From the Marist Laity Conference “DO AS HE TELLS YOU” 2008
By Father Michael Whelan SM
In both the Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New Testament, the words used which we translate as obey, obedience and obedient, all have a close relationship with the various words we translate as hear and listen. One scholar summarizes the use of those Greek words in the New Testament:
The Greek verb akouõ and the noun akoë, used in the NT have both meanings (ie physical hearing and the apprehension of something with the mind) though originally these words denoted only the former. Various compounds are used to denote apprehension with the mind. Eisakouõ and epakouõ stress attentive listening, while the emphatic forms hypakouõ and hypakoë (literally hear beneath) mean to obey and obedience. The linguistic and conceptual relationship between akouõ and hypakouõ recurs in Old and Middle English in the use of the same word for both hear and obey. It can still be traced in some modern languages, eg German hören and gehorchen. The former includes the latter, and in some contexts can be Substituted for it. Conversely, parakouõ and parakoë (literally hear beside) denote inattentive hearing, missing, not hearing, and thus disobedience.
In the world of the Covenant, listening and hearing are profoundly significant. The word must be heard and heeded. The phrase “Thus says the Lord' recurs again and again. Yahweh has a conversation with his servants Moses and Isaiah. They listen, hear and go forth. In the prophetic writings the prophet must both see and hear in order to interpret visions.
The response of young Samuel epitomises the absolute fidelity called for by the Covenant: “Speak, for your servant hears.” And because the Covenantal life is a conversation, God too is expected to hear. Throughout the Psalms God is frequently called upon to listen and hear.21 In fact, what distinguishes Yahweh from the false gods is precisely that Yahweh is willing and able to be party to the conversation that the Covenant demands and the false gods are completely incapable of such a conversation.
In the NT Jesus is the object of obedience: “This is my Son the beloved: Listen to him”. This establishes the structure of obedience in the Christian tradition. Obedience is participating in an ongoing conversation with a view to being drawn more deeply into the Covenant Obedience - in the full Christian sense - can only be understood in the light of God’s loving action in Christ Obedience is the natural response to our being loved into freedom by the Great Mystery. Christian obedience is listening^ God revealed in Jesus’ being, hearing God speak in and through Jesus’ life and teaching and submitting to the revelation of transcendent Love that takes hold of us through this listening and hearing. Jerome Murphy-O’Connor’s summary of St Paul's understanding of obedience, noting how integral it is to the whole of the Christian life, is helpful:
“‘Obeying’ is the perfect verb to express the full, vital acceptance of preaching. The basic meaning of the Greek hypakouö is ‘to listen to,’ but, as its technical use to describe the function of a door-keeper indicates, it means ‘to listen in an effective way,' to listen and do. In other words, it is a listening that forms an invisible unity with the appropriate response to the claim made. (2 Thessalonians 3:14) called to enter. And, as the baptised, in entering that obedience pattern our union with Him grows and becomes ever more deeply the essence of our lives:
Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of human beings. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient (hypakoos) unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
(Audio Available)
