LISTENING WITH THE THIRD EAR

To appreciate fully the photo above one must first understand the deep emotions that led to its creation. The photo, ( auspices of my good friend, Bill Tibbo), is a memorial erected in the town of Grand Bank, Newfoundland, to commemorate the many heroic fishermen who lost their lives at sea. There is much more to this memorial than that which is visibly available at first glance. By engaging”The Third Ear” senses. one is transferred into the company of this figure ( mother, wife etc)  who spent hours upon the seashore following a storm at sea, searching for the first sign of a loved one’s return, in the days before communication technology was widely available.

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To gain a deeper understanding of the meditation that follows, you are encouraged to begin with a careful reading of the suggested Scripture text. The editorial notes at the end may be helpful also.

Suggested Scripture: John 4: 43 – 54

Scripture Emphasis:
John 4:46-47 46 Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

Theodore Reik, a psychoanalyst, wrote a book titled, ” Listening With The Third Ear,” in which he describes the extra sense he engages while listening to a client; hearing the hidden meaning in what is said, and then reading between the lines to discover what is not verbalized.
Engaging the sense of ‘The Third Ear”, may well awaken the critical faculty of empathy, and thereby provide an easier avenue for a client’s painful experiences to be explored.

My desire for us now is to experience an imaginary demonstration of this truth, using the incident of ‘the healing of the royal official’s son’ ( John 4). Throughout, we will let the din, which daily insults our hearing, come under the scrutiny of our personal ‘Third Ear Sense,’ so that we might share more fully in what lies behind the cloak of garbled expression.
We begin on the bustling Main Street of the fishing village of Cana, in the province of Galilee. The pungent smell in every town whose men” go down to the sea in ships, to carry on business upon on the deep’, hangs in the air. On this particular day, loud, angry voices echo through the narrow street that leads to the waterfront. Boats, usually on the fishing grounds, today, lie idle on the beaches. Their owners are jostling for a place in the long line-up of those waiting to discharge the responsibility of paying exorbitant taxes to a hated foreign government.  This arouses anger like nothing else. These were hard times for the people of Cana and the surrounding towns. Strenuous labor, scarcity of fish, and high taxes were more than enough to raise the ire of every man, to say nothing of their vocal protestations.

“Just look at Old Ichabod seated behind the desk there!” derided one angry protestor.
” Yeah, some fine, easy job it is, to be The ROYAL OFFICIAL, stealing a poor fellow’s bread, and after he lines his own pockets, and I dare to say his friend’s pockets too, he gives the rest to the ROMANS!” snarled a bystander
” Come on, and serve us, Ichabod, we have work to do. We are not all like you, sitting there licking your chops having feasted on our money!
Ichabod made no response, whatsoever! His face bore the signs of a man nearing the point of exhaustion.
“What’s wrong with you, Ichabod? Didn’t sleep well last night? Traveling from Capernaum to Cana, too much for you? Why not ask your Roman friends for an easier job?”And so throughout the morning, the raving insults continue. Praying silently to God, that nobody saw him, Ichabod quickly, and silently wipes a tear from his eye.

Ichabod remains silent, like one whose conscious self is absent from the present time and place. The pain in his heart grows more and more intense. He longs for nothing more than kindness, and that measure of decency, which one human being owes to another, especially when the vulnerability of being human must certainly be painfully on display. If only there were one human being in the crowd who had the skill of listening with the Third Ear, would he see it!   Then, perhaps there might be a contagion to share the anguish of the inextinguishable flames of love that raged in Ichabod’s heart?
Is there, in truth, no unseen common bond that binds one human being, to all others; a  kind of relationship that transcends the sound and fury of an immediate situation, and, which isolates, and compartmentalizes everyone?

There is a higher reality to which the “third ear sense “ belongs. It is that unique wisdom that feels another’s broken heart without a word being exchanged. It is to claim the identity of another human who is wrestling with the evidence, that all of his tested cisterns, in search of ‘Life-Giving Water, have failed. It is to hear the silent request, screaming in a deafening voice, begging to be loved.

Any attempt to gauge the degree of difference in the atmosphere that prevailed for Ichabod, as the tax-collector, and as Ichabod, the heartbroken suppliant is impossible. Not until SPIRITUAL existence claims preeminence over the natural reality, will we succeed in fully engaging in that which enables us to rise above the natural and animal sphere.

Ichabod encounters God in human flesh that day.Jesus is the absolute epitome of empathy. Jesus’ humanity reaches out to embrace the humanity of Ichabod. Before any verbal exchange even begins, Jesus feels the pain of a father watching the laboring breath of one dearly loved, and who fears that it may be his last breath! Jesus knew already, Ichabod’s anguish as he left home that morning, turning every second to look again at the house, where his dying son lay, fading into the distance! Love dictated that he stay, but duty demanded that he go!

Jesus was well aware of the heartlessness of the “me first” ideology, with its promotion of separation and blame, that ripped into Ichabod’s heart at the waterfront earlier.

It is an awakened “Spirituality” born of this encounter with the empathetic Jesus, that rescues Ichabod from the lasting effects of the heartlessness of his earlier experience; it is Ichabod’s awakened Spirit which results in the blessing of Salvation for his entire family, and the healing of his beloved son.

PRAYER TO FOLLOW THIS MEDITATION

O Pitying Christ, Listen to Your people crying.                                                                         Lord, send Your Spirit to this place.
Lord, listen to Your people crying.
Give us mercy, give us power, give us grace.

Jesus, the way that You dealt with that poor royal official is so awe-inspiring, that we desire to spend the day with You, so that the contagion of Your mercy, and compassion, and love might infect us.

There seems to be no end to the din of complaining about our ‘little systems’ that are fading away. Help us to  understand that all man-made systems eventually will “fade away, “having “had their day, they will cease to be.” Give to Your people, renewed faith in the miracle of our creation. The commonality that binds us all together is the dwelling of God’s Spirit within each person. It is His plan and His all-conquering Love that will result in the world’s Salvation!

Lord, Listen to Your people, Praying!  Lord, send Your Spirit to this place.
Lord, Listen to Your people Praying.
Send us Love, send us Faith, send us Grace. Amen

HYMN: What A Friend We Have In Jesus

https://youtu.be/4XRmGEbH0qs

 

EDITORIAL NOTES

1. The reference in the PRAYER to ” Little Systems, Having their day….” is from the poem “ In Memoriam,” by Alfred Tennyson.
2. Sincere appreciation is expressed to my good friend, Bill Tibbo, of Grand Bank, Newfoundland, for permitting me to draw upon his photographic skills for this and others of his great work.