The WORD in other words (2018) by Fr Jerry Songcog SVD (Madagascar)
While going around the galleries in the Louvre in Paris, I saw a father passionately explaining to his son the intricacies of one particular painting. The child listened to his father with attention, eyes wide open, revealing how much he was caught up in his father’s enthusiasm. He was seeing a new world through his father’s eyes.
This cannot be said of many in the audience before Jesus in today’s Gospel. Citing the prophet Isaiah, Jesus says, “They may look and see but not perceive,and hear and listen but not understand, in order that they may not be converted andbe forgiven”.
This does not mean that God does not want them to understand and to be saved. The people, however, refused to get caught in Jesus’ passion for the Kingdom, and were locked up in their own ideas and in what they would simply like to believe. So their wide-open eyes could not see, their wide open ears couldnot hear because their hearts were closed to Jesus’ words.
Without opening our hearts to Jesus we are like going through a museum without fully understanding the great things we are seeing. We need to be initiated to the wonder of God’s kingdom by listening carefully to Jesus, with our hearts in full attention.
It is letting ourselves be caught in His enthusiasm and His passion for everything that is God’s. It is by then that we can be fully converted and can fully understand.
Bible Diary 2019
The Bible Diary, The WORD in Other Words is an annual project of Logos Publications containing daily scripture readings and reflections written by priests, brothers and sisters of the congregations founded by St Arnold Janssen, the Divine Word Missionaries and Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters. It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.
Éditions Verbum Bible 