DEMANDS OF DIALOGUE

Elizabeth O’Connor (1921-1998) writer, teacher, wrote in ‘Dialogue in Christian Community,’ “Dialogue demands of each participant that we try to live into the other’s world, try to see things as another sees them. We do not enter into dialogue in order to persuade another to see things our way. We enter into dialogue because we are open to change and are aware that our lives need correcting. Dialogue requires a clear, radical, and arduous commitment to listening. Essential to that listening is knowing in the deepest recesses of our being that we really know very little about most things, and that the truth may rest with some unlikely soul.” (Plough Magazine)

This could be one of the most difficult things we might attempt. Trying to ‘see things as another sees them,’ or ‘to not persuade others to see things our way,’ and ‘a clear, radical, and arduous commitment to listening.’ Are you kidding me? If this were the case we couldn’t butt in and talk over the sentence someone else is trying to say. Listening is seriously, the kindest part of all communication. If we don’t listen, we can’t hear.

(Note: Elizabeth O’Connor also wrote a book in the late sixties and it was a transforming book for me: ‘The Call to Commitment.’ She was a strong force in the early days of the Church of the Savior in Washington DC)

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Jesus