Hearing The Word

Qui ex Deo est, verba Dei audit Verba accipienda sunt cum effectu. Non enim sufficit audire, et non facere. Nam qui audit et non facit, surdus auditor est. Qui audit me, dicit Sapientia, non confundetur. Et Jacobus: Estote inquit factores verbi, et non auditores tantum. Audire enim et non intelligere; vel intelligere et non facere, negligere est. Intellectus enim bonus omnibus facientibus ea. Nec enim aut intellectus, aut memoria quidquam prodest, nisi sit ad faciendum. Et memores, inquit, fuerunt mandatorum ejus ad faciendum ea. Melior est operis auditio quam auris. Verbum quidem audiri oportet, ut fides vel aliud opus virtutis veniat ex auditu. Fides autem ex audtiu, auditus autem et verbum Dei. Quidam autem habent aures et non audiunt; non enim habent aures audiendi, sed negligendi. Ideo frequenter Dominus in Evangelio dicit: Qui habet aures audiendi, audiat. Qui ex Deo est, etc. Consulat unusquisque vestum conscientiam suam, si ex Deo est; nam si ex Deo non est, verba Dei audire non potest. Quidam sunt ex Deo, quidam ex mundo, quidam ex diabolo. Ego ex Deo exivi, et veni in mundum, dicit Dominus. Et ad discipulos: Si de mundo fuissetis, mundus utique quod suum est diligeret. Et ad Judaeos: Vos ex patre diabolo estis. Ex Deo est qui Deo adhaeret. Qui adhaeret, inquit, Deo, unus spiritus est cum illo. Quia vero mundus et diabolus societatem iniverunt, quicunque est de mundo, ipse est ex patre diabolo. Isti duo aures animae aggravant, ita ut audire non possit. Unde et Propheta ad animam loquens, quae jam aliquantulum obsurduerat: Audi, inquit, filia, et vide, et inclina aurem tuam, et obliviscere populum tuum et domum patris tui. Nam qui terrana sapiunt, aures aggravatas habent, et verbum Dei audire non possunt. Vos ergo qui jam non estis de mundo, qui jam renuntiastis diabolo, et pompis ejus, et quia ex Deo estis, verba ejus auditis; si tamen verba Dei operibus adimpletis. Videte tamen quia Deus non irridetur, recolite quid in vestra conversatione promiserits Deo. Cavere ne aedificetis excelsa Topheth et Jerusalem in sanguinibus. Qui semel egessus est de Aegypto, si appetit allia et pepones Aegypti; si ad mundum quem evomuit, revertitur; readificat suam Jericho, et moritur suus primogenitus, quia meritum suae primae conversionis exstinguitur. Petrus Blenensis, Sermo LV, Ad Sacerdotes Source: Migne PL 207.721c-722b

He who is from God hears the word of God. 1 The words must be received with their effect. It is not enough to hear and not do, for he who hears and does not do, is a deaf hearer. 'He who hears me,' Wisdom says, 'shall not be confounded.' And James says, 'Be doers of the word and not only hearers.' 2 For to hear and not understand, or to understand and not do is to be negligent. For 'a good understanding is for all who do these things.' It is of no profit to the mind or memory unless it is done. 'And they were mindful,' it says, 'to perform His commandments.' 3 The work is better than the hearing of the ear. One must hear the word, for faith, or a work of virtue, comes for hearing. 'Faith is from hearing and hearing through the word of God.' 'But some have ears and they do not hear,' 4 since they have ears for the hearing but they are negligent. Therefore, 'He who has ears let him hear,' the Lord often says in the Gospel. 'He who is from God hears the word of God.' Let each one consult his conscience, whether he is from God, because if he is not from God, he is not able to hear the word of God. Some are from God and some are from the world and some are from the devil. 'I have come from God and I have come into the world,' says the Lord. And to His disciples, 'If you were from the world, so the world would love its own.' And to the Jews, 'You are from your father the devil.' He who is from God adheres to God and he who adheres to God, it is said, is one spirit with Him. 5 Because, however, the world and the devil have entered into fellowship, whoever is from the world, he is from his father the devil. These two are ears that weigh down the soul so that it is not able to hear. Hence the prophet says to his soul, which had become a little deaf, 'Hear, daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and the house of your father.' 6 For he who thinks on the things of the world, he has ears that are heavy, and they are not able to hear the word of God. You, therefore, who are not from the world, who have renounced the devil and his pomp, since you are from God you hear His word, if, that is, you fulfill the word of God with deeds. But understand that God will not be mocked. 7 Remember what you promised God in your vows. Beware lest you build up the high places of Topheth and Jerusalem in blood. 8 He who once went out from Egypt, if he turns back to the desires of the comforts and meats of Egypt, if to the world he left, he rebuilds Jericho, and his first born dies, because he snuffs out the merit of his first vow. Peter of Blois, from Sermon 55, To Priests 1 Jn 8.47 2 Sirach 24. 30, James 1.22 3 Ps 110.10, Ps 102.18 4 Rom 10.17, Ps 134.17 5 Jn 16.28, Jn 15.19, Jn 8.44, 1 Cor 6.17 6 Ps 41.11 7 Galat 6.7 8 Jerem 7.31