If they didn't listen then, they won't listen now
A stubborn heart is very hard to persuade and very difficult to reason with. In today's Gospel (Lk. 16:19-31), when the rich man asked if the dead Lazarus could go to his family and warn them about their way of life and to prevent them from ending up in the place he did, Abraham told the rich man that that was not necessary for his family has Moses and the prophets. However, the rich man was adamant that if a dead man came back to life and warned them, his family would believe and may be converted. Abraham replied: "If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead."
If they didn't listen then, they won't listen now. Sometimes we think and feel that if something extraordinary or supernatural were to happen we would immediately change our ways and get out of our old habits. Someone did come back from the dead. Jesus Christ died, descended to hell and rose from the dead. And? The prescription for a case of a stubborn heart is not a pill we can take or a syrup we can drink or even a patch we can wear. It's something internal.
We always say to ourselves "I'll change when ..." But the honest truth is that if at the very depths of our hearts we do not want to change, there is nothing anyone can do or say that will make us do so. Others cannot make us change. The desire to change must come from within. The desire to want to change is a fruit that comes through prayer. It is a desire that comes when we finally realize and believe how much we are loved, not by our friends, but by our Father in heaven. Isn't that supernatural and extraordinary enough? God, our Father in heaven loves us unconditionally and has done so from all eternity. Something extraordinary and supernatural has already happened, and it is happening continually. Will our stubbornness of heart be moved? Will we ask God to fill our stubborn hearts with His love? The appropriate question to ask is not a "will" question in the sense of the tense, but it is a "will" question - the will that we choose to exercise. So, the question we should ask ourselves is "Do we want to? Do we want our stubborn hearts to become hearts of love?"
What question will you ask today? Bring it to the Father. He's waiting for you.
If they didn't listen then, they won't listen now. Sometimes we think and feel that if something extraordinary or supernatural were to happen we would immediately change our ways and get out of our old habits. Someone did come back from the dead. Jesus Christ died, descended to hell and rose from the dead. And? The prescription for a case of a stubborn heart is not a pill we can take or a syrup we can drink or even a patch we can wear. It's something internal.
We always say to ourselves "I'll change when ..." But the honest truth is that if at the very depths of our hearts we do not want to change, there is nothing anyone can do or say that will make us do so. Others cannot make us change. The desire to change must come from within. The desire to want to change is a fruit that comes through prayer. It is a desire that comes when we finally realize and believe how much we are loved, not by our friends, but by our Father in heaven. Isn't that supernatural and extraordinary enough? God, our Father in heaven loves us unconditionally and has done so from all eternity. Something extraordinary and supernatural has already happened, and it is happening continually. Will our stubbornness of heart be moved? Will we ask God to fill our stubborn hearts with His love? The appropriate question to ask is not a "will" question in the sense of the tense, but it is a "will" question - the will that we choose to exercise. So, the question we should ask ourselves is "Do we want to? Do we want our stubborn hearts to become hearts of love?"
What question will you ask today? Bring it to the Father. He's waiting for you.
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