In the Hebrew Bible and New Testament
Hearing is the most mentioned of the senses:
Ears is said 88 times.
Deaf is said 20 times.
Hearing is said 54 times.
Silence is said 34 times.
Listen is said 412.
Hear is said 1,700 times.
God is deaf or the people are deaf in any number of situations.
Words rain down in the Bible without anything to catch them.
Words are cast up, and vanish between earth and sky.
It was this that allowed me to accept my deafness as a spiritual event
More than a medical one. Sitting in the audiologist’s office, connected
By wire to computers then disconnected, talked to by a hearing person
About not being able to hear, I felt she was the disconnected preacher
Telling the poor that God wants them to be rich.
Wax jammed into my ears for the design of ear molds,
I felt myself descend like being pushed underwater,
My baptism into the religion of Quiet.
