(Homily 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time Yr-A)
The theme of our message and reflection
today hinges on the power and efficacy
of the Word of God, its intrinsic vitality that can transform and bear good and
abiding fruits and the required human disposition to make the Word fructify.
As orchestrated especially in the first reading and the Gospel, there is the
dimension of the Word, that is not just about listening but also seeing, and we
enter into this dimension when we have an obedient listening to the Word and
the willingness to allow it produce good fruits, then we pass to the dimension
of seeing the efficacy of the Word of God. Here, there is a passage from Logos
to Rhema.
For this, the sacred author says: “I shall stand at my post, I shall station
myself on my watch-tower, watching to
see what he say to me” (Hab. 2:1).
The Word of God is not only believable, it can be experienced, and that is why
the Psalmist says “Taste and see” (Ps.
34:8). It is on the basis of the above that Isaiah in the first reading
reminds us that the Word of God does not return to Him empty and Jesus in the
Gospel promises a great harvest occasioned by the Word. The second reading
instead reminds us that we are like work in progress before God, and that we
will bear fruit in the measure we resist tribulations and continue to build our
spiritual edifice in the midst of suffering and challenges, as we wait in hope
for the manifestation of God’s glory in us.
In the first reading (Is. 55:10-11) prophet Isaiah compares
the Word of God to rain and snow that come down from heaven and before
returning as a result of evaporation, they accomplish their functions of
irrigating the soil. So is the Word of
God that does not go forth in vain, even when it meets the freedom of man which
can reject it, all the same it produces its effect, because it becomes a
motive of judgment and condemnation for anyone who rejects it. He anticipated
the comprehension of the Word of God similar to the Word as presented in Jesus’
parable in the Gospel passage. Certainly, the wonderful seed which is the Word
of God is never without efficacy. The
language of the prophet is very much eloquent and attainable, not just for
us, but in a very special way for the people he was addressing these words
directly to, they were people that knew very well what the desert is all about
and its aridity or drought, for them rain was like life. In that sense,
wherever the Word of God falls, life germinates. Little wonder, Jesus
acclaimed: “Sky and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Mk. 13:31).
The
Word of God is powerful and replete with fulfillment. It was on this
account that Isaiah declared: “For as the rain and the snow come down from the
sky and do not return before having watered the earth, fertilizing it and
making it germinate to provide seed for the sower to eat, so it is with the
word that goes from my mouth: it will not return to me unfulfilled or before
having carried out my good pleasure and having achieved what it was sent to do”
(vv.10-11). This passage of our
first reading in no small way, affirms the power and efficacy of God’s Word.
There is power in God’s word because his
word is spirit and life (cf. Jn. 6:63), it brings discernment and gives
life, it revives. The author of the letter to the Hebrews testifies that, “The
Word of God is something alive and active, it cuts more incisively than
any two-edged sword: it can seek out the place where soul is divided from the
spirit, or joints from the marrow, it can pass judgment on secret emotions and
thoughts” (Heb. 4:12). However, irrespective of the intrinsic vitality of
the Word of God as anticipated in this passage of the prophecy of Isaiah, Jesus
tells us in the Parable that His Word in many cases can remain in-efficacious
and sterile owing to the lack of disposition and willingness of the recipient. Let us
therefore, ask ourselves if the Word of God in us is succeeding for what it was
sent to do?
In today’s Gospel (Mt. 13:1-23) we are nourished with St.
Mathew’s account of the parable of the Sower. After a careful reading of the
Gospel of Mathew, it is noted that the Jesus
presented by Mathew is close to human reality, He goes to the house of
people and in the synagogue to proclaim the Good News. Also in today's Gospel
he explains the reality of the kingdom through the earthly / existential things
very common to his listeners. In the previous chapter Jesus taught in the
synagogue (Mt. 12:9), but here in
the 13th chapter, he
changed his method, from the house, he went to the lakeside, to teach along the
sea, so that his message can reach every
man in his reality and concrete condition (he speaks of sowing of seeds to
a crowd of peasant majority). This betokens the fact that Jesus goes in search
of man in his condition. The ascent of
Jesus on the boat was not a spontaneous act, but he did it with the aim of
looking all his listeners in the face. Just as the sower sows the seeds
without distinction or preference of soil, so the Word of God reaches us in our condition, today, here and now,
but what makes the difference is the state of the soil, and availability of the
heart is decisive.
