[00:00] Jesus speaks in parables so that the people will make an effort to understand His words. They will make an effort to understand and change their life and

[00:36] be better and be converted and come to God and listen to what He has to say on a regular basis. There's a lot of things we need to learn in our Christian life. Our Lord is calling us to perfection and there's a lot of things involved in perfection, perfecting the human life, growing in virtue, perfecting all the virtues. There's a lot to learn and do we even go to school? A lot of us play

[01:10] hooky and don't read any books. We don't want to learn. We want to go out and have fun with our friends, fun with the world, and we don't want to learn the most important things of life. Growing in virtue, growing in love for God, growing in perfection, growing in the spiritual life, growing in a deeper union with God.

[01:41] There's depths and depths and depths and depths of growing in knowledge of God and closeness to God and virtue and the gifts of the Holy Spirit and what the Holy Spirit wants to teach us. There's so much to learn and the Christian life is just an adventure, constant learning and constantly growing. And if we don't grow, most likely we'll go backwards. Although it says that he who doesn't listen, what

[02:19] little they know will be taken away from them. Anyone who has more will be given and he will grow rich from anyone who has not. Even what he has will be taken away. And we know we're constantly learning, we're constantly learning, we're constantly forgetting things, forgetting. We have to keep reading the Gospels, keep praying, keep asking for enlightenment from God. We

[02:50] keep, because we keep forgetting. And so we see every day, that's why we come to Church, that's why we read Scriptures, that's why we receive the Eucharist. We received Jesus yesterday, why do we have to receive Him today? Because our Lord allows His presence to wane in that we need to desire to receive Him continually every day, a new day. Receive Jesus every day so that you have life

[03:22] every day in you. That life will wane, will wane and go away if we don't keep receiving Our Lord at least every Sunday. But what a treasure to be able to receive Jesus every day as you do, as we do. And so we want to keep receiving Jesus, but also His word, His wisdom, to enlighten our mind and heart so things we can think about and chew on through the day, keep praying and listening, listening.

[04:00] Jesus is telling us different things here. It's really like we can close our mind. We can close our mind to some things, open them to others. A lot of it has to do with our own faults, weaknesses, and things we like and don't like. And sometimes we blind ourselves to our own faults because it's hard to work

[04:32] on, it's hard to change, it's hard to change ourselves. It's so hard, so hard, it's the hardest thing to change ourselves. And most people give up. Most people don't want the struggle, don't want to change. It's just too hard. Or I don't want to. I like giving into my anger, I like giving into my impatience. It's easier than working on patience or charity or forgiveness or not talking as

[05:07] much or not making myself the center of attention or my pridefulness, my self-centeredness. It's easier to give in to all these things. It's hard to stop it, change, and think about how I can change. And so we don't get any better. We blind ourselves, we close ourselves off to those areas where we can do better. But that's the greatest thing. If we grow in virtue, we're going to become better and

[05:38] we're going to like ourselves more. We're going to be pleased with ourselves. It's not so much ourselves, but what God changes us and makes us more full of charity and full of patience and kindness. I can control my speech. Wow, I never was able to do that before. I'm so happy that I don't give in to these passions as much as I used to. And it makes us happier. Virtue makes us happy.

[06:10] But we have to open up our minds, open up our ears, open up our eyes, and let God enlighten us. Ask for...open your mind, but also ask for enlightenment. Ask for enlightenment, especially about ourselves, how we can do better and be better and change and be more kind and charitable to our neighbors. So we ask

[06:41] Our Lord to change us, to change us into Himself, to be like Him, to be like Our Lady. And that is the best way to live.

[07:26] you