Open Your Ears, Your Eyes!

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Reflecting on the Word

By Rev. James A. Wallace, C.Ss.R.

What is it that blocks the ears of the heart from hearing? The eyes of the heart  from seeing? It even happens with people who are closest to us: family, friends,  neighbors, people we work with. We just don’t hear what they are trying to tell us,  or our ability to see falters. We tend to see people only as they once were and  not as who they have become. We stop looking beyond the surface, saying, “Oh,  I see” when we really don’t. 

This seems to have happened with Jesus when he returned to his hometown  after preaching and teaching all through the Galilee region up north. He had  been working wonders: casting out demons, curing the sick, healing lepers, even  raising the dead daughter of a local synagogue official. And yet when he returns  home to Nazareth, goes to the synagogue and teaches there, people respond  only with astonishment, not faith. We hear two of the saddest lines in the Gospel:  “he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick  people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.”

The same thing happened to prophets in the past. Men like Ezekiel were even  warned by God that the Israelites were “hard of face and obstinate of heart.” And  Paul certainly had his problems, even with communities he had founded. Today’s  readings remind us of two sobering realities: God continues to talk to us and we  continue to exercise our freedom not to listen. 

Consider/Discuss

  • Can you recognize in yourself any tendency to be “hard of face and  obstinate of heart”? 
  • How do you take steps to “listen” for what God might be saying, to  “see” how God might be trying to get your attention? 

Responding to the Word

God, giver of all good gifts, help us to see you in the world around us, to hear  your voice in the many ways you try to speak to us. Give us that gift of faith so  that you can continue to work your wonders in our midst and bring life to your  creation.

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