This is one of the so called Parables
of the Kingdom that Jesus narrated in different times but St. Mathew gathered
them in one chapter of his Gospel, in order to give us a more unified and
complete account and teachings of Jesus on the mystery of the “Kingdom of
Heaven”. The language of the parable is
very much enriching. It is colorful, poetic, efficacious, but it is not
immediately transparent and comprehensive, it requires explanation. Little
wonder, the disciples asked Jesus: Why do you speak in parables? And Jesus
responded with the Words of Isaiah, “…for this people’s heart has grown dull,
and their ears are heavy of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they
should perceive with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with
their hearts, and turn for me to heal them” (Mt. 13: 15; cf. Is. 6:10). Our present passage can be divided into
three parts:
1)
Jesus
who narrates a parable, here begins the parabolic account of St. Mathew (Ch. 13), after the discourse on the
mount (Ch. 5-7) and the missionary
discourse (Ch. 10)
2)
Jesus
explains why he speaks in parables, because he was using images and figurative
narratives that are not easily comprehended.
3)
The
explanation of the parables.
Let us begin with the second point, why
does Jesus speak in parables? The response of Jesus was synthetically essential;
he said that the purpose is so that it would be understood by some. It is to be understood by the simple and
pure hearted; and not to be understood by those who have a stiff heart. It
is not for the purpose of punishment in any way to his listeners, rather it
serves as an admonition to the men of Synagogues, so that they do not close
their hearts to the Gospel and as such risk losing forever the opportunity of
adhering to the Gospel. This admonition is valid for the men and women of every
age and time.
In this parable Jesus used images and
narratives very familiar to the majority of his listeners that are from
agrarian area; for them to understand him better. Jesus talks about a sower who
goes to sow early in the morning, and as he sows some seeds fell on different
types of soils. In the context of the parable, the Sower is Jesus, the seed is the Word of God, and the land or the
soil is the heart of man or the world that stands at the receptive end!
Jesus observed a farmer, a sower sowing and intuited something of God in it,
little wonder, in the parable he talked about “a sower”. The Sower Jesus, is generous as he spreads the seeds with full hands,
the seed of his Word, but also for what is sown to bear fruitful, there is
need of at least two conditions: ●That
the seed is good or of a good quality (but this is already a given). ●That the
soil is also good and irrigated. As such, the seed that is sown, the Word of
God is by its very nature good, efficacious and capable of bearing good fruits.
But in order to bear good fruits, it requires a good ground that is the
disposition of our hearts. It is against
this backdrop that Jesus enumerated four different types of soils, comparable
to four categories of persons that receive the Word of God and what becomes of
it afterwards:
●First, Jesus talked about the ground
at the edge of the path or along the path, where the seed cannot enter, it does
not penetrate, it remains at the surface, and birds come to pick them up to
eat. They are hearts that listen to the Word of God, but they do not understand
it, they do not welcome it profoundly, then Satan comes to destroy everything.
Persons in this category are like scorched and dry ground, in which the Word
cannot penetrate, it remains on the surface and it is blown away at the
slightest temptation.
●Second is the rocky ground that is
sterile. Here the seeds spring up because there is small soil, but owing to the
fact that the soil is not in-depth, they do not put roots deep in the soil, so
when the sun comes they wither away. Likewise, there are hearts that listen to
the Word of God, they welcome it with joy but it does not put deep roots, as
such, they are not constant and when tribulations or persecutions come their
way, they are thrown off balance, they crumble.
●Third is the type of ground or soil
with thorns, thorny ground. In this type of soil the seeds fell among thorns
and germinate, but when the thorns grow up, they choke them. These are symbolic
of human hearts that listen to the Word of God, but are carried away by
preoccupations and worries for the things of this world and by the deception of
riches and wealth, as such; the Word of God is suffocated in their hearts, e.g.
the rich young man (cf. Mt. 19:16:30).
