Attentive or Absurd?
The word "obedience" comes from the Latin word ob-audire, which means to listen with great attentiveness. Without listening, we become "deaf" to the voice of love (Christ). The Lain word for deaf is surdus. To be completely deaf is to be absurdus, yes, absurd. When we no longer pray, no longer listen to the boice of love (Christ) that speaks to us in the moment, our lives become absurd lives in which we are thrown back and forth between the past and the future.
Henri Nouwen, Here and Now: Living in the Present, 22-23
