THE WORD
Rom 1: 1–7 / Lk 11: 29–32
While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.”
IN OTHER WORDS
Regarding blindness, the internet has the following, among others, to say: The inability of the people to recognize Jesus in their midst is correlate to what is called inattentional blindness which is simply defined as the failure to notice a fully visible, but unexpected object because attention was engaged on another task, event, or object. This phenomenon is related to but distinct from other failures of visual awareness such as change blindness, repetition blindness, visual masking, and the attentional blink. In most cases, studies of inattentional blindness involve a single critical trial in which an object appears unexpectedly while observers are performing their task. At the end of the trial, observers are asked a series of questions to determine whether or not they saw the unexpected object. (http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Inattentional_blindness) Aside from the sign of Jonah directed towards the Ninevites, Jesus dismissed other demands for signs because he himself was the definition of such a request.
For God so loved the world that He sent his only Son so that whoever believes in Him will have life eternal (Jn. 3:16). This alone is more than enough as a manifestation that our God in Jesus is intimately reaching out to us.
In the sacraments alone, Jesus allows himself to be visible, which is more than any sign we could imagine, but some of us fail to recognize His very presence thinking that he is a distant God. Thus, inattentional blindness is not only true in the world of the academe but much more in the spiritual realm.
- Jun Javines, SVD (USC, Cebu City)
The Word in other words 2015
An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.
