Contemplation Corner: “Men shout to avoid listening to one another.”

“Men shout to avoid listening to one another.” – – Miguel de Unamuno

by Pastor Donnie Brooks
Marcellus United Methodist Church
pastordonnieb@outlook.com

   Something we are not short of in this day and age is “shouting.” Politicians shouting at one another. Politicians shouting that they can be trusted. Politicians shouting that their opponent or anyone of the other side cannot be trust. One can imagine that what one says of others one might very truly say of oneself as well in these matters.

   Pastors may be going on and on about other pastors or other churches. “They don’t believe the bible.” “They don’t follow Jesus.” “They’re liberals.” “They’re fundamentalists.” Just like politicians, perhaps, taking pride in an identity of their own brand or their own ideology over the identity of one representing one’s entire country. Or one’s entire faith. Yes, as a president, one should represent one’s entire country. A mayor, or a council, one’s constituents. A pastor, not just one or two persons is a church, especially just the one’s who give the most money to the church coffers, but all. A pastor should not just represent his specific church, either, but the whole of his/her denomination, or the whole of his/her faith.

   This is a tall order, certainly. But maybe we should listen to Unamuno. A Spanish philosopher, theologian, novelist, poet, playwright, activist. He was most famous for his book Tragic Sense of Life: Of Men and Nations and his anti-novel Mist. He was an ardent supporter of liberal democracy and adamant opposition to the dictatorship of the 20s (and certainly would have been opposed to fascists in Spain during the failure of the Republic in 1939, had he lived to see it).  He wrote prolifically on the tensions between heart and head. He knew that emotions often stirred us up and distracted us from true conversation and meditation. They also, however, spurred us on with passion to truly know one another and God in the ways that both we and God can be known. Known not simply with the “head”, with one’s reason, but with one’s heart. And not just with one’s heart but also with one’s reason. A paradox and one that is always to be held in tension. But the key is to let them do battle…while also still not letting that battle spill over into our lives with one another. 

   Jesus, certainly had the truth, was the truth and lived the truth: and did so always in love. Even so, and perhaps especially so, he also listened. He listened to those even though they may have been wrong. And not to say that Jesus was “wrong”, but we see that in his interaction with a certain Phoenician woman who disagreed with Jesus’ initial rejection of ministering to her, Jesus did listen and even realized that he had something to learn from her too. God, whom Jesus called Father, had a lesson for him to learn. And to learn by listening!   Think of all that we miss when we’re always yelling or pontificating. Or think of all the voices we might be missing when we let ourselves get distracted or even duped by those who bark loudest!

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