The parables of our lives...

"But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and blessed are your ears, because they hear."
Matthew 13:16

Sometimes this Gospel seems murky to me.  Why is Jesus making his teaching even harder to understand and grasp by speaking in parables? What if, by speaking in parables, Jesus was making it actually easier to understand? In "Jesus--A Pilgrimage," Fr. James Martin SJ helps us to see that Jesus' use of parables was illustrative to the people. He spoke using images the people could easily relate to in their daily lives. They understood seed-sowing. They could relate to a man being beaten up on the side of the road. Perhaps they had a wayward son who didn't appreciate the family farm.  What about us? Can we see the blessings in the parables of our lives? Pray-As-You-Go today invites us to look at our own lives and see the blessings right in front of us that may not actually feel like blessings.  Often, blessings are more easily identified in retrospect.  At the time we are going through something it may not feel like a blessing at all. But, later, when a lesson has been learned or we have grown through the difficulty, we can see the blessing in it. Let's take some time and look around what's happening in our lives right now.  It may be difficult to see, but we have eyes to see the blessings if we look carefully and trust that God is working, even in the mess we may find ourselves in.  Love, heidi