10/07/2011 - 15th Sunday in Ordinary Season - Year A
1Reading Is 55,10-11 Psalm 64 2Reading Rom 8,18-23 Gospel Mt 13,1-23
In today's Gospel, I feel as if Jesus is answering the question that often
comes to my mind: What about my homilies? I have been preaching for more than
40 years every Sunday, but don't see big changes, don't see people loving more
Jesus, don't see, as far as I can see, holiness around me. Because of my sins
and my inability I cannot expect nothing from my preaching, even though I try
to proclaim and to help other to understand the Word of God, yes, the same Word
of God!
Today Jesus himself answers my question with a a parable. The fruit of the seed
does not depend of the sower, rather on the ground that receives it. The ground
can be free or with plenty of stones, thorns and weeds, or even level as a path
way. Like the seed, the Word of God is. It can be sowed with great generosity,
but if the hearts that listen to it are filled with other things, or if they
are hard as cement, nothing changes, they remain the same, wont produce works
of peace and of joy. The first heat that needs to be cleanse is mine. It can
happen in my heart too, that a Word that reaches me from upon or from the depth
of God's love, be suffocated, or easily forgotten. I cannot expect nothing from
no one, neither from the one from whom the Words comes to me, nor from the Word
itself. I need to take care of my heart, see that it is always free from stones
and thorns, that is material peroccupation, vanity, ambitions, attachments to
a passion: these are the realities that hold back the growth of my life according
to the desires of the Father.
The cleansing of the heart costs pain. Even the apostle tells us so writing
to the Romans. We are surrounded by creatures of God who suffer because they
could'nt grow according to the purpose they were created to. Everything has
been brought low because of sin: sin, is still present in the thoughts and actions
of men, continues to ruin every enviorment. All things yearn for freedom, to
be a manifestation of that love by which and for which they were made. Not only
things, more human beings, conciously or unconciously, yearn to be carriers
and revelators of the mystery of God, from where they come and to where they
go. Who suffers, suffers because he was taken away from this way and from this
aim. To suffer is the one who does not has no vision for his own life. Such
lives superficially, distracted, looking always for new satisfactions without
being ever satisfied. Many loose themselves in futile things, other see to enrich
themselves, without knowing the reason, many throw themselves into profitable
or entertainment activities to fill the emptiness at heart. This is how illnesses
from emptiness grow, from lack of vision, meaning of one's life. Looking at
this reality, we are to understand what a great gift the Lord gave us when he
invited us to live for him, to give him glory, to fill our hearts with his love!
What a gift to be instructed by his Word, so that we can come to know the reason
why for our lives, and how to work with him.
Let us prepare our 'land' for the Lord to sow. Let us free our heart to welcome
every Word that comes to us from Jesus, even more, for Jesus who is the same
Word of the Father. He is not to be suppressed by anything, no preoccupation
and no other interest for things that pass. When one welcomes him, his presence
brings forth plenty of fruit, fruit of love, of freedom, of peace, of holiness,
of life!
The one who welcomes Jesus brings forth fruit, plenty of fruit, even if I dont
see it. I shall continue to preach, to proclaim and explain the Word of God:
it is he who will gather the fruit in his warehouse, I am not to preoccupy myself!