Text: Malachi 3:1-5 (see below)
This is the second portion of a sermon by Brother Kevin Hackett on active listening. The first part was printed yesterday and can be seen in the post below. Kevin is a member of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He writes,
“I don’t know anyone in crisis or pain who turns to Facebook when a loved one is dying, for guidance in vocational discernment, or for the joys and warmth of physical embrace. Nor are we likely to search out a casual business colleague to explore a gut-wrenching personal decision. We want people who know us—our histories and dreams, our joys and griefs, our hopes and fears—to be our guides through uncertain and choppy waters, for we are indeed “sorely hindered by our sins.”
"In an article in The Christian Century, Greg Jones reported that,
“A sociological study found that between 1985 and 2004 the average American’s number of close confidants declined from three to two, and that those reporting “no close confidants” jumped from 10 to 25 percent. Lynn Smith-Lovin, one of the study’s authors, noted that “you usually don’t expect major features of social life to change very much from year to year or even decade to decade.” But the data suggest a “remarkable drop” in the number and quality of friendships in American culture. The findings also confirm and amplify my anecdotal sense that more and more “connected” people, from CEOs to talented youth and young adults, are struggling with loneliness.
“The destructive consequences of loneliness will likely afflict that 25 percent of Americans who have no confidants. Loneliness becomes a spiral downward that diminishes a person’s capacity to relate to others and to envision a hopeful future. Luther wrote that “a lonely [person] always deduces one thing from the other and thinks everything to the worst.” The loneliest people I know are the most cynical, and it is often difficult to befriend them or even to be around them.
“In his little book, The Art of Christian Listening, Thomas Hart speaking of the famous psychiatrist Karl Menninger, notes that
“…after decades of work in psychotherapy, [Menninger laid] aside all learned talk both of psychic maladies and of therapeutic techniques, and utter[ed] one simple overarching truth: It is un-love that makes people unwell, and it is love and love alone that can make them well again.
“[Menninger’s] contention is buttressed by more general studies and surveys, in which it has been shown that those therapists are most successful in bringing health back to their clients who are best able to convey love. Their theoretical framework may be Freudian, Jungian, Rogerian, Gestalt, Transactional Analysis, or anything else; but the most telling factor is still the ability to communicate care, reverence, and hope to a troubled person. This explains in part why some psychotherapists seem to do so little for people even after months and years of appointments, and some complete amateurs are able to make a significant difference in a short time.
“The secret is no secret: when someone knows that they have been heard, that someone has truly listened to them, remarkable transformation is possible.”
Brother Kevin’s final thoughts on listening will appear in tomorrow’s posting.
Love One Another – Brian
A Beginning
Thomas Merton
The word of God...penetrating our inmost being is more than a communication of light: it is a new birth, the beginning of a new being.
Source: Opening the Bible
Malachi 3:1-5
See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow, and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.
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