For a period of my Jesuit life, I worked on a suicide/crisis hotline for ministry. Many callers were individuals who had fallen on difficult times, for example, job loss, relationship difficulties, or untreated mental health conditions. In my training, the veteran crisis workers taught me how to listen and to ask appropriate questions that convey you were intently listening. I learned a simple truth from a time on the hotline: pain is difficult, but it is excruciating when a person feels alone in dealing with it. I am sure we have all tried with mixed success in solving our problems while hiding our true feelings from others, ourselves, and God.
Our first reading suggests a different approach. Tobit speaks to God in groans and weeping as he is “grief-stricken in spirit.” He states his trust in God, and then he shares how he feels. Tobit despairs and shows the profundity of his sorrow because he places his faith in God to remedy the situation. Sarah, Raguel’s daughter, struggles with the insults she has accumulated in her life from her multiple marriages. Amidst contemplating suicide, she calls to God in prayer. As I found on the hotline and so in prayer, listening is curative. Listening establishes a relationship and affirms one is not alone.
In the Gospel, we have an example of the way not to listen. The Sadducees, whether Sarah’s situation inspired their question is not clear, pose a legal question rather than addressing the human problem. Rhetorically, they use their question to further their view that there is no resurrection of the dead. Jesus offers a vision of hope, and he challenges any limited way of thinking about the resurrection. Christ’s resurrection is God’s response to the resounding groans of all creation which awaits its renewal. Wherever we might find ourselves in our relationship with God, let us pray for the gift to be reminded that God shares in our pain and cares for us by listening.