Readings
I - Num. 21: 4-9
II - Jn. 8: 21-30
UNDERSTAND AND APPRECIATE
Misunderstanding is one thing and neglecting to understand is another. In today’s Gospel passage, the Scribes and the Pharisees do not want to understand Jesus at all. This is why Jesus would quote Prophet Isaiah to them and say, “Seeing they shall see and not see, and hearing they shall hear and they shall not understand” (Mk. 4: 12). In their stubbornness and hardness of heart, the Scribes and the Pharisees missed the Messiah in Jesus. This is why they also plotted to put him away to death.
Each one of us is unique and different. Each one is also sent into the world with some purpose that God has for them. Hence all cannot be the same. In finding fault and neglecting to understand others we miss the originality, possibilities, potentialities, goodness and the worth of the other. Trying to understand others from their perspective would help us to appreciate and savour the blessings in the other instead of blaming, finding fault, gossiping, accusing and condemning. May the Lord bless us with the magnanimity of heart to go beyond ourselves in discovering and understanding the truth in the other. Let our mind and heart resonate with the prayer, “Lord Jesus, give me a magnanimous heart to understand and appreciate others”.
