What makes us sluggish to hear the truth?

Good News ReflectionThursday of the 16th Week in Ordinary TimeJuly 23, 2009
Today's Saint: Bridget of SwedenPray for widows and widowers:http://wordbytes.org/saints/DailyPrayers/BridgetSweden.htm
Today's Readings:Ex 19:1-2, 9-11, 16-20bDaniel 3:52-56Matt 13:10-17http://www.usccb.org/nab/072309.shtmlUSCCB Podcast of the Readings:http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/09_07_23.mp3
What makes us sluggish to hear the truth?
What's different between those who understand what the Church teaches and those who don't? Or what God says in the scriptures? Or what Jesus meant by the parables? That's what the disciples wanted to find out in today's Gospel reading. The answer lies in the prophecy from Isaiah 6:9-10 that Jesus quoted: People's hearts are gross.
In the original Greek (the language in which Matthew wrote), the word "gross" meant thickening or fattening. Jesus was talking about what happens when we get filled up on the world's food. Because we want to eat whatever makes us feel good, we gorge ourselves from the world's cafeteria, gulping down large portions of Make Up Your Own Rules moral relativism or self-promoting agendas or "New Age" spirituality and anything else that's not on God's banquet table. On this diet, our hearts get "sluggish" and we miss the truth even when it's handed to us on a silver serving platter.
Why do children who were raised with strong faith leave the Church when they become adults? What makes a good Christian sluggish? Why do any of us get lazy about discovering and relinquishing the untruths we believe? Usually, it's because of fear. We're afraid we won't like what we'll hear – as if God (directly or through the Church) will tell us something that will harm us!
For example, a Christian woman who had an abortion many years ago has learned to bury the nagging thought that her fetus was a real child. Fearing that she would be unable to live with the realization that she killed her own child, whom she would have loved, she shuts down all thoughts about it. In this condition, there is no way she can hear Jesus invite her to the healing and forgiveness for which her soul secretly longs. She thinks she has peace, but it's nothing more than denial, which is peace only at the surface. This self-imposed false peace will be stripped away at the moment of her death when the child she aborted comes with Jesus to welcome her into the afterlife.
(Side note: Please see our ministry called Families of Aborted Children Praying Together at http://wordbytes.org/help_protect_life/prayerchapel.htm)
It's only by focusing on the reality of God's love for us, which is unending and unconditional and full of mercy, that we can risk hearing what our fears are screaming at us. Fear says that God does not care for us as much as we need him to. Fear says that God wants to make our lives miserable. Fear says that what we did wrong is bigger than God's mercy.
To silence our fears, we have to remind ourselves that fear never speaks the truth. Fear is a liar. Only God fully speaks the truth, and when we remember that with God nothing is impossible, we can bear to hear the truth. When we remember that God wants to make good come out of everything, we can dare to face the truths that we fear the most.
If you know people who are sluggish to accept a truth that you're trying to share with them, concentrate first on helping them learn how very much God loves them and that he offers forgiveness and healing. Show them the wonderfulness of this truth by loving them the same way. Then it will become easier to help them realize that their inner turmoil or fears or feeling separated from God's love can be remedied.
© 2009 by Terry A. ModicaFor PERMISSION to copy any of my reflections, go to:http://gogoodnews.net/DailyReflections/copyrights-DR.htm
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