●Fourth is the good soil. The good
soil bears fruit, but according to the disposition and receptivity of the
heart. For some 100, some 60 and some 30; that is, according to the capacity
and disposition of each one. Here, the good soil stands to indicate those who
thirsty for the Word of God, those who are eager to listen and to understand
the Word, and ready to allow themselves to be penetrated, illumined, guided and
converted by it. In a nutshell, they are the hearts that listen, welcome and
put the Word of God into practice.
At this point we have to ask
ourselves a pertinent question: what type of soil am I? Am I like the path, the
rocky, the thorny or the good soil? We are in part like the path, the hard soil
where the Word of God desires to penetrate, but because of our egoism and presumption, our hearts are closed.
We are in part like the rocky soil where the Word of God does not put deep
roots, because of our superficiality and
inconsistency, when trials and persecutions come we fall by the way side.
We are in part the thorny soil, because
we are carried away by material things, seduced by the deception of riches,
such that the Word does not produce its fruits in us. Indeed also, we are in
part good soil, but Jesus wants us to be
real good soil. Thanks to God, the fact that we are here in the Church
demonstrates that we are making effort to live like Christians. However, we
have to allow the Word of God to bear good fruit in us. The spiritual and moral responsibilities that we have to assume daily
is the effort to become good soil, fecund and fruitful, making daily effort to
eliminate the aspects of the hardy, the rocky and the thorny soils in us.
We have to appropriate and make ours the prayer of the Collect of this Sunday: “give all who for the faith they profess
are accounted Christians the grace to reject whatever is contrary to the name
of Christ, and strive after all that does it honour”. It is therefore, our wish that the Word
of God sown in our heart will neither fall on rocky ground, nor be choked by
our material greed, rather may the Word
sown in us blossom into eternal life.
In the second reading (Rm. 8:18-23) St. Paul reminds us that the kingdom of God is to be constructed
in us and in the world in the midst of suffering. He made a comparison with the labor of childbirth, that takes place
through great suffering and pain, but which later procures an infinite joy,
so is our Christian life and sojourn. He therefore reminds us that the
sufferings of this present moment, even those related to our daily struggles
and the commitment to fidelity to God’s Word cannot be compared to the glory
that awaits us. These words of St. Paul have to make us courageous and
persevering, especially in our present world where it is difficult to welcome
the Word of God and make it germinate for it to bear abundant fruits. In all,
we have to be courageous and optimistic. In fact, Jesus narrated the parable not to teach us that in many cases there is
no fruit, rather to teach us that the seed bears abundant fruit, above every
expectation, when it encounters in our heart a suitable and fitting ground.
Above all, the words of St. James are worth recalling at the end of this
reflection, he says: “Humbly welcome the Word which has been planted in you and
can save your souls. But you must do what the Word tells you and not just
listen to it and deceive yourselves. Anyone who listens to the Word and takes
no action is like someone who looks at his own features in a mirror and, once
he has seen what he looks like goes off and immediately forgets it” (Jm. 1:21a-24). Thus, he challenges us
to allow the Word of God fructify in us, in order not to be forgetful
listeners. We cannot but conclude our
reflection with the example of Mary, in whom the Word found a disposed heart
and a good soil. The heart of Mary indeed, was a good soil, she listened,
welcomed, accepted, treasured and pondered them in her heart (cf. Lk.2:19). She became a fertile
ground for the Word in all dimensions. Let us emulate her. May the Word of God
sown in our hearts everyday germinate, grow and bear good fruits! May Jesus the
Sower continue to sow his seeds in our hearts and may He make of us a good soil
for his Word. May our hearts be transformed to wombs that accept and carry the
seed of God’s Word till it germinates and bears fruit in us. Jesus is inviting
us today to become mothers of the Word, to accept it with tenderness and love.
As we try to give life to the Word of God sown in us, may the same Word in turn
give us life and transform us! Amen!!
(Fr.
Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)
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