“Pride has quite a bit to do with hatred. In many a case in which one hates another, one subconsciously begins patterns of cherry-picking and selective hearing: he continues to look only for things about the other person which he can use to justify his hatred, things which will then make him feel less guilty about hating someone. In this regard, hatred is not so much an emotion as it is a decision.”

For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity,will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths – St Timothy: (was an early Christian evangelist and the first first-century Christian bishop of Ephesus ,who tradition relates died around the year AD 97.

Gospel Text: (MT 17:22-27)

As Jesus and his disciples were gathering in Galilee,
Jesus said to them,
"The Son of Man is to be handed over to men,
and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day."
And they were overwhelmed with grief.

When they came to Capernaum,
the collectors of the temple tax approached Peter and said,
"Does not your teacher pay the temple tax?"
"Yes," he said.
When he came into the house, before he had time to speak,
Jesus asked him, "What is your opinion, Simon?
From whom do the kings of the earth take tolls or census tax?
From their subjects or from foreigners?"
When he said, "From foreigners," Jesus said to him,
"Then the subjects are exempt.
But that we may not offend them, go to the sea, drop in a hook,
and take the first fish that comes up.
Open its mouth and you will find a coin worth twice the temple tax.
Give that to them for me and for you."

When we are presented with information how many of us can say that we truly understand the implications of that information, or that we received that information with an open mind and an open heart.  How many of us have heard news, decided it was too hard to hear, and then listened selectively—picking either the best part or the most painful part of the news? 

I thought about this when I read the first part of the Gospel where Jesus is telling the disciples about his fate and they seemed to have heard only the part of his death, but not of his resurrection.  

How attentive are we to the truth; the mystery, and the Glory of God?

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