Second Tuesday of Advent
Scripture Reading for Today:
Listening on a Tuesday
The subtle invitation of the readings for this second Tuesday of Advent is to “listen.” But, to listen on a Tuesday? Tuesday is a day of the week that finds us in full activity. It is not Monday when we start the week and plan for the days to come. It is not a Wednesday or Thursday when we are in the middle of the week to see how we are doing. Finally, it is not a Saturday or a Sunday where we evaluate the week, we give thanks, and we recover. It is simply a Tuesday. In any event, today's readings invite us to “listen.”
If there is a verb that stands out throughout all the Holy Scriptures, it is the verb “to listen.” As a verb, “listen” indicates an action or request to do something. Sometimes the subject is God “Hear my voice when I call, Lord; be merciful to me and answer me” (Psalm 27:7); and other times the subject is His people “Shema Israel!” (Hear, O Israel) (Deuteronomy, 6:4). God asks us to listen to His word, and we ask God to listen to our prayers.
When God “listens,” it means that He has granted something, “There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!” (Josh 10:14). When we “listen,” it means that we draw consequences from those we listen to, “As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like” (Luke 6:47).
Psalm 27 immerses us in listening from our heart: “My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’” (Psalm 27:8). For me, it is an invitation to remember those times of our faith when we felt called by the Lord. It is listening to the request of the beloved, “seek my face,” and answering him, “Your face, Lord, I will seek. Do not hide your face from me,” (Psalm 27:9). It is “the” face of the Lord that captivated us.
Isaiah tells us that “the survivors of Jerusalem will be called saints.” (Isaiah 4:3) Another powerful verb “to call” related “to listen.” I am called to be..., you are called to be..., we are called to be..., they will be called holy. To be holy is to be set apart. It is having the feeling of belonging to God. “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine” (Song of Solomon 6:3). But, who is called to be holy on a Tuesday? You will tell me, “anyone can be called to be holy, any day of the week.” And it is true when that happens. In general, that happens, in exceptional circumstances, but today on Tuesday? When it seems that nothing extraordinary happens on Tuesdays. Nevertheless, we are being called, but perhaps we are no longer listening due to the noise surrounding us.
The Book of the Acts narrates a tense history of the Early Church, maybe a story on a Tuesday. The narrator does not say that it is the Lord's Day. However, much and more happened, and it all involved “listening.” “The apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God” (Acts 11:1). Here, we see “listening” as a rumour; it is not the one that builds community; we know this very well. Then, we read that the one who listens is Peter, and hears the criticism. Peter begins to explain, he feels like one more of his brothers and sisters, to whom it is just and necessary to give reasons for his deeds, “Starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story” (Acts 11:5). In explaining, the community “listens.” And what he tells you is that he “listened” to a voice from heaven. Saying at the end, “‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean’” (Acts 11:10). Peter taught them how he had to listen, and maybe, it was a Tuesday. Captivated by God, Peter does not stop listening, and God goes on and on talking to Peter, and he listens. An outstanding sentence closes our three readings today, “When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, [so that we can listen to this on a Tuesday] saying, ‘Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.’”
Regardless of what day of the week it is, one listens deeply when we are in love. My friend Ernesto once told me, “David, the most wonderful thing that can happen to you in life is to fall in love, but it is even more wonderful to be reciprocated, when the one you love, he or she loves you.” The lover listens to his or her beloved no matter what day of the week it is. Saint John of the Cross and Saint Teresa of Avila left us beautiful testimonies of not having a Tuesday or Thursday to listen to our beloved Lord.
Today, this Tuesday, we are called to listen to our brothers and sisters as Peter did; it is there where our Lord dwells. All these months of forced isolation have been an invitation to be more attentive to my family and friends distributed in different parts of the world, calling and listening to them. Technology allowed me to do it quickly, also Today, a Tuesday. Why wait for the weekend when I run the risk of forgetting? You, my reader, why not call someone today, Tuesday and listen to them? I am sure our beloved Lord will tell you something about His advent.
- David Pereyra
Liturgy Seminar Coordinator at the Toronto School of Theology
http://tst-liturgy-seminar.blogspot.com/
Our Doors Are Open Coordinator at OCAD University
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