JULY 13^th 2014. FIFTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL: Matthew 13:1-23

From a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio.

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GOSPEL:                                     Matthew 13:1-23

Jesus left the house and sat by the lakeside, but such large 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.’

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD:   Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.

Kieran’s summary . . . The first reading tells us that word of God is always effective, but the Gospel tells us that the seed often falls on unreceptive soil. Is this a contradiction? Let us consider first the meaning of the parable. Jesus explains the parable by quoting Isaiah who tells how peoples’ ears become dull and whose eyes fail to see. What is it that stops our ears and eyes from receiving the word of God?  What we see and what we hear does not simply depend on our ears and our eyes. When we sleep, we are able to block out much of what we would normally hear. A mother is able to hear her baby’s cry amid all kinds of other sounds. It is our hearts that disctate what we hear and what we see. There is a constant process of selection going on and sometimes we can “see” things that are not there at all, or fail to see what is in front of our eyes. If our heart is attached to something, then we can fail to be alive to other things that are not related to that thing. We fail to receive the word of God because our hearts are turned in on themselves and are closed to God. But the word of God is still effective! When our hearts are closed, we become miserable; we lack the saving word that seeks to penetrate our hearts. This misery causes us eventually to seek the Lord and open our hearts to him.

The first reading states that the word of the Lord is always fruitful, but the Parable of the Sower seems to indicate that it is usually not fruitful. How do we resove this contradiction?

The first reading from the Propher Isaiah states that the word that goes out from the mouth of the Lord does not return to him empty without fulfilling what it was sent to do. This seems to be contradicted by the Parable of the Sower that appears in the Gospel. According to the parable, the seed that is sown fails to come to fruition in three cases out of four. How can we resolve this apparent contradiction?

The seed itself is potent. It is the ground that is the problem. But what exactly is the problem?

First of all we note that the problem with the seed does not rest on the side of God. In the case where the seed does come to fruition, it produces a hundredfold. Thus the seed has great potency. The problem lies in the way that it is received. The word of God does not force itself upon anyone. We can learn more about the message of this parable if we consider the way in which it is presented to us by Matthew. First of all, Jesus recounts the parable. Then there is a discussion with the disciples. Finally the parable is explained. A parable, thus, is not something whose meaning is immediately understood. It is something which stumlates reflection and contemplation. Pope John Paul II said once that when God speaks to us, it is always in parables. Jesus made use of the unlimited possibilities presented to him by creation in order to communicate his message to us in analogical terms. But, as the quote from Isaiah in the middle of the Gospel emphasizes, we do not understand what the Lord is saying to us because our ears are dull and our eyes are shut.

What is it that stops us from hearing and seeing? Is the problem with our ears and our eyes?

The quote from Isaiah mentions the hearts, ears and eyes of the ones who do not understand the word of God. What does it mean to say that the eyes do not see and the ears do not hear? The eyes and ears are the two principle senses used for human communication. The human being does not have a highly developed power of vision. Many animals have a much greater capacity in this regard. But our cerebral faculties are very well developed. We are capable of elaborating extensively on what we have seen. Sometimes, in fact, our minds are so dominant that we “see” things that are not there, or we fail to see the things that are there. In the same way we can fail to hear with our ears. When we sleep, our minds select the things that are heard and block out much of the rest. Spouses sometimes fail to hear things of a certain repetitive type that they say to each other. Some mothers are able to perceive the cry of their baby at a great distance whilst remaining impervious to other noises.

It is our hearts that ultimately select what our eyes see and our ears hear. If this heart is attached to something, then we fail to hear or see anything else

Not to hear with the ears means to have a faculty of hearing that is selective, and it is selective because at the root of the problem is an insensitive heart that does not wish to understand. The text describes this heart as something coarse, thick, and stupid. This heart that does not listen is something with no life inside. We have an incredible, frightening, capacity to put a stop to the action of God within us. If our heart closes itself, if it becomes attached to something, then we fail to see everything else; we fail to understand anything. The heart is the central issue. This parable tackles the problem of the reception of the word of God and it tells us that the solution lies in our heart. When things start going wrong in our lives, we tend to focus on everything else except that which is most essential, and that is the heart. Ultimately, everything depends on our heart. If I close my heart, then God cannot enter.

The word of God is always effective because even if I reject it initially, I will put myself in a condition of unhappiness that will lead me to seek salvation

The potent seed of the word of God fails to penetrate my senses if my heart is turned in on itself. But as the word runs off me, I am left unhappy and ill at ease. This unhappiness at my separation from the salvific word of God is the road that ultimately leads me to open my heart to God. When my heart is turned in on itself, I suffer, and ultimately this prompts me to open my heart. Thus the word of God always fulfils its task in the end. If I welcome it, it saves me. But even if I reject it, I become miserable and sooner or later this prompts me to ask the questions that will lead to the opening of my heart to the Lord. The good Lord knows that I have great need to be in a constant mature relationship with my heart