehr, Abide: Keeping Vigil with the Word of God, pp. 139-141, adapted and expanded.