An old man is wondering if his wife had
a hearing problem. So one night, while his wife is sitting in her lounge chair,
he goes behind her and says softly to her, “Honey,
can you hear me?” He gets no response. He moves a little closer and says
again, “Honey, can you hear me?” Still, he gets no response. Finally he moves right in front of her
and said, “Honey, can you hear me?” This time she looks up with surprise in her
eyes and replies, “For the third time,
Henry, Yes, I can hear you!”
Who
has the hearing problem now, the man or his wife? We are all too ready to blame
the other person for a breakdown in communication when all the time we
ourselves might be principally responsible for the situation.
In
today’s gospel we read of a serious breakdown in communication between Jesus
and his townspeople. It was so serious that Jesus was literally unable to
perform any miracles there. “And he
could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick
people and cured them.” (Mk 6:5)
A
breakdown in communication is brought about when one party refuses to listen to
the other.
We hear of it happening in ancient times, the time of Ezekiel as in
today’s first reading. God gave him an unpleasant task of telling them that
because of their infidelity the temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed. “Thus says the Lord God: Son of man, I am
sending you to the children of Israel… whether they listen or refuse to listen,
they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.” (Ez. 2:3.5) God
wants to communicate with his people through his prophet Ezekiel and his people
continue to turn a deaf ear. This is still happening in our time.
This
phenomenon is called the Homer Simpson
Effect. You see Homer Simpson is a
guy who is not very good at listening. It shows in two ways. The first
manifestation of the Homer Simpson effect - If we refuse to listen…we can’t hear! In one episode Homer Simpson
meets Elon Musk (American-Canadian inventor of Tesla electric cars), then
invites him to where he works – the nuclear plant. Homer tells him: “If
anybody asks you something you don't understand, just say protons.”
It’s like closing both ears with your hands and saying: “La la la.” This is also called in communication as inactive listening – “In one ear and
out the other.” You hear the words, but your mind is wandering and therefore no
communication is taking place. We do it
many times when we do not like what is said to or of us. We do this when we are
asked something beyond our comfort zones. When the word of God pierces our
conscience, we close our ears, we shut down our brains, and we simply refuse to
listen.
The second
manifestation of the Homer Simpson effect – You hear only what you want to hear! - also known in communication
as selective listening.
In a Christmas episode of the Simpsons, Homer
was supposed to be back at the house early from work in time for Christmas Eve.
He however spends time drinking at Moe’s bar. Marge, his wife upon finding out,
kicks him out of the house. Homer
wanders around town until ends up at a depressing party for mall workers where
they drink without joy. Marge finally comes and rescues him from that party.
And what is the lesson of this for Homer: “Thank you magical creatures of the mall!
You have all taught me a Christmas message I'll never forget. The place to get
drunk is at home.”
In
the second reading, St Paul was sent to preach to the Corinthians. Paul did get
many followers as he preached to them a God who resurrected from the dead to
rescue us all from slavery. They all believed.
But when Paul tells them of the
need to be humble, of bearing their thorns in the flesh, of learning to boast
of weakness and to trust only in God’s grace, many left him. They only want a
God who is powerful and can make them only strong. In short, they selected only
what they want to hear.
The
Corinthians pretended to hear and agree to what Paul said when actually their intent
was to not act on the message, but make the other person think they would –
selective listening. This happens to us too whenever we pray. Sometimes we
listen to God only for the solutions to our problems that we would like to
hear. When we listen to the homily we listen only to the part that we like and
shut our ears to those parts that would inconvenience us. We select what we
want to hear.
We see this in real life. Wife says: “You know, I love you, yet you are a slob. Amazing how lazy you are! Don’t even think you can go out to the bar with your friends
tonight. I need your help to clean and there is no way I can take care of everything myself.” (Husband hears only those in bold.)
This
Homer Simpson effect is the reason why a prophet is not listened to or taken
seriously in his own hometown. We see this in Ezekiel, Paul, and Jesus today.
And yet the mark of a true prophet is one of active listening – to listen to
the intent and the content. Ezekiel, Paul, Jesus were open to God’s word and
they preached it as is. We are all called to be prophets too because of our baptism
and we can start by really, attentively listening to Him.
References:
Goldie, K. (2013). Hear No Evil: The Science Behind Selective Hearing.
Jennerich, E. (2005). Infopeople Project [infopeople.org]
Paradis, J. 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle B.
Agustinian Friends. http://www.augustinianfriends.org/homilies/hom_14b.pdf
Richards, L. (2009). 14th Sunday
in Ordinary Time - Cycle B. The Reason for our Hope.