Readings
I - Num. 21: 4-9
II - Jn. 8: 21-30
BE OPEN TO THE TRUTH
In today’s Gospel passage, the Scribes and the Pharisees were so much fixated in their idea about Jesus that they never wanted to understand him 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.
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. This needs openness of mind and heart to accept the truth. The Scribes and the Pharisees missed Jesus because they were not open to receive Jesus. 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. 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 the other.”
