By Martin Jumbam
Mother Church celebrates Sunday, July13, 2014 as the 15th Sunday of ordinary time, year A. The Entrance Antiphon of this day’s Holy Mass says: “In my justice I shall see your face, O Lord; when your glory appears, my joy will be full. Amen.” The principal message of this day’s Holy Mass is that the Church must preach the Word of God, in season and out of season, whether it is in fashion or out of fashion, whether she is being listened to or not. It is about this Word of God that the readings of this day speak. God’s Word itself is a guarantee that the promise of liberation is to be accomplished. As rain makes the seeds in the earth germinate, so the Word of God produces fruits of freedom in the faithful. That is why God’s Word never comes back empty, as Isaiah tells us in the first reading. Our Lord, in Matthew’s Gospel, compares God’s Word to a seed that bears fruit according to the response of those who hear it. The seed that falls on arid soil dies off producing nothing, while the seed that falls on rich soil (that is, souls in a state of grace ready to receive God’s word) produces abundant fruit. In the second reading, Saint Paul continues to tell the Roman converts that as God’s children, they have become true brothers of Christ and heirs to God’s glory. Through baptism, we become, not only sharers of Christ’ sufferings, but also partakers of his glory. In the course of this Eucharist, let us pray for the grace to follow Christ more closely so that his word of salvation may find rich soil in our souls on which to grow to fruition.
First Reading Isaiah 55: 10-11.
Thus says the Lord: “As the rain and the snow come down from the heavens and do not return without watering the earth, making it yield and giving growth to provide seed for the sower and bread for the eating, so the word that goes from my mouth does not return to me empty, without carrying out my will and succeeding in what it was sent to do”.
V/ The word of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Comment
The editors of The African Bible tell us that the prophet Isaiah is the greatest of all the prophets. He was born in about 765 BC into an aristocratic family of Jerusalem. He received his prophetic vocation while in the Temple in Jerusalem and his ministry spanned over forty years. His mission was to proclaim the fall of Israel and of Judah as punishment for the nation’s infidelity (6:1-13). He lived and preached at a period when Israel was increasingly under threat from its more powerful neighbours, the Assyrians. He had a deep conviction that everything was under God’s wise and powerful control, including the destinies of the mighty foreign nations that were then threatening Israel.
The passage from which our meditation is taken comes from what is usually known as Second Isaiah. The message of this section is one of consolation for an oppressed people languishing in exile. Isaiah speaks of the coming restoration of the people and their holy city Jerusalem. Here, he compares the Word of God to food and drink that is free for everyone. All it takes is to ask and it will be given you in abundance. God’s Word brings God near to us and makes of us a new people.
The words of this reading give us ample reason for our confidence in God’s divine plan for us. The power of God’s Word is as certain as the water that provides man’s food. God’s Word is poured into man’s heart to teach him God’s ways and the certainty that he always keeps his promise to man even though man has failed to merit this trust.
Let us pray this day for the grace to be able listen to and hear God’s Word that is usually so clearly spoken in our hearts. We pray that the Holy Spirit may continue to enlighten us and assist us so that we too can have the courage to listen to and preach God’s Word in season and out of season, whether we are listened to or not.
Let us say with the Psalmist, “Lord, you have visited our land, watered it and greatly enriched it. You have crowned the year with your bounty, and your paths overflow with a rich harvest. You are God of compassion, a God of mercy. We shout for joy because you bless and protect us. Continue to pour your abundant blessings on our land. We make this supplication through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Second Reading: Romans 8:18-23.
I think that what we suffer in this life can never be compared to the glory, as yet unrevealed, which is waiting for us. The whole creation is eagerly waiting for God to reveal his sons. It was not for any fault on the part of creation that it was made unable to attain its purpose, it was made so by God; but creation still retains the hope of being freed, like us, from its slavery to decadence, to enjoy the same freedom and glory as the children of God. From the beginning till now the entire creation, as we know, has been groaning in one great act of giving birth; and not only creation, but all of us who possess the first‑fruits of the Spirit, we too groan inwardly as we wait for our bodies to be set free.
V/ The word of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Comment
Saint Paul tells us in this reading that the whole creation is eagerly waiting for God to reveal his sons. At the end of time, God’s glory will prevail and reign, and sorrow and anguish will vanish for ever. He declares that Christ’s redemption touches us through the Holy Spirit, who makes us all children of God. As God’s children in the Spirit, we become true brothers and sisters of Christ, who are bound to inherit his kingdom.
Paul tells us that this Spirit we receive continues to spur us to have hope and unshakeable confidence in the Lord. As one holy man once put it: “The action of the Holy Spirit may pass unnoticed because God does not reveal to us his plans, and because man’s sin obscures the divine gifts. But faith tells us that God is always acting. He has created us and maintains us in existence, and he is leading all creation by his grace towards the glorious freedom of the children of God.”
