Today's Responsorial Psalm "sings joyfully to the Lord" and, in so doing, encourages us to greet him as he seeks entrance to our lives. God is at work in the world and invites us to work with him. As the Psalm implies many in Israel did accept his invitation. The Psalm, however tells us that some did not accept the invitation and, as a result, had to go through many years of turmoil.

Both the First Reading and the Gospel reinforce this message. The Gospel warns us that once again God's invitation was not well received by all. Jesus had to endure opposition and even outright hostility

The extraordinary lengths of dishonesty and self deception to which we can go is illustrated by the people in the crowd who claimed that Jesus conquered evil with the help of evil. The evident good that Jesus did was unable to break down the protective wall that some of his listeners had erected to protect them against any challenge to their way of life.

On many occasions Jesus asserted that in him the power of God had come into the world and was already healing and repairing the wounded and heartbroken. One who so often spoke gently and kindly on this occasion almost demands an honest reaction to his words.

Maybe we sometimes need to issue an equally forthright appeal to God to batter his way through the doors of our hearts.