Here’s a story about two men.

The first is Christopher Columbus, who we all know sailed for India in 1492, grossly miscalculated, and instead hit the Bahamas. Convinced that he was, in fact, in India, he named the people he ran into ‘Indians’ and the new set of islands the East Indies. He, like most all of his contemporaries, thought they knew the world and considered the existence of a completely unknown continent inconceivable, and he wrote about this. Columbus stuck to his error for the rest of his life.

The second man is Amerigo Vespucci. He was an Italian sailor. He took several trips to America soon after Columbus. But he thought, in fact that Columbus had discovered a new continent. Vespucci also wrote about this - and published accounts across Europe and while few were convinced, an influential map maker named Martin Waldseemuller was. So he published a new map showing the new continent. Not knowing that Christopher Columbus had actually discovered it, Waldseemuler named it after Vespucci calling it America.

It makes you wonder if Columbus had been more open minded we might be living in ‘Chrisland’ or something like it.

The truth is that we all have trouble opening our hands to new things because it means letting go of what we’re already holding onto. In fact, when Jesus asks, in this Sunday’s gospel, for the little children to come to him, he’s making a play for such humility among us.

Being close-minded caters to our fears, being open-minded caters to our faith. In what ways are we being asked to take down the walls, check our pride at the door, and be more open to the world around us?