WORD 2day: Friday, 17th week in Ordinary time
August 2, 2024 - Jeremiah 26: 1-9; Matthew 13: 54-58
An untoward development led me to read a bit about hearing and loss of hearing. The technicians explain that there are different kinds of hearing loss (deafness)... mild hearing loss, moderate hearing loss, moderately severe hearing loss, severe hearing loss and profound hearing loss! At times spiritually too these hearing losses can be calculated in a similar fashion, but we need to add one more crucial type of hearing challenge. That is, Selective Hearing Loss! Hearing only what I want to hear, or refusing to hear what I do not want to hear merely because it causes me inconvenience. This is the syndrome that we see prevalent in the people, in both the first reading and the Gospel.
When Jeremiah spoke to them about the impending danger and their need to return to the Lord, they deemed him liable to death. When Jesus spoke to them on issues that really challenged their daily life, they looked at him with suspicion and despised him for the "ordinariness" from which he hailed. They wanted to do away with him too!
The Word of God keeps rushing into our hearts. It would cleanse it, refresh it and fill it with life, if only we allow it to. If we are guarded, biased and suspicious, we would break no ground towards perfection. On this first friday of the month, let us allow the words from the Sacred Heart to fill us and challenge us, so that we may not fall prey to the syndrome of 'hearing merely what we want to hear'!