The ability to listen and hear is a great science, an art!
The first stage (preparation for the Mystery, for the “operation”)—catechumenate—involves preparation for the catechumenate (learning to listen, to obey) and the catechumenate itself (slavery-obedience-service to Christ—understanding and fulfilling the orthodoxly understood will of God, the Commandments of God). The final work of the graduates of the “school of catechumens” is a humble and contrite heart, poverty of spirit—a yearning for Christ, the Savior, absolute trust, self-surrender to Christ: “I am the servant of the Lord, let it be done to me according to all the will of God!”
Before teaching someone anything, it is necessary to ensure that they are listening to you. That is, first, check their “hearing”: if it is normal, you can proceed directly to teaching, but if it is not (the student is disobedient), then first take care to restore their “hearing,” the ability to listen, to be obedient—capable of perceiving the material! The goal is not just to teach, but to achieve results, so that the catechumen learns and understands (God’s will and their own miserable, hellish state). Therefore, the Church primarily cares about the ability to listen, knowing about humanity’s chronic disobedience. The root of all evil and sin is disobedience, while the foundation of all good is obedience (to the Truth). Sin entered the world through disobedience—man stopped listening to God (being obedient to God) and entered into communication with the devil: they heard his blasphemy… and accepted… and fulfilled their own godless will! (The devil, being an egoist himself, teaches people to fulfill their own egoistic will). And what happened next—we all know well, and every time we experience the hellish fruits of human self-will. Therefore, through obedience, we begin to treat the consequences of disobedience: we learn, first of all, to hear, to listen to God in everything, and to our neighbor for the sake of God Jesus Christ! (Obedience = “po” + “sluh” = to listen-hear-understand what is being said-ordered (or asked; the main thing is to hear-understand-realize what is wanted from me) + act-fulfill what is heard = to fulfill the will of Another (to understand it, realize it and implement it)).
“Faith-knowledge (salvation) comes from hearing!” Salvation begins with the ability to listen, to hear the voice of Truth, the Voice of God. The history of salvation begins with Abraham. Abraham heard the voice of God (although the Lord always speaks to every person, and before Abraham, there was the voice of God to people… but it was Abraham who heard) and trusted Him—and the history of salvation began (the process of catechumenate, which lasted for millennia), which culminated in the Mother of God, the Most Holy Theotokos, who became the exemplar of absolute obedience to God, and was able (being prepared by the millennia-long catechumenate of Old Testament humanity—Old Testament Israel) to hear and receive (to give flesh) the whole Word of God, to fulfill the entire will of God! And it all started with the ability to hear, to see. The Lord continually speaks to every person with His Providence-Care-Love, “the heavens declare the glory of God, the firmament shows His handiwork”—everything testifies of God, everything is God’s word addressed to man, everything (God’s gifts) is God’s call to communion-union with Him. The Lord calls man (a free being) with beauty to communion-union-marriage with the Beautiful, the Good, the Most Beautiful of all the sons of men, with God Jesus Christ. God humbly stands at the heart of every person and gently knocks (with hope and faith in the person), so that the person in freedom, consciously, with responsible trust, lets God into their life. God does not force His way into the human heart, not forcibly, not magically (without the person’s will, without their conscious choice), He does not save anyone, does not break down doors with fists or feet… but quietly, gently, humbly knocks—offering Himself! To let the Free, Consciously Free God-Love in freely and consciously, one must hear Him (His gentle, humble, quiet voice-call, which thunders throughout the universe, from everywhere and through everything! Whoever has ears to hear and eyes to see cannot but hear, cannot but see!), and to hear, one must know how to listen, to see, to be able to hear (if deaf, blind…—first take care to heal the hearing, the sight—the Church before the catechumenate does precisely that, healing the person, making them capable of hearing, healing their organs of hearing-sight-touch…)… to learn to hear, to cleanse one’s organs of perception (often atrophied, contaminated-mutilated by all kinds of microbes-infections-viruses-filth—sins, passions…), through which communication begins—I feel the existence of Another, I hear-see… Him, and the pinnacle of communication is absolute unity: “I in You, and You in Me!”
From Abraham to the Most Holy Mother of God—the whole period of catechumenate is the preparation for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, for Marriage with God, with Christ, for conception from God, for receiving the Seed of the Holy Spirit, for the conception of the Son of God in Man, for the operation-transplantation (replacement of the flesh of death with the Body of Christ, when instead of the old world (human nature, full of sin—see Romans 7), which lies in evil, there emerges a new creation, a New Heaven and a New Earth, in which righteousness dwells, the will of God, which are full of the Holy Spirit)!