"Make straight the way for the Lord”…..What is in “the way”?….Identify “the what” and remove it…Then you will “hear” and then you will “see”

Today at Holy Mass we hear from the Gospel of St John….St John was special and I always pay particular attention to what he writes…St John was not like the other disciples…He was a mystic, which means he saw things that others did not see…How?….His heart was pure!…This should be our one and only goal - To purify our hearts…”Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see”…….Today St John tells us how Jesus begins to prepare his friends for his death….And what is to come following his death….”Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life"…Just a quick aside…Whenever Jesus in Scripture begins a statement with “Amen, amen” - Pay attention - He is about to “drop a bomb” on you!……”Whoever hears my word” - Interesting? - Do we “hear” the words of Christ - I mean really hear them?……Because if we did, we would act upon them - We would live differently - Right?…….Like St John, who “saw” what others did not see…We too must “hear” what others do not hear….This is evident by the way Catholics are called to live - Are we like “everyone else”?…It all comes down to our heart - Is our heart pure?….So I guess the question is - How can we purify our heart in a world that “pulls us” in a direction away from God?…Only through Sacramental grace can we purify our heart - You can not “study” your way to a pure heart…..This is how we “hear” and this is how we “see”….Can the blind lead the blind?….This is what we “see” today…The blind are leading the blind!

“Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.”

Edith Stein was a German intellectual….She grow up in a Jewish home and at a young age she gave up her belief in God….She put all her faith in her studies….Two events changed that…One night she had nothing to do and she picked up a book on the life of St Teresa of Avila….She read the entire book in one sitting…After she was finished all she could say is…”This is the Truth”…How can a person with Edith’s background come to such a conclusion?…The second event - Edith one day walked into a Catholic Church and watched a poor uneducated woman pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament - The sight of this person impacted her deeply….Shortly there after, Edith made the decision to become a Catholic….Not only a Catholic…But Edith become a Carmelite nun…And ultimately she gave up her life for her people during the Nazi occupation of Europe…..The world knows her today as Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross….And this what she said about finding God…About “seeing” and “hearing” him….."Anyone who seeks truth seeks God, whether or not he realizes it. - My longing for truth was a single prayer.”…This is how a former Jewish girl turned atheist became Catholic…Edith was a seeker of Truth…Are you?….Anyone who seeks the Truth with a pure heart will always end up in the same place…..It’s not about “my truth” - Whatever that means!….This "idea" spoken today - “My truth” - Gets in the way of us finding God…”My way” is a stumbling block……”Truth Seekers” find God…Why?…Because God is Truth - Not “my truth" - But the Truth!...What gets in your way in your search for Truth? - Only you can answer that…But know this…Diplomas on the wall will not give you the needed insight to “see” and “hear” what is most essential in this life….…Jesus today tells us the following in the Gospel at Mass…."I cannot do anything on my own; I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me”…..Is “our will” an obstacle?….Maybe its time to “bend our will” and my bet is - If you do - You will “hear” and you will “see”…..If God can work in a ex-Jewish intellectual turned atheist like Edith Stein - He can work in us…Why is this important?……What we “see” and “hear” is how we live…And how we live is how we die.

“Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation.”

Today in the Gospel from Mass, Jesus instructs us by telling us how his friends will “hear” what needs to be heard in order to find the road to eternal life…What gets in our way of us “hearing” what is needed to be heard?…..An open heart that seeks the Truth will always find it….All roads lead to Rome!……The great John the Baptist put it this way…."Make straight the way for the Lord.”…..What is in the way?….Identify “the what” and remove it…Then you will “hear” and then you will “see”