July 17, 2023
Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily for the 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year A) on July 16, 2023 at the Paulist Center in Boston, MA. The homily is based on the day’s readings: Isaiah 55:10-11; Psalm 65; Romans 8:18-23; and Matthew 13:1-23.
The Gospel of Matthew is the gospel of parables, and we’re going to hear at least 7 parables over the next three weeks. The word parable comes from the Greek rhetorical term parabole. A parabole is similar to a metaphor, finding something in common between two dissimilar things. For you analytical geometry fans out there, parabole is also the origin of the word parabola.
But back to the parables. Today, we hear what is perhaps the most straightforward of Jesus’ parables. Let’s not settle for the explanation given in the gospel. Most scholars believe that that explanation was not given by Jesus himself, but was an allegorical explanation written long after Jesus’ Ascension. This parable is an invitation to dialogue, to contemplation. Let us delve more deeply into the mysteries of the realm of God.
Let us ask God to allow us not only to look, but also to see the realm of God. May we not only hear, but also listen and understand God’s mercy.
What is a parable? I define it as a story with an unexpected twist at the end, inviting us to deeper reflection. Parables are subject to multiple interpretations. If we think we completely understand a parable, we’re probably wrong!
Again, a parable is similar to a metaphor, finding a commonality between two dissimilar things. What do a point and a line have in common? Every point on a parabola is equidistant from both the point and the line!
I don’t think that the parable of the seed and the sower is telling us that there are four kinds of people in the world: those who hear the Word but ignore it, those who have initial enthusiasm but then fade away, those who get distracted, and those who hear it, get it, and blossom. We are not static beings. God doesn’t destine anyone to fall into the first three categories in this parable. A parable can accomplish a lot more than just this one allegory…
… just as a parabola does a lot more than just relate a line to a point. Parabolas have a very interesting property that I used throughout my career as an optical engineer. If you make a paraboloid mirror, all the light beams parallel to the axis of symmetry will be reflected through that same point. That is why the point that defines a parabola is called the “focus.”
So, what does the parable of the sower and the seed invite us to focus on?
Perhaps we can think about the various phases that we go through as disciples. When we first heard God’s Word, we may have been like the seed on the path. Perhaps, as we met additional people who witnessed to God’s word, we started to internalize the Word, but in fits and starts, like the seed on rocky soil or the seed surrounded by weeds. We strive to take the Word into our hearts and magnify God’s message by thirty-, sixty, or a hundred-fold.
Another way to think about the parable is that each of us are working through all four phases simultaneously in how we share the Word of God with other people, and how we react to them. Perhaps we have “good soil” to reflect God’s love in our relationships with a few special people in our lives. Other people may try our patience. We can love them genuinely until they do something that chokes out our love like weeds. Other people in our lives may be hard to love, and to them, our hearts are as hard as stone. Maybe we haven’t yet recognized the love God calls us to share with people who are very different from us. Those seeds of love are quickly snatched up before they take root.
A third challenge of the parable is to know that not all is lost for the seed on the path, in the rocky soil, or among the weeds. The elementary school that I attended had an asphalt path leading to the playground. The school was closed at the end of my fifth-grade year, and within 20 years, the asphalt broke down. Grass grew to the point that you could barely discern that there had ever been any path there. Over time, the seed had taken root on the path and blossomed. It’s the same with the seed on rocky soil. Certain plants have the ability to grow with little soil, and they eventually break down the rock into rich nutrients. And anyone who gardens knows that there will always be weeds. All we need is patience to allow the flowers and crops the space they need to grow.
But there’s a fourth challenge. We must avoid the temptation to turn inwards and ignore the plight of people who are different from us. It makes me think of a story by Megan McKenna, the only woman who ever graduated from the Paulist seminary:
There was a woman who wanted peace in the world and peace in her heart and all sorts of good things, but she was very frustrated. The world seemed to be falling apart. She would read the news… and get depressed. One day she decided to go shopping, and she went into a mall and picked a store at random. She walked in and was surprised to see Jesus behind the counter. She knew it was Jesus because he looked just like the pictures she’d seen on holy cards and devotional pictures. She looked again and again at him, and finally she got up enough nerve and asked, ‘Excuse me, are you Jesus?’
‘I am.’
‘Do you work here?’
‘No,’ Jesus said, ‘I own the store.’
‘Oh, what do you sell in here?’
‘Oh, just about anything!’
‘Anything?’
‘Yeah, anything you want. What do you want?’
She said, ‘I don’t know.’
‘Well,’ Jesus said, ‘feel free, walk up and down the aisles, make a list, see what it is that you want, and then come back and we’ll see what we can do for you.’
She did just that, walked up and down the aisles. There was peace on earth, no more war, no hunger or poverty, peace in families, no more drugs, harmony, clean air, careful use of resources. She wrote furiously. By the time she got back to the counter, she had a long list.
Jesus took the list, skimmed through it, looked up and smiled, ‘No problem.’ And then he bent down behind the counter and picked out all sorts of things, stood up, and laid out the packets.
She asked, ‘What are these?’
Jesus replied, ‘Seed packets. This is a catalog store.’
She said, ‘You mean I don’t get the finished product?’
‘No, this is a place of dreams. You come and see what it looks like, and I give you the seeds. You plant the seeds. You go home and nurture them and help them to grow and someone else reaps the benefits.’
‘Oh,’ she said.
And she left the store without buying anything.
– Megan McKenna, from Parables: The Arrows of God
God declares through the words of Isaiah: “The seed that I have sown shall not return to me void. It shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.”
Let us … ahem… focus on the essentials. Let us pray:
Loving God, you continually sow your Word within our hearts. Help us to be open to receiving it. Soften the stony parts of our hearts. Give us patience to weed out the sinfulness in our lives. May we magnify your Words of hope, peace, and love by thirty-, sixty-, or one hundred-fold. Amen.