God Wants To Open Our Minds, Are We Interested?
Third Sunday of Easter (B)
My dear encountered couples:
When Jesus had pretty well convinced his disciples and apostles that he was not a ghost but that he was truly risen from the dead we are told “he opened their minds to the understanding of the Scriptures.” He pointed out to them that it had been written long before “that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.”
It is very important for us to read the Scriptures, the Bible, and with the help of the Holy Spirit try to understand what is written. For the Bible not only contains stories and explanations of what happened in the lives of people a long time ago, it contains positive advice and directions for what you and I should make happen in our lives today. The Bible gives us the basics for all we need to know to find love and happiness — enjoying some of it here while we live on earth, the rest of it later in eternity. It teaches us how to love and be loved, how to give happiness to others and receive some for ourselves. After all, what is more important than love and happiness? That’s what we do everything for, isn’t it?
The trouble with us is that we usually try to figure out on our own what will give us some love and happiness. And that’s why many people devote their lives to the relentless pursuit of money, power, social position, sex, and such things. Since God created us, isn’t it reasonable to presume that he knows what makes us tick and what we need deep down inside? Isn’t it common sense to figure that God knows what you need more than you know, more than your family knows, more than your friends or anyone knows? Sure, they can all help you and advise you, but not to seek God’s directions and advice first, last, and always before making any serious decisions is going against common sense.
If you designed something and gave it life, wouldn’t you be the one who knows what is best for your creature? Wouldn’t it be rather silly of John or Mary or whatever you name it to go of f and try to find a reasonable life without first asking you what is best for him or her? Wouldn’t you be the one with the best answers to all their questions? Likewise! God has all the best answers to your questions because he is the one who created you and gave you life. You’ll find many of those answers in the Bible.
Now please don’t get me wrong. The Bible will not tell you how to build a house or plant a garden; it will not teach you how to swim or play baseball. It won’t even teach you how to cook or how to get an A on your algebra test. What it will do is set you on the right road to becoming a good, decent person. It will point you in the right direction for becoming honest, compassionate, reliable, and wise. The Bible can get you started in the knowledge of what love really is, the benefits of being a forgiving person, and how to find the source of everlasting youth and happiness. The Bible has the answers for your most secret hopes and dreams. Now tell me: When was the last time you read the Bible?
You hear it at Mass every week, is that your answer? You’ve been hearing it read over and over for years, you know it almost by heart. Is that what you think? Maybe you know it so well that you don’t even have to listen to the lector or the priest read it anymore. After the first line you know what is coming next. And so you tune it out and turn something else on, choosing perhaps to think about what you might do the rest of the day. I’m afraid that many of us have heard the Bible read so many times that we no longer hear it. God’s word becomes like spaghetti thrown on the wall. It sticks there but never gets inside us. It stands little chance of becoming a part of our lives, let alone the driving force of our lives.
I cannot advise you often enough to read the Bible. We all must take time to read it, at least a short passage of it every day. Then we should think about what we’ve read; we should ask the Holy Spirit to explain it to us and help us to apply it to our daily, practical living. There is no person on earth who is beyond benefiting from reading the Bible, even the same passages over and over and over. The Pope, Mother Teresa, all of us must read and try to understand what the Bible teaches if we’re really serious about finding true love and happiness, if we really want to be worthwhile people.
Jesus had to explain the Scriptures to his disciples and apostles. Can you imagine that! The Jews wrote the Scriptures, you would think they would understand them. God through the Jewish people wrote the Bible. God was the center of Jewish life. Their laws, their religion, their everyday activities were designed around what they believed God wanted them to do. You could say they majored in God and minored in everything else. Yet, not only the closest friends of Christ didn’t understand the Scriptures, but neither did those who ran the church and the country. The High Priest, the members of the Sanhedrin (that was their congress) didn’t even understand the Scriptures. Jesus had to explain it to them. The Jewish nation and the Old Testament were 2000 years in the making, and the governing authorities misunderstood that which was their own constitution — called the Scriptures, the Word of God.
And here we think we know the Bible because we hear it read at Mass every week. How so very mistaken we are! All of us are still in nursery school when it comes to understanding what God has written for us to read.
Do you want happiness? Do you want love? You’ll only get it from God. Who is God? Where do you find him? How do you talk to him? How can you understand him? How can you understand life and yourself? The words of God in your Bible are trying to tell you.
Jesus appeared to his friends and “opened their minds to the understanding of the Scriptures.” They listened, they learned, they did their best to live as he told them. Now God wants to open your mind. Are you interested?
