Silence and the Audibility of the Word: Contemplative Listening as a Fundamental Act of the New Evangelization. Part 2: Jesus Christ, the Eternal Listener

Abstract

While part one of my arguing for contemplative listening as a fundamental act of the new evangelization shows that man’s ontological listening is an obedient readiness to hear the Word, the present part claims that this readiness is modeled upon the eternal Listener, Jesus Christ. The context of my argument concerns what it means to say that Christ reveals the human person to himself as a listener. Of primary importance is that one’s listening is based on the model of Christ’s own personhood. The first point I need to secure, then, is how the Son is a Listener. Explaining that involves showing first that the Son’s possession of divinity as received from the Father does not imply subordina-