In today’s Gospel Jesus addresses the first disciples and all of us disciples: “But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear.” What is it that we see and hear? We hear the Word of God proclaim the mystery of God overflowing love and mercy. We see the one true God in the words and actions of Jesus, in his passion, death, and resurrection. Jesus tells us, “knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven has been granted to you.” Jesus’ parables teach us that God’s Kingdom is at hand. His teachings and parables tell us that God’s will is for all to be saved. God pours out his love and mercy on all people, weeds and wheat, saints and sinners.
We need to respond and accept that gift of God’s love and strive to love one another, even our enemy. Sometimes even though this mystery is at work in our world and in our lives, we miss it; we “look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.” Sometimes in our daily interactions with others we are so busy that we do not see what is going on in their lives. Sometimes we are so ready to respond, to criticize, to attack that we do not take the time to listen or try to understand what the other is saying. We see this blindness and deafness almost daily in our political and even in our religious discourse. Jesus challenges us to look again and see the good in the other and to listen again and to try to understand what they are saying.
Jesus calls us even more to be quiet and to listen to God. He calls us to humility to listen and look for God. We should never think that we have God completely figured out. God is a God of mystery and of surprises. He both comforts and challenges us. We need to hear both parts of this mystery. If all we hear is challenge and condemnation then we have not fully heard the word of God. Conversely if all we hear are words of comfort and affirmation but no challenge then we have not fully heard the Word of God. God has given us eyes to see and ears to hear, let us listen to the Word of God.
Image: “Little girl in red yukata covering ears sitting on shoulders” by avlxyz is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.