Readings
I - Rom. 1: 1-7
II - Lk. 11: 29-32
St. Jonh XXIII, Pope (Memorial)
BEHOLD THE TRUTH WITH THE OPENNESS OF HEART
When Jonah, the prophet proclaimed God’s warning to the people of Nineveh, they accepted, repented and were saved. The Queen of Sheeba came all the way from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. The Ninevites and the Queen of Sheeba were gentiles, non-Jews. Still, the former accepted and repented; and the later took up a tedious journey. Jesus was not merely a prophet but the Son of God, long awaited Messiah, the Promised One. Jesus’ Words and actions testified to his identity as Messiah but then, as Scripture says, “he came to his own and his own received him not” (Jh. 1:11). It is not that the Jewish religious leaders needed a sign, it is the stubbornness of their hearts that refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah because Jesus did not fit into the frame they had set in their minds for the Messiah. The humble origin, simple lifestyle, the multitude of sinners, outcasts, women, children and tax collectors around him and his way of making religion easy for people made the religious fanatics to get away with Jesus in their willful neglect.
In the light of the Gospel passage today, let us examine our own lives. We are prone to accept and adhere to people who are similar to us in our though patterns, life style, view point and wave length. Even if the other is going to slightly differ we are not able to accept. If we continue conducting our life this way, we too like the Israelites, God’s own people, may miss the messengers of God and the wisdom of truth in our stubbornness, pride, self-righteousness and arrogance. Let us pray that the Lord may give us the simplicity of heart, openness of mind and humility in life to accept God’s people and God’s Word to yield thirty, sixty and hundredfold (Mt. 13:8) as Jesus says in the parable of the sower.
Today the Church fondly and gratefully remembers St. John XXIII, a simple yet a revolutionary pope in the history of the Catholic Church. It was his openness to the reality that brought great reformation in the Church. In his first public address he expressed his concern for the reunion of the separated Christians and for world peace. Less than three months after his election as a pope, he announced for a diocesan synod for Rome, the first one in the history of Rome, to convoke an ecumenical council for the Universal Church and the pontifical commission to revise the Code of Canon Law. He daringly convoked the Vatican Council II in 1962 that brought a drastic change in the Catholic Church making it more relevant responding rightly to the signs of the times. Through the intercession of such a simple yet a great saint let us implore for an openness of heart to behold the truth in the reality as we keep praying: “Lord Jesus, give me the openness of heart and mind to accept the truth”
