Have you ever noticed that when Jesus is asked about the greatest commandment the actual command word, the imperative, is “hear.” Love, the commandment suggests, is what happens when you hear how God loves us already, before we do anything. The readings for today stress hearing: the prophet Hosea, “Take with you words” and the Psalm 81, I am the Lord your God: hear my voice. The constant refrain during Lent, “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” Could we think of Lent as the season of hearing for when we hear of all that God has done for us our desire to change, to conversion takes off. But that made me think, would Advent be the season of seeing since it’s common refrain is “Watch.” The Easter Season might be the time of feeling, feelings of joy and gladness at the triumph over sin and death. Ordinary time is the season of tasting since it is the Eucharist that sustains us in our ordinary lives and Christmas is the time when we smell the sweetness of the new-born in the midst of the candles and pine trees and baking.
