Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary
Time (A)
Dear brothers and sisters,
How often do we,
too, wish to ask Jesus, “Why do you speak to them in parables” (Matthew 13:10)?
Moreover, how often do we wish to ask him, “Why do you speak to us in parables?” Why does he not speak
plainly to us, but rather in riddles and intimations? Does he not want us to hear,
understand, and receive his message in humble joy?
When we reflect
on the parable proclaimed today, we usually focus on the various types of soil.
Important as these are, it seems to me the primary focus of the parable is not
so much on the ground, but on Jesus, the Divine Sower. It is the seed of his
word that goes forth from his mouth to do his will (cf. Isaiah 55:11). This
does not negate the certainty that the types of ground “represent different
modes of receiving the Word, or different modes of listening: the Word of God
is sown in every human being, and in each one it wants to bring forth a fruit
full of life.”[1] It
is always Jesus who sows and speaks, and so this parable is “autobiographical,”
for it is he who has “visited the land and watered it” with his word; it is he
who has “prepared the land: drenching its furrows, breaking up its clods, softening
it with showers, blessing its yield” (Psalm 65:10, 11).[2]
Indeed, this
parable “reflects the very experience of Jesus, of his preaching,” even as it
demonstrates the various ways in which we attend to his preaching.[3]
Like every natural seed, the seed of the Word of God takes time to be implanted
into the soil of our lives, to germinate and break out of its shell, to push
through the soil, and, finally, to produce fruit. To put it perhaps more
simply, “the interiorization of the Word needs appropriate, suitable spaces and
times: it is not something that happens everywhere, in a moment.”[4]
What is more,
stony ground speaks of a journey
that happens in a hurry (the adverb “at once” happens twice) and for this
reason it cannot endure, it does not withstand long distances. Speaking of this
inconstancy, the evangelist Matthew uses a particular adjective, which
literally means “what is only of a moment” (proskairós): the man “of a
moment” is one who is enthusiastic about everything, but does not love anything
deeply; he lives very fragmented, and does not unify himself around a
relationship; he knows no patience.[5]
Does this not
describe a great many of our contemporaries, perhaps even us, men and women of
the moment, enthusiastic about everything but loving nothing deeply? It remains,
then, for us who are dedicated to the study of the sacred liturgy to remind our
neighbors that “without the sacraments of the Church, the Christian life is like
the seed fallen on rocky ground which, when it sprouted, it withered for lack
of moisture.”[6]
It is within the
liturgy of the Church that the Divine Sower reveals the reason for his speaking
in parables. Within the sacraments we come to realize that “God's true ‘Parable’
is Jesus himself, his Person who, in the sign of humanity, hides and at the
same time reveals his divinity.”[7]
Just as he hides himself behind and within his parables, so, too, here he hides
himself in the appearance of bread and wine. “In this manner God does not force
us to believe in him but attracts us to him with the truth and goodness of his
incarnate Son: love, in fact, always respects freedom.”[8]
It remains for
us to allow the Lord to drench the furrows of hearts, to break their clods, to
soften them with the gentle and yet forceful showers of his love, so that his
fruit may be produced in us. This happens not in a moment, but over time; we
must be patient with him. May he bring this about continually in us and so
allow us to help others interiorize the Word and see the beauty of his love
precisely in his hiddenness so his fruit may be born in them. Amen.
[1] Archbishop Pierbattista
Pizzaballa, Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A, 15 July
2017.
[4] Archbishop Pierbattista
Pizzaballa, Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A, 15 July
2017.
[6] Robert Cardinal Sarah, Address tothe Conference “Sacra Liturgia Milan
2017),” “The Sacred Liturgy – Our Encounter with Almighty God: A Christological
and Ecclesiological Perspective,” 11.
[8] Ibid.
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