– In Sacred Scripture, it means much more than just listening. It means welcoming, accepting the Word of God with your heart. In 1Sm 3,10 Samuel’s response is reproduced: “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening”. She became a model of acceptance, of availability to God’s vocation.
– There are other examples of invitations to listen:
Deut 4:1: And now, O Israel, listen to the laws and ordinances that I am going to teach you today.
Deut 5:1 : Hear, O Israel, the laws and ordinances that I proclaim in your ears today.
Pr 1,8 : Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction: Do not despise your mother’s teaching.
Is 50,4-5 : Every morning he awakens my ears so that I may listen as a disciple.
Jer 7:2 : Hear the word of the Lord […] peoples of Judah, who enter these gates to prostrate yourselves before him.
Am 3:1 : Hear, O Israelites, the oracle that the Lord has pronounced against you.
Mk 4,3.9 : I heard: The sower went out to sow.
Mark 12:29 , 37 : This is the first of all the commandments: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Acts 2:41 : Those who received his word were baptized.
– But the greatest acceptance of the Father’s will was Jesus’ listening to the Father’s will:
Jn 1:14 : And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, the glory that the only Son receives from his Father.
– Other wonderful passages that record the acceptance of the Father’s will concerning him:
Mt 26,39 : However, not what I want, but what you want.
Mc 14,32-42 : However, not what I want, but what you want.
Lc 22,29-46 : I therefore dispose of the Kingdom in your favor, just as my Father ordained it in my favor.
– The incarnation of the Word, however, would not happen if Mary Most Holy did not say: “Be it done to me according to your word”:
Lk 1:38 : Then Mary said: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word”.
– See OBEDIENCE.
