"Pay close attention to what I tell you." Though Jesus spoke these words in a very specific situation, with reference to his forthcoming passion and death, they are an invaluable instruction to us in every situation of life and, if we follow them, we will foster our spiritual life as well as our moral behaviour and our life of faith. "The mother of Jesus stored all these things in her heart" , St Luke tells us at the end of his account of Mary and Joseph finding the boy Jesus in the Temple (Lk 2:31). Mary and Joseph did not understand what Jesus had said to them on that occasion. It was necessary to reflect on the whole incident and seek in prayer to come to a deeper understanding of Jesus.

So, too, we should not be over-confident that, with a superficial reading we can understand everything that Jesus tells us in the Gospel or the revelation that God gives us in the Old Testament. Like Mary, we must keep these things in our heart, listen attentively to what Jesus or the Biblical writers say to us, for Jesus' words are spirit and they are life (Jn 6:63).