Opening my Heart to God's Blessings

Today’s first Scripture reading, Isaiah 58: 9b-14, continues to challenge us to look at our behaviors.  Are they such that God’s light and blessings and mercy  and love have an opening to enter our lives in abundance is the question, I think, Isaiah is asking indirectly.  Through Isaiah, the Lord says to us: If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday; then the Lord will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails.”

I think it behooves me to ask myself: how have I oppressed others with whom I live and work? In what ways do I entertain others by falsely accusing someone or exaggerating a weakness about them or stretching the truth to get other's attention? Do I  engage in juicy  gossip, some of it, perhaps, malicious in nature?  With whom do I have contact on a daily basis who is hungry for a listening ear, hungry for love, hoping to be understood, starved for affirmation, who wants to feel safe to reveal a hurt that is gnawing away his/her faith in humanity, in oneself, in you or me; or simply wants to talk honestly about something that is on his/her mind?

“If you bestow your bread on the hungry’and satisfy the afflicted, then light shall rise for you in the darkness and the gloom shall become for you like midday.”

An Open Heart: A "Lydia" Moment

In Acts 16: 11-15, Paul, seeking a place by the river to pray, meets Lydia, a wealthy woman who is a dealer of purple cloth and a worshipper of God.  She “listened” to Paul and “the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying.”  Ever think of the fact that if you, or I, take the time to listen that the only way that we truly hear God’s words coming through the other is when God Himself opens our hearts. That means that my heart, your heart, is closed until God opens it. A prerequisite is that I am listening, truly listening!  I may be outdoors enjoying the beauty and tranquility of nature without any awareness of the divine presence, unless God opens my heart.  I may be at the Sacred Liturgy listening to the homily and hearing nothing—my heart will remain closed until God opens it. I may be reading the Holy Scriptures or a spiritual book or listening to another and hearing nothing, until God opens my heart! Am I willing to have God break open those parts of my heart that I may not even want God to enter? God waits until I am willing to allow Him to enter even the darkest, the most painful, the ugliest, the weakest part of my heart that needs to be healed, that needs to be flushed out by the grace of the present moment. Am I listening for God? Am I waiting upon God?

I might also ask myself whether I am seeking a place to pray, to open my heart to God, as was Paul. And, like Paul, am I willing to enter into conversation  with a part of myself with which  I am uncomfortable, with another whom society scorns, with another with whom I differ (Jewish men were not to speak to women in public)?