What does this reading tell me? It tells me that God our Father gives us what is best for us and expects us to discover his fatherly love in all circumstances of our lives. But, more often than not, when we find ourselves in difficult conditions, we fail to see God in our lives; we fail to take and hold to God’s redemptive hand being stretched out to us. Let us pray for the courage to always turn to God at all times – good or bad – because our God is a compassionate God, who never abandons anyone who runs to him for help.
Gospel: Matthew 13: 1-23.
Jesus left the house and sat by the lakeside, but such crowds gathered round him that he got into a boat and sat there. The people all stood on the beach, and he told them many things in parables.
He said, “Imagine a sower going out to sow. As he sowed, some seeds fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Others fell on patches of rock where they found little soil and sprang up straight away, because there was no depth of earth; but as soon as the sun came up they were scorched and, not having any roots, they withered away. Others fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Others fell on rich soil and produced their crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Listen, anyone who has ears!”
Then the disciples went up to him and asked, “Why do you talk to them in parables?” “Because” he replied “the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are revealed to you, but they are not revealed to them. For anyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough; but from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away. The reason I talk to them in parables is that they look without seeing and listen without hearing or understanding. So in their case this prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled: ‘You will listen and listen again, but not understand, see and see again, but not perceive. For the heart of this nation has grown coarse, their ears are dull of hearing, and they have shut their eyes, for fear they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and be converted and be healed by me.’
But happy are your eyes because they see, your ears because they hear! I tell you solemnly, many prophets and holy men longed to see what you see, and never saw it; to hear what you hear, and never heard it.
You, therefore, are to hear the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom without understanding, the evil one comes and carries off what was sown in his heart: this is the man who received the seed on the edge of the path. The one who received it on patches of rock is the man who hears the word and welcomes it at once with joy. But he has no root in him, he does not last; let some trial come, or some persecution on account of the word, and he falls away at once. The one who received the seed in thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this world and the lure of riches choke the word and so he produces nothing. And the one who received the seed in rich soil is the man who hears the word and understands it; he is the one who yields a harvest and produces now a hundredfold, now sixty, now thirty.”
Comment
The parable of the sower is perhaps the most well known of Saint Matthew’s parables. It is a beautiful story that explains the power of the Word of God at work in his Church and in the world. It describes the different ways in which believers accept the Word of God.
Jesus is telling his disciples this parable at a difficult juncture in his life: he has just been thrown out of his own town of Nazareth; he has been treated as a madman at Capernaum; the Pharisees want to get rid of him, and his disciples are leaving him. The whole of his preaching seems to have fallen on deaf ears. Yet, we know that even though his Word now seems insignificant, it will slowly but surely progress and grow. In his beautiful book, In Conversation with God: Meditations for each day of the year, vol. 4, Father Francis Fernandez highlights the different soils in which the seed falls.
“Some seed fell by the way side, and the birds came and devoured them.” The wayside is soil that has become hard because people have trodden it underfoot. It represents those souls that are empty and ready to accept only external things. The word of God has no chance of entering because many things, especially pride and greed, block their minds. Pride makes us think that we know everything and that God’s Word has nothing new for us. But, the real reason we sometimes don’t want to hear the Word of God is because it condemns what we love. We then deliberately shut it out of our lives. We become like soil that has never been tilled or cultivated. Our hearts become hardened, like those constantly trodden paths. We hear the Word of God, but the devil easily snatches it away from us.
“Some seeds fell upon stony ground, where they had not much earth.” This stony ground represents superficial souls with little inner depth, souls that are weak and incapable of persevering. They usually have good intentions; they even receive grace with joy, but when the moment comes to confront difficulties, they turn back. They are not capable of sacrificing themselves in order to fulfill resolutions they have made so their resolutions die without bearing fruit.
“Other seeds fell on thorns and the thorns grew up and choked them.” These are people who show an excessive love of riches, a disordered ambition to gain influence or power, and excessive concern for personal well-being and comfort. The souls of such people yearn only for material and earthly things. They are obsessed with the thought of owning more and more possessions and would go to any length, including committing murder, to obtain what they want. Such people are so over-worked throughout the week as they rush after money and the material things of life that they feel too tired even to go to Church.
“Other seeds fell on good ground.” These are people who are always willing to learn and are prepared to hear the Word of God and to understand it and act on it. These are people who are never too proud or busy to hear the Word of God and to meditate on it. Then they translate this Word into action. The real Christian hears, understands, and practices the Word of God.
What lesson can we take home from this Gospel reading? The lesson is given to us by Saint John Chrysostom, who says that the only thing that matters is that our hearts must not be that path from which the enemy, like the birds, snatches the seed trodden underfoot by passers-by. Our hearts must not be the rocky ground where the shallowness of the soil causes the seed to germinate immediately so that it is scorched by the sun. Our hearts must not be the thistle-bed of human passions strangled by the cares of the world. Let our souls be the good soil that is ready to receive God’s grace. And how can we prepare our souls to be the good soil that receives the Word of God? Through frequent confession where we get rid of any bad weed that prevents us from hearing and keeping and practicing the Word of God. Let us pray to the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to see the necessity for a frequent confession where we prepare our souls to receive God’s inspiration. Amen.
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