Be Opened, Be Open

One of the most remarkable things about living in Australia is the blooming of the desert flowers which happens maybe once a decade. Anybody who has travelled to the red centre knows how it attaches itself to every crevice of your car. This is so evident that almost on every occasion that you open the door some more dust falls out to let you know that you carry with you something from the heart of Australia. Yet the remarkable events of the rains falling on what appears dormant ground amazes and delights the people who witness how even in the most barren landscape life can be regenerated and renewed.

All too often we can look across our country and our world witnessing what does not bring life. What appears to be dark, dismissal and lifeless. There are ways in which this red dust of the everyday life attaches itself to us in a way which is hard to escape. Just when we fill we have shaken loose the last remnant of what seems to be deadly and inhospitable than we see more of it falling to the ground and surrounding us. Our eyes can become clouded and our hearing blocked from seeing anything but the red dust. How will we shake ourselves loose of what so finely attaches itself to us?

Yet the Gospels talk to us about hearing clearly and allowing our ears to become unblocked. I believe that in my own reflections the words that seem to resonate with me are addressed to the heart of our own lives and the life of our churches: we were silent when we should have spoken, we spoke when we should have been silent. What seems to be critically important is that we need to listen well and speak with a compassion for the good of others. This means that while we need to provide appropriate self-care for ourselves we also need to show the same consideration to others. In this way, we try in every conversation to hear what God wants us to hear and respond in a way which touches the humanity of the other.

We are called to be people who are present to each other in a way which seeks their good more than our own. To discover what animates their life and what fulfils their desires. This is so much at the heart of this weekend's readings that we always seek the good of the other so that they may experience the same freedom that we can take for granted. So that they may discover what brings life and what brings hope. This compassionate sense is not just doing good but being good with hearts which are open to the person in front of us. Be open to the heart of God as God's heart opens to you.