Tuesday, February 18, 2014

6th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday, 19-02-14

James 1:19-27 / Mark 8:22-26

Taking things for granted come so easily for us. Things go from appreciation to depreciation as quickly as ice cream melts in the noon-day sun.

Yes, we take so many things for granted that it is only when we lose it then we will desperately look for it or mourn over its loss.

And if we ever lose one or more of our abilities, we would certainly find it difficult to accept and even more difficult to get used to it.

The ability to see would be something that is probably at the top of our treasured list. And yet we take it for granted so often.

Like what the 1st reading said, we look at our own features in a mirror and then, after a quick look, we hurry off and immediately forgetting what we looked like.

That analogy is used to describe another ability that we so often take for granted - the ability to listen, and, in the spiritual sense, to listen to the Word of God and obeying it and putting it into action.

And the 1st reading also addressed the ability to speak. A person who thinks he is serving God and yet has not learnt to control his tongue is only deceiving himself.

Yes, we have the abilities to see, to listen and to speak, and yet we take it so often for granted and we do not use them properly.

In the gospel, Jesus healed the blind man. But the healing process seems to be gradual, with the blind man seeing vaguely initially and then seeing clearing later.

May we let Jesus open our senses and abilities so that we see deeper, listen clearer so that what we speak will give praise to the Lord.