Daily Reflection – Jul 27, 2017

Thursday 27 July 2017

First Reading:Exodus 19:1-2, 9-11, 16-20B
Responsorial Psalm:
Glory and praise for ever!
Daniel 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56
Gospel Reading: Matthew 13:10-17

Today’s Note: Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel Reading:

The disciples approached Jesus and said,
“Why do you speak to the crowd in parables?”
He said to them in reply,
“Because knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven
has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted.
To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich;
from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
This is why I speak to them in parables, because
they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.
Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:

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.

“But blessed are your eyes, because they see,
and your ears, because they hear.
Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people
longed to see what you see but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”

Reflection:

You will indeed listen, but never understand.

Jesus speaks like an exasperated school teacher in today’s gospel. ‘Don’t pay attention—you might learn something’ is what he is saying. Like the prophet Jeremiah before him, he is calling them to recognise where God is, or perhaps is not, in their lives.

Those who do not have faith and do not have God at the centre of their lives will not understand the parables of Jesus. They are the ones who ‘have not’, who rely on the law instead of faith.

They see belief in God as fulfilling requirements and rituals, rather than a faith relationship where we stand humbly before God, aware of our sinfulness and recognising that God and none other is our source of life, as today’s psalm response says.

Jesus, grant us the humility to recognise you and your word as the true meaning of our lives.