Homily for the Week of July 13, 2014

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time  A  2014

Isaiah 55:10-11; Psalm 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14;  Romans 8:18-23;  Matthew 13:1-23 or 13:1-9

         I used the long reading today because I think that the explanation of Jesus makes his message easier to understand. As we all know hearing someone is easy. Listening and understanding is much harder. Teachers who teach the same material to an entire classroom of students are continually amazed when the test is given at the range of what was heard and comprehended. Such are the mysteries our ability to communicate.

         Matthew wrote this Gospel for a community of Jewish Christians. As outsiders looked at this community with a thought of joining, Matthew had to deal with a very real problem. How was it that all the Jews were hearing the same message about Jesus but only some became followers of Jesus? Also, why did some in the community burn with a passion for Jesus only to be lost in a short while? These questions are still asked today. Why do some people who are baptized and raised as Catholic stay faithful and some do not?

         Today, Jesus our teacher, uses a story which was very common among his people. Today Jesus is the farmer or the gardener. He gives us one of his best known stories: the story of the sower.  As a good teacher he was illustrating his teaching through ordinary examples of work, weather, and nature. While he was talking mainly to fishermen, they could instantly recognized the scene of the story he was telling them: Imagine a farmer going out to sow, he started out by saying.

         At the time of Jesus, because of the condition of the soil in Israel it was difficult to get seeds to grow.  Often, farmers did not plow the land before seeding but just scattered the seeds everywhere. Some fell on the paths and some on the edges and some on the  soil where it should be falling  Many of the seeds were eaten up by the birds. But the limestone rock was right near the surface so there was hardly any topsoil.

         But Jesus is not telling us the story of the seed in order to have a greener America.  For Jesus as for Isaiah the seed refers to speaking, not planting.  It refers to the word of God given to us in the Bible. And so Jesus tells of all the possibilities of how the seed could fall, and grow or not grow. Jesus tells us he is willing to teach us,  but people will only learn from him if they make an effort -- and he is saddened by the fact that many do not. He quotes Isaiah: You will indeed hear, but not understand, and you shall indeed look, but never see.  For Jesus the seed is the word of God and the different kinds of ground on which the seed falls are the different kinds of listeners or Catholics who hear his word.

         The story of the sower and the seed directs us to consider the Word of God. God’s Word is sown everywhere. Some hear it. Some get it. Some act on it. Some may pay no attention at all to the Word of God, but God gives it anyway. God is a very generous God, something we often hear said but perhaps do not comprehend. Jesus is calling us to look like God and act like God. We would prefer, however, only to passively hear God’s word. We resist acting on it.

         This story was told and retold before it found its way into the Gospels. What lessons did the first Christians teach with it? Then and now the story teaches Jesus’ lesson about our mixed response to God’s Word, although for the early Christians it seems to have had an additional purpose. It is thought that this parable was used as an examination of conscience. It is perfect for such a use. How do we measure up? Are we someone who has heard the message but doesn’t care? Has our initial enthusiasm for our faith failed? Did some thorns in our lives drive us away? There are many people difficult to deal with even in a Christian community, are the weeds choking us? Perhaps we are at times the weeds ourselves, teaching our children and others that Church isn’t important.

         St. Paul acknowledges that acting on God’s Word can be difficult and, at first glance, be thought of as a burden. If we live the Catholic moral life, we are likely to be ridiculed. We do not suffer physical persecution, but we do suffer the slings and arrows of a culture that does not hold our values. Paul says to us that following God’s Word, while at times difficult, is worth it!

         Our call today is to examine our relationship to the Word and message of Jesus Christ. We’ve heard it; have we listened to it? Are we in the boat or outside of it looking in?

         We are all sowers of seed.  By our attitudes, our beliefs, our actions we sow seeds of encouragement, joy and reconciliation -- but some of the seeds we sow contribute to cycles of discouragement, anger, violence, abuse, enslavement and injustice.    Christ calls us to be sowers of his Word in every situation and relationship, especially when such “sowing” results yields a harvest that benefits others far more than benefits us.   The seed that lands on the good soil will produce so abundantly that it will, in turn, cause people to take a second look at God’s Word. To allow this to happen, we have to grow in faith. We have to produce.  Jesus also gives us hope and encouragement to remain faithful to our religion regardless of the kind of ground m.