Listening is an exercise in love and humility.  It requires us to recognize the sacred image of God that even the most infuriating among our so-called enemies possesses as a fact of his or her existence.  It requires us likewise to remember our own human fallibility and finitude, that our knowledge and understanding are incomplete unto themselves.  By listening, we are putting two essential beliefs into practice: 1) the other person matters and therefore they matter to me and 2) the other person might just have something important that I need to hear through them.