Listen to Him

“THIS is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.

Listen to him.” These are words spoken at the transfiguration of

Christ. We need to take this divine command seriously, always battling

against those forces that seek to undermine it.

            To be sure, God in Christ through the Holy Spirit always

intervenes in our life. He always has something to say. And of all the

considerations that we have to make, those of God are the most

important, the most essential and necessary. We just cannot remain in

the technicals and in the purely worldly categories.

            God always is relevant in all our affairs because being

the Creator, he knows everything. He is the one that sets what is

right and wrong, what is good and evil, as well as what is safe and

unsafe, prudent and imprudent, effective and ineffective, etc.

            We can never think that giving God our priority attention

would restrict us in our thinking. Or that he is going to disrupt what

we think is good for us. We need to remind ourselves that everything

is relatable to God. He is and should be the constant reference point

in our life.

            Contrary to what we may fear, God’s words will actually

broaden our perspectives, deepen our understanding of things, purify

and elevate to the supernatural order our thinking. God’s words will

guide us through the maze of our worldly and human considerations in

order to lead us to our eternal destination.

            We have to remember that everything in our life, in the

different aspects and dimensions of our life, and in the different

possibilities and scenarios our life can take, irrespective of whether

they are good or bad humanly or naturally speaking, or even

spiritually and supernaturally speaking, can and should be related to

God who knows what to do with them.

            We should avoid the pitfall of thinking that there are

certain things and situations, certain concerns, issues and affairs in

our life where God has no role to play. God is in everything. His

interventions in our life are constant and abiding, and are meant to

lead everything to him who is the beginning and end of all things.

            We need to understand that God’s words contain the wisdom

that is proper for us. They are not just worldly or human wisdom, but

wisdom itself. The task that we have to do is to mine that wisdom, to

learn how to appreciate it and put it into practice.

            Yes, there will be effort involved, a lot of it. And more

than that, there will be some suffering involved too, since it is

unavoidable that we have to experience the consequences that divine

wisdom will give us as it clashes with our worldly and human wisdom.

            We have to learn the art of listening to God’s words

intently. This can take many forms. We have to develop the habit of

reading the gospel, studying the doctrine of our faith, putting them

into practice by developing the proper attitudes and virtues. We have

to learn to live in the presence of God always, and to see God in

everything, no matter how bad they may be, humanly speaking.

            Listening to God in Christ through the Holy Spirit should

be an abiding feature in our life!