This week’s Gospel reading is quite long. 23 verses is a lot to work with, especially when it includes one of the rare moments when Jesus explains more fully a parable. In this week’s video, I pulled the lens back some from solely the Gospel and took some cues from the Old Testament and Responsorial Psalm for guidance. I think it turned out really well! I also have learned that my headphones don’t actually talk to my camera app – fun fact! Good to know, because now that I know why the audio quality of my videos isn’t great. Not so good to know because now I’m discerning whether to invest in an actual microphone or not. We shall see. If you have an opinion on audio quality, I’m all ears (pun intended).
For this written reflection, I was drawn to the verses of Isaiah that Jesus quotes in the Gospel reading:
You shall indeed hear but not understand,
you shall indeed look but never see.
Gross is the heart of this people,
They will hardly hear with their ears,
they have closed their eyes,
lest they see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their hearts and be converted,
and I heal them.
Matthew 13:14-15 – quoting Isaiah 6:9-10
These are hard words to hear, but we must hear them. The imagery is so vivid. When I read the passage the first time, it reminded me of my kids when they were little and how they played hide-and-seek. They would cover their eyes and with all the certainty in the world, were convinced I couldn’t see them because they couldn’t see me. As adults, we see the absurdity of the action and we chuckle at the sweet innocence of a child at play.
Too often, we do this same thing as adults. As we settle into our house, I’m already doing this.
“If I just don’t look in that corner, I won’t have to think about the boxes that still need to be gone through.”
“If I don’t read that email, I won’t have to worry about whether or not we have time for another activity.”
“I’ll just buy another bottle of ranch, if I look through the pantry to see if there’s another one I’ll find all sorts of things we didn’t actually need to move or save but did anyway because I didn’t take the time to properly sort through them before we left.”
In the short term, so often it’s easier to close our eyes, cover our ears, and go about our business. Until we run into a wall of course. I’ll end up re-boxing boxes that should have been sorted next summer, packing things we definitely don’t need or want. We will miss out on opportunities because I didn’t take the time to sort through my email properly and update it with new organizations in our new city. I’ll end up with 4 “back up” bottles of ranch (don’t worry, my girls will work through it in no time) but is that really being the best steward of our finances?
This behavior can extend to all areas of life and believe me, it’s not a comfortable topic. We do this with politics, poverty, racism, extremism, hunger, violence, and so many other challenging topics. We think if we can’t see it, we don’t have to worry about it. If we don’t know about it, we don’t have to deal with it. I know I am guilty of this. I am speaking about it from a place of humility and, honestly, some shame. I know I could do better, open my eyes wider. It’s not that we are called to solve all of the world’s problems. But we should know what’s happening around us, we should be able to speak to what we know and be honest about what we don’t know. We should be able to pray for local, national and global issues that God places on our hearts.
An example. We want our children to know and be able to speak confidently about their heritage. Both mine and Ben’s families have been in the United States for quite some time. Ben’s family, however, has been in the US since before it was a country. He has ancestors that fought in the Revolutionary War, which is pretty cool to know. What is more challenging to know is that later in US history, his family also owned slaves and fought for the Confederacy which wanted to split the US into two countries.
We could chose not to share this with them. We could say, “Well, they will find out eventually if they want to.” Instead, we’ve chosen to share with them, as they show interest and maturity, the fullness of their family story. We want their eyes to be open. Slavery was and is a horrible thing that never should have happened. Yes, our family was part of that problem at that time in history. This does not mean we, or our kids are bad people. It does mean that today, everyone has a responsibility to uphold the rights and dignity of all people regardless of who they are, where they come from, or what their family has done in the past. We want them to embrace their family history, to be proud of the good things and to recognize the faults of the wrong things. Only with open eyes and open ears do we ensure the wrongs of history aren’t repeated.
Jesus tells us that we will bear good fruit if we hear His Word and obey. Jesus is Truth. We need to keep our eyes and ears open to what Jesus reveals to us. Little by little, Jesus will heal our brokenness. Through our commitment to Jesus’ Truth, the world will be transformed by love and forgiveness into the Kingdom of God.
Daily Graces 