We now return to our sequence in Matthew, moving to chapter thirteen (vv. 10-17).  Jesus’ disciples want to know why He speaks to the crowds in parables.  He tells them that He is fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy (Is 6:9-10) about the hardened hearts of the people who look but don’t see and listen but don’t hear.  The disciples have been granted the privilege of knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom, something which many prophets and righteous persons of former times longed to have.  Do our eyes see and do our ears hear?  We, like these disciples, have access to knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom.  In fact, there are seven mysteries (or sacraments) that give us the graces we need to know and to live out God’s plan for us in forwarding His Kingdom hear on earth.  In order to take best advantage of this gift that God so longs to give us, we must dispose our hearts to it.  May we overcome any hardness of heart through repentance (esp. the Sacrament of Confession), prayer (especially the Mass where we receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist), and eschewing sin and vice.  The latter only serve to put barriers between us and the Almighty and allow us, at best, to only see dimly and hear faintly the message of truth God gives us through His revelation and His Church, both of which serve to form well our consciences where we are “alone with God whose voice echoes in [our] depths” (CCC 1776).