The Rev. Mike Schmitz, chaplain for Newman Catholic Campus Ministries at the University of Minnesota in Duluth and podcast host | bulldogcatholic.org/

During this time of great crises, the Lord is inviting humanity to intentionally listen well, a priest from Louisiana said during a Duluth-based podcast earlier this month.

"To listen first before we act," the Rev. Josh Johnson, pastor of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church in St. Amant, Louisiana, said during a special episode of "Reconciling the Body of Christ" hosted by the Rev. Mike Schmitz.

The podcast on June 4 was about racial division in the Church and how Catholics may strive to restore unity in the Body of Christ.

The Rev. Schmitz is chaplain for Newman Catholic Campus Ministries at the University of Minnesota in Duluth and director of the Office of Youth Ministry for the Diocese of Duluth.

The Rev. Johnson, a pastor in the Diocese of Baton Rouge, referred to "an old African proverb" in which monkeys caught in a rainstorm and seeking higher ground spotted fish who seemed to be struggling and decided to "save" the fish by pulling them out of the water and placing them on the ground.

The monkeys acted without listening to the fish "and asking them, 'OK, tell me about your experience of being an animal that lives in the water'," the Rev. Johnson said on the podcast. "And like how can I accompany you right now? What can I do for you?"

The same idea applies to disciples of Jesus Christ in the present day, particularly in the current time of crisis and nationwide uprisings and protests about systemic racism since the killing of George Floyd in late May, the Rev. Johnson said.

"Faithful Catholics who are trying to respond to this situation today, because we know that God created us in this time to respond in unique, particular ways," the Rev. Johnson said in the podcast.

"That would be different, depending on how he's calling us to be a part of the body of Christ in that moment. But the Lord isn't biting us, no matter whether we're called to be intercessors, whether we're called to be activists, whether we're called to be writers or whatever our role is in the body of Christ to respond to the evil sin of racism. I think the Lord first is inviting us to first go to people who have experienced this and listen," he said on the podcast.

God provided humans with two ears and a single mouth, which means "He wants us to listen more than we communicate, more than we talk," the Rev. Johnson said on the podcast.

Listening more may require fasting from talking so much.

"And so to intentionally begin to fast from speaking to fast from, maybe, that which has become our echo chamber of the only resources that we've ever leaned into,” the Rev. Johnson said on the podcast. “Whether it's our favorite news station or our favorite books, our favorite podcasts, our favorite circles, that we are inundating ourselves in – immersing ourselves in – and begin to intentionally listen to the voices of people who have experienced not only racial prejudice or racial discrimination. Because anyone could experience racial prejudice or racial discrimination. But specifically people in this country who legally continue to experience being alienated and discriminated against because of the rules."