Once again, these beautiful readings come with a great challenge. The challenge is, is to hear the word of God and then to experience that word of God in our own hearts. Where are we being challenged? Where are we being called to have our minds, our hearts, our souls opened to God’s word?

One of the places that we might be challenged and I’d like to share this with you today is to be opened to how we respond to other people. The challenge of God is a challenge that really comes in how we relate to one another.

A friend of mine and I are always having these disputes over political issues in the world today. They’re interesting conversations but they’re always challenging. I want him to hear and understand my position, he wants me to hear and understand his. Sometimes these are very interesting and also challenging conversations.

But one day in my quiet time for prayer, I asked God to simply help me to be more open to his word in my heart. Where was I being challenged to be more opened? What I realized, the call or the challenge was for me to be more open not to talk more, but to listen more. That is a real challenge. I’d ask you to take the word of God that we have heard in these readings today, spend some time with it. Ask yourself where are these words of the scriptures, where’s the word of God challenging you to be more opened? Think about that. Then the hardest part is to do the work.