- Today's passage from Matthew highlights the importance, emphasised by Jesus, of the various types of listening to the Word.
He explains to his disciples the meaning of the parable of the Sower, so that his disciples will treasure it.
In Francis of Assisi, attentive listening to the Scriptures, then living them, was a way of life.
The Sources frequently portray him all outstretched to assimilate the Word of God, sought and offered.
In the Letter to the whole Order:
"And since he who is of God listens to the words of God, therefore we, who in a very special way are deputed to the divine offices, must not only listen to and practise what God says, but also, in order to root in us the loftiness of our Creator and our submission to him, guard the sacred vessels and liturgical books, which contain the holy words" (FF 224).
In the Sources there is a particularly plastic episode that denotes the Little Poor's attitude of faith and attentive inner ear, which proves to be fertile ground.
"While one day he was devoutly listening to the Apostles' Mass, he heard the passage from the Gospel in which Christ, sending the disciples to preach, gives them the Gospel way of life, saying:
"Keep neither gold nor silver nor money in your belts; have no travelling bag, nor two tunics, nor shoes, nor staff."
This he heard, understood, and committed to memory the friend of apostolic poverty, and immediately, filled with unspeakable joy, he exclaimed:
"This is what I desire, this is what I long for with all my heart!".
He took off his shoes from his feet; he left his staff; he cursed his saddlebag and money and, content with only one cassock, he threw away his belt and replaced it with a rope and put all his concern into discovering how to fully realise the words he had heard and adapt himself in everything to the rule of holiness, dictated by the apostles" (FF 1051).
Francis was that good soil that listened and understood the Word, bearing fruit in abundance.
He understood that the quality of listening is the authoritative place of harvest.
"The one sown on good ground is the one who listens to the Word and understands it; he bears fruit and produces a hundred, sixty, thirty times one" (Mt 13:23).
Friday, 16th wk. in O.T. (Mt 13:18-23)
