Jeremiah 2:1-3, 7-8, 12-13 / Matthew 13:10-17
In life, we are always curious, as well as amazed by mystery. There is always something that we don't quite understand.
Even ordinary things that we take for granted like gravity and friction have something to tell us but we don't usually look deeper at it and hence we just pass it by.
Yet when we lose the sense of mystery in religion and our faith becomes de-mystified through rationalism and familiarism, then God would become just a concept.
In the 1st reading, we hear the prophet Jeremiah lamenting of such attitude when he said:
"The priests have never asked, "Where is the Lord?". Those who administer the Law have no knowledge of the Lord. The shepherds have rebelled against the Lord; the prophets have prophesied in the name of Baal, following things with no power in them.
Yes, God had become just a thing that existed only in the minds of the people but not a reality in their hearts.
As Jesus would quote the prophet Isaiah in the gospel: For the heart of this nation has grown coarse, their ears are dull of hearing, and they have shut their eyes.
When we lose the sense of mystery, then we also lose touch with the spiritual aspect of our lives. Our hearts would also grow coarse and our lives are like leaky cisterns that hold no water.
Hence prayer is fundamental and essential in our lives. Prayer softens our hearts and makes us sensitive to the mystery of the presence of God around us and also in us.
God has revealed Himself to us in the Bible. Yet God continues to reveal Himself to each of us in a personal way.
May our prayer lead us to a deeper encounter of the mystery of God in our lives.