24th JULY. FRIDAY IN WEEK 16

1.Exodus 20:1-17

2.Matthew 13:18-23

REFLECTIONS AND MEDITATIONS

Obstacles to hearing God’s Word

Dear brothers and sisters, today’s gospel lists various obstacles that can hinder us from hearing the word of the Lord in a way that bears fruit in our lives. The first obstacle is lack of understanding. We do need some understanding of the word that we hear. We don’t need to have extra senses to do extra ordinary things in life, however what we need to know is who Jesus is if we are to hear his word with appreciation. The second obstacle that prevents us from hearing the word of God is the lack of roots. Because of our frailties, sometimes we do not allow the word we hear to enter into us deeply enough. We need to meditate upon the word of God and allow it to take roots in our hearts.

The third obstacle is doubly described as the worries of this world. What exactly worries us in this world? In fact we have answers before hand, example people in this World are worried of losing the riches they have already acquired, people are worried of losing their daily flow of income, people are insecure because of the changing social and standard of living, people are worried of spectacular achievement in science and technologies, and people are worried because of political and religious affiliations etc. Nevertheless, we should bear in mind that these are temporal things of this World that shall come to pass away.

The gospel reading suggests that hearing the Lord’s word in a way that bears fruit in our lives won’t happen automatically. There is a struggle involved; there are obstacles to be overcome. That is why Jesus taught us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but delivers from evil.” Let us pray and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us that we may stand firm in our faith. We are invited to hope in the Lord and put our trust in him, for he is stronger than any obstacle we might face, and if we open our hearts to his Spirit, to his grace, we will conquer the obstacles and our lives will be fruitful in the way that God desires for us.