for September 22
Tuesday of the Twenty-fifth Week of Ordinary Time

One of the most common forms of civic corruption is nepotism, granting special favors to one’s next of kin. For centuries it plagued even the Vatican. But imagine using an appeal to nepotism to try to leverage Jesus! In today’s gospel, Jesus blesses his mother and his brothers, not because of their blood relationship to himself, but because they are among “those who hear the word of God and act on it.” So, theoretically at least, the same blessing must be open to us.

Clearly we can’t just HEAR the word. We also must ACT on it. But let’s not pass too quickly over the miracle of hearing. It is an awesome reality to contemplate that we as human beings can hear the voice of the Triune God. What does that really mean?

One of the greatest Catholic theologians of the twentieth century was the Jesuit priest, Karl Rahner. One of his earliest works was a book entitled, Hearers of the Word. It’s a seminal work on philosophy and theology. I remember cracking my head when I was studying theology trying to understand the very abstract philosophical language employed by Rahner. I’m afraid it was a little over my head.

But, nevertheless, I walked away from the text with the central thought Rahner was grappling with. How is it possible for a mere human being to hear a divine word? What is it in the make-up of a human being that enables a person so to transcend the limits of human nature as to receive revelation from God? Rahner phrased the question with far greater nuance, but in simple terms that is the question I came away with. For a human being to be a “hearer of the word,” when that word is spoken by God, is a truly awesome claim. What does it mean?

We know that the claim that one has heard God’s word is frequently bantered about. A lot of people make wild assertions about what God has told them. But this is a debasement of the truth. We, as people of faith, assert in all humility that we have heard God speak to us. For this miracle to take place in us, Rahner argues, God elevates our natural ability with his grace so that we can transcend our own nature to become open to God’s divine intervention. What is it in our human nature that God touches so that we can hear what God says?

The Vatican Council wrote a document on divine revelation—on hearing God’s word, we might say—that opens with a beautiful description of how God reveals himself to us:

Through this revelation, . . the invisible God out of the abundance of His love speaks to human beings as friends and lives among them, so that He may invite and take them into fellowship with Himself.

We can hear God’s word because that is the way God draws us into his friendship. Hearing God’s word draws us into God’s friendship, and our friendship with God enables us to hear God speak to us.  Hearing God’s word, therefore, is never just words coming to us out of the blue, or overpowering our sense of hearing, as some motion pictures have depicted it, with a message about the previously unknown or a warning about approaching doom. Rather, God’s word is basically relational and it is his grace that precedes the word, drawing us into an intimate relationship that makes it possible for our ears to be open to God revealing himself to us.

Hearing God’s Word therefore is far more personal than just assenting to abstract doctrines, as important as that is for the life of the church. Hearing God’s word is ultimately the reception not just of words, but of the WORD, the incarnate Son of God. “Hearers of the Word” is a beautiful phrase because it captures the final purpose of all human life, to be drawn into a relationship with Jesus Christ.
—Walter Modrys SJ

Today’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website.