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"Unable to listen, we always say the same things," lamented the Pope during the Angelus prayer, delivered on September 5, 2021 from the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. To the large crowd gathered under his windows, he gave the keys to the "rebirth of an authentic dialogue" with the other: silence and listening.
Commenting on the miraculous healing of a deaf-mute carried out by Jesus in the Gospel of the day (Mark 7:31-37), the Holy Father recalled that "we all have ears, but very often we cannot hear" due to "inner deafness." This "deafness of the heart" is worse than physical deafness, he insisted, because it makes us "impervious to everything."
"Caught in our haste, with a thousand things to say and do, we do not find the time to stop to listen to those who are speaking to us," regretted Pope Francis. He called on his hearers to make room for "all those who do not need words and sermons so much, but to be heard," citing children and the elderly. He particularly addressed this advice to priests.
The secret of this "spiritual health" can also be found in listening to the Gospel in silence, every day, insisted the pontiff. "Jesus is the Word: if we do not stop to listen to him, he moves on."
