However, being open to ideas, concepts, perspectives, alternatives and the suggestions of others is a much more complex undertaking than choking down sushi. As people, we can be persuaded to understand things differently, if we’re open to it. We can grow in our appreciation for new ideas and new ways of approaching things. We can adopt new ways of seeing things that, after some consideration, make sense to us, but we must be open to considering the new way in the first place. Being open admits the possibility of a change of mind and heart. Not being open excludes the possibility of discovery in our lives.
Some people love adventure, trying new things, taking risks and discovering more about themselves along the way. Others are leery of adventurous ideas, not willing to try new things, staying with what they know and playing it safely. But without being open to considering new things, we miss out on the joy and blessing of what we could never imagine. For example, when I grew up, I enjoyed the wall calendars that came from the bank each year because they had famous picturesque scenes from around the world on each page. I think of two of those places that I have been able to see with my own eyes, up close and in person: the Matterhorn peak in Switzerland and Crater Lake in Oregon. Both were so much more breathtaking than the photos, yet there are many who are content at simply seeing the photo but never encountering the beauty of nature firsthand.
Openness to something new can be the gateway to a new adventure. Whether it is the taste of food (like, for example, the first time I tasted a piece of mango fruit) or getting to know someone from another country or leaving one parish family behind to embrace a new parish assignment as a priest, openness to people, places, things and ideas enriches our lives and further develops who we are as people. Some years ago, I came up with my own short definition of life. For me, life is an adventure in grace! In the spiritual realm, being open to the Lord permits him to flood us with his grace and favor.
At the same time, we can be so set in our ways without the slightest openness to anything that means change. Sometimes I think this is the biggest obstacle to God’s grace in our lives. Committees and groups in our parishes often want to attract new members, yet when new people show up to help, they are often scolded for “not doing it right” rather than welcomed and allowed to bring new perspectives to the group. Without being open to new things, we soon become negative and bitter, and the joy of life is replaced with control, negativity, and resentment.
Believe me, I struggle with being open, especially when it comes to new technology. When someone sends me a document in the newest “version” and I can’t open it, I don’t want to have to download something or get a new app just to see what they’re trying to send me. We, who grew up before the digital age came about, learned to navigate life more simply. I enjoyed life before there were passwords. The older I get the more I am actually open to being “locked out” of life and enjoying it!
But imagine living life with what I would call a “radical openness” to the Lord and what he asks for us. I think of Abraham who was asked by the Lord to go and sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham goes in obedience because it was God who asked, and thankfully, the angel of the Lord told him not to harm his Son. Or take the example of our Blessed Mother, Mary, at the Annunciation. Mary is quietly at home when the Archangel Gabriel appears to her and announces to her that she has found favor with God and that she would conceive a child through the power of the Holy Spirit and name him Jesus, that is, one who would save his people from their sins. At that Mary says, “I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done unto me according to thy word.” And of course, we see this same radical openness in the life of St. Joseph, obedient to the Lord, not knowing where it would lead. My friends, that is RADICAL OPENNESS! God gets whatever he asks of us, because he is God!
This complete openness to the Lord and what he allows to take place in our lives is the ultimate challenge of the Christian life. It’s one thing to give financial support to the missions. It’s a greater commitment to accept the Lord’s invitation to go and work in the missions. It’s a great challenge to face a lengthy battle with some health issue, but only a kind of radical openness enables us to accept a terminal diagnosis. It’s a joyful time when a man and woman give themselves to each other in the Sacrament of Marriage. At the same time, only a radical openness to God can allow them to accept the experience of infertility when other immoral alternatives are available.
Disciples of Jesus are called to grow in this radical openness to the Lord in all that he asks of us throughout the course of our lives. We get to practice that through simple challenges to be open to things each and every day. God doesn’t really care if we like sushi, but he does want us to be open to the goodness of our neighbor, and to see his face in theirs. He wants us to accept his invitation to grow as a disciple in ways that sometimes stretch us and make us uncomfortable. The opposite of being open to the Lord at work in our lives is that of a hardened heart. The Scribes and the Pharisees in the gospel came at life this way. Instead, let us pray for a radical openness to what God asks of us – for this will mean greater union with him and he will bless us.
