This past Sunday I offered some reflections on what I call an acoustic theology. That is, an understanding of life and a way of living that recognizes the centrality of deep listening for an authentic, holistic, mature, and responsible spirituality. It is a way of imagining and talking about the contemplative life using the images of listening and hearing rather than the more common images of looking and seeing. An acoustic or auricular theology is expressed in our relationship with God, other persons, especially the most vulnerable and marginalized, one’s truest self, and the world of nature and all of creation (these are what I call the four strands of the sacred braid).
Such a perspective elicits a spirituality that is by nature antiphonal since everything and everyone created and sustained by God is in some sense an expression of the divine. To live an awakened, grateful, and responsive existence means to participate in the liturgy of life which is going on all the time all around us and includes the recurrent pattern of call and response. To be human is to respond and to respond fittingly and fully requires the ongoing spiritual practice of listening loudly. Within every thing and every one and every moment and every encounter and every sorrowful or joyful mystery there is an inherent invitation and an opportunity to respond. Something is being asked of us, called forth from us however seemingly insignificant or profound.
The antiphonal nature of spirituality, this relational way of living initiated by God who calls forth and desires a response, points toward and encourages a similar open, reverent, and interactive way of being together as church. An antiphonal spirituality engenders a dialogical church, one where each and all are honored, valued, and invited to participate fully as they are; one where all persons have something to say, something to offer, something worth contributing, and, therefore, something worth hearing. In a spirituality that is antiphonal or dialogical both speaking and hearing are necessary and of equal value.
Such an interactive theology, spirituality, and ecclesiology are truly enlivening and liberating and include the same exchange of life and love that makes all of life a liturgy, a holy communion, and all creation a sacred kinship.
REFLECTION:
♦What adjustments, changes, additions, or subtractions in my life are required or being asked of me if I am to improve the acoustics of my life so that I can hear more clearly my soul’s deepest summons?
♦What is my soul’s deep summons today?
♦What is God calling me to this time in my life?