Hearing All the Instruments
Hearing All the Instruments
Monday of the Third Week of Lent – March 16, 2020
Much has been written about the echo chamber in which persons in the 21st century live. We listen to news channels that reinforce our world view, keep company with persons who confirm our vision of the world, and worship in places in which we are most comfortable. We hear voices similar to our own and we receive the stimuli comfortable for us.
To be outside our chosen comfort zone can leave us highly disconcerted and even pained.
When we filter the people and stimuli that reach us (by either ignoring them or denying them), we limit our capacity to love.
Jesus said it is no virtue to love those who love you. Love is known by its regard for the other, for the stranger, for the outsider. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said the defining mark of the Christian is love for the enemy.
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:43-48)
In today’s excerpt, Anthony de Mello encourages us to acknowledge our attachments in order to be persons who love truly, without condition or qualification. He leans into a helpful analogy . . . hearing all the instruments in a symphony orchestra rather than selectively hearing only what we want to hear.
Now think of yourself listening to an orchestra in which the sound of the drum is so loud that nothing else can be heard. To enjoy the symphony you must be responsive to every instrument in the orchestra. To be in the state called love you must be sensitive to the uniqueness and beauty of every single thing and person around you. You can hardly be said to love what you do not even notice; and if you notice only a few beings, to the exclusion of others, that is not love at all, for love excludes no one at all; it embraces the whole of life; it listens to the symphony as a whole, not to just one or the other of the musical instruments.
Stop for a while now to see how your attachments drain life’s symphony no less than the politician’s attachment to power and the businessman’s attachment to money have hardened them to the melody of life. Or look at the matter in another way: There is an enormous amount of information that is continuously flowing in from the world through the senses, the tissues of the organs of your body. Only a small part of this information reaches your conscious mind. It is like the infinite amount of feedback that is sent to the President of a nation: Only a tiny fraction finally makes its way to him. Somebody does the screening and the processing at the President’s office. Who decides what will finally make its way to your conscious mind from all the material that is pouring in from the world? Three decisive filters: first your attachments, second your beliefs and third your fears.
[Anthony de Mello, The Way to Love: The Last Meditations of Anthony De Mello, (New York: Doubleday, 1992).]
For Reflection:
o Over the course of the next 24 hours, I want to give myself to noticing something that I usually overlook.
o I set my heart to be attentive to a person, an object, a scene in the created world, or even a color that I have not noticed before.
o Today, I want to hear at least one more instrument in the symphony.
Monday of the Third Week of Lent – March 16, 2020
Much has been written about the echo chamber in which persons in the 21st century live. We listen to news channels that reinforce our world view, keep company with persons who confirm our vision of the world, and worship in places in which we are most comfortable. We hear voices similar to our own and we receive the stimuli comfortable for us.
To be outside our chosen comfort zone can leave us highly disconcerted and even pained.
When we filter the people and stimuli that reach us (by either ignoring them or denying them), we limit our capacity to love.
Jesus said it is no virtue to love those who love you. Love is known by its regard for the other, for the stranger, for the outsider. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said the defining mark of the Christian is love for the enemy.
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:43-48)
In today’s excerpt, Anthony de Mello encourages us to acknowledge our attachments in order to be persons who love truly, without condition or qualification. He leans into a helpful analogy . . . hearing all the instruments in a symphony orchestra rather than selectively hearing only what we want to hear.
Now think of yourself listening to an orchestra in which the sound of the drum is so loud that nothing else can be heard. To enjoy the symphony you must be responsive to every instrument in the orchestra. To be in the state called love you must be sensitive to the uniqueness and beauty of every single thing and person around you. You can hardly be said to love what you do not even notice; and if you notice only a few beings, to the exclusion of others, that is not love at all, for love excludes no one at all; it embraces the whole of life; it listens to the symphony as a whole, not to just one or the other of the musical instruments.
Stop for a while now to see how your attachments drain life’s symphony no less than the politician’s attachment to power and the businessman’s attachment to money have hardened them to the melody of life. Or look at the matter in another way: There is an enormous amount of information that is continuously flowing in from the world through the senses, the tissues of the organs of your body. Only a small part of this information reaches your conscious mind. It is like the infinite amount of feedback that is sent to the President of a nation: Only a tiny fraction finally makes its way to him. Somebody does the screening and the processing at the President’s office. Who decides what will finally make its way to your conscious mind from all the material that is pouring in from the world? Three decisive filters: first your attachments, second your beliefs and third your fears.
[Anthony de Mello, The Way to Love: The Last Meditations of Anthony De Mello, (New York: Doubleday, 1992).]
For Reflection:
o Over the course of the next 24 hours, I want to give myself to noticing something that I usually overlook.
o I set my heart to be attentive to a person, an object, a scene in the created world, or even a color that I have not noticed before.
o Today, I want to hear at least one more instrument in the symphony.
Comments
Post a Comment