Friday 12th February, 2010
Day of penance. 1 Kings 11:29-32, 12:19. I am the Lord, your God: hear my voice—Ps 80(81):10-15. Mark 7:31-37.

  
Meditation: mp3 | podcast
Readings: Text | mp3 | podcast

‘Ephphatha!’, he cried. ‘Open up!’

When I was a child, my parents thought I was deaf. My favourite haunt was high in a red-flowering gum tree, where I lost myself in books. Another advantage was that I soon learnt adults don’t look up!

We can be deaf to ideas that don’t fit with our preconceptions or even our prejudices and stereotypes. We can have set ideas about asylum seekers, particular national groups, people with a different sexual orientation, people with mental illness, those who are homeless.

Jesus, you challenged us to be open to your message of love, a love that did not exclude anyone. I can be afraid of people who are different. Take away that fear and help me to be open to encounter them as individuals, with the same hopes, fears and dreams as myself.