Open up your hearts to accept Jesus

Lev. 23:1.4-11.15-16.27.34-37, Mt. 13:54-58. Today’s first reading alludes to Israel's most sacred of all days, the celebration of the Sabbath, Passover, feast of Unleavened Bread, the feast of Pentecost which recalls the law given on Sinai and feast of the Tabernacle. Those days combined a formal liturgy in the Temple (Lev. 16:1-19) with the colourful, outdoor ceremony of driving a goat (scapegoat) into the desert, loaded with all the people’s sins, to be hurled over a precipice (Lev. 16:20-28). God appointed these celebrations for a reason, not just for merrymaking, but also to remind them of God and His love for them. God loves us and invites us to reciprocate and replicate His love and not to be swallowed and distracted by our worldly concerns and thoughts, as what we have in today's Gospel in the account of the rejection of Jesus by His own people, from His very own hometown in Nazareth. The people of Nazareth are astonished at his wisdom and his miraculous powers. Where could he have got all that from? Jesus was ordinary and extraordinary. He was like us in every way, except in sin. He was fully human yet there was the wisdom and power of God at work within Him. Due to their stubborn insistence to follow their own prejudices and biases, the people of Nazareth would not allow Jesus to enter into their hearts and they closed themselves to Him. That is what can happen to us if we allow ourselves to be swayed by worldly ideas and corruption. It is very easy for us to be distracted by the many commitments we have in life and to be swayed by the temptations of worldly things, which cause us to forget about God and to ignore Him despite Him truly being present in our midst and within our own lives. May the Lord strengthen our hearts so that no trials may quench the fire the Holy Spirit has kindled within us! Amen!! Good morning, peace be with you!!!