Homily for the
15th Sunday of Ordinary
Time
July 16, 2023
Matt 13: 1-9
Is 55: 10-11
St. Francis Xavier,
Bronx
Our Lady of the Assumption,
Bronx
“A sower went out to sow. . . . Some seed fell on rich soil … and produced
fruit” (Matt 13: 3, 8).
Jesus tells us a parable that’s well known, tho not as famous as the Good Samaritan or the Prodigal Son. In the verses following the parable (the long form of today’s gospel), he offers an explanation; or perhaps it’s St. Matthew’s interpretation of the parable. We’re given to understand that the seed so abundantly scattered by the sower is the Word of God.
That understanding is matched by the 1st
reading, from the prophet Isaiah. There
God proclaims that his word will be effective and fruitful; it will achieve his
purpose (55:11).
Jesus sows the Word of God among his
disciples; indeed, he casts the seed among anyone and everyone. Those who are receptive to his teaching are
like the good soil receiving the farmer’s seeds. Their hearts are open to receive Jesus’ words—to
become disciples (which means “learners”) and to act on his words.
Where
are we to find Jesus’ teaching? Where
can we find the Word of God? We’ve heard
the answer many times: the sacred
Scriptures are the Word of God. God
speaks to us in the Bible.
The
Word of God written, preserved, and handed on in the Scriptures is so precious
that the 2d Vatican Council in the 1960s placed special emphasis on it in one
of its fundamental documents or teachings.
Speaking thru the Council, the Church has put a new stress on the
Scriptures, urging all Catholics as never before to read the Bible, study the
Bible, pray the Bible.
Therefore
the Scriptures have an important place in Mass and the other sacraments. Since the Vatican Council we hear 3 readings
at Sunday Mass instead of 2, as in previous centuries, and we have an expanded
repertoire of readings from the gospels, the Old Testament, and the letters of
the apostles. The Church really wants us
to be familiar with the Word of God. The
Church really wants the Word to sink deep roots in our hearts.
We’re
also strongly encouraged to read the Scriptures and ponder them on our
own. Every home needs a Bible with a
good, modern translation—and there are many of those available. But not a Bible simply to put on a bookshelf
or a coffee table; rather, a Bible to be picked up every day and read.
The
Bible is the story of God’s love for humanity, the story of God’s intervention
in our sinful history to save us from our sins, to set us free (as St. Paul
says) from our slavery to corruption and death (Rom 8:21), to make us whole and
healthy, to lead us to our true and permanent home in God’s household for
eternity alongside Jesus our brother. We
want to know that story and make it part of our daily lives.
Moreover,
St. John’s Gospel tells us that the Word of God isn’t just something written in
a book. The Word of God is a living
Person: “the Word became flesh and lived
among us” (1:14). The Word of God, the
2d Person of the Trinity, is enfleshed in Jesus Christ. In the Scriptures, therefore, we meet a
living Person. It’s the Person of Jesus
Christ that we want to take into our hearts, into our very being. St. Paul writes to the Galatians that it’s no
longer he, Paul, who lives, but Christ who lives in him (2:20). That living Word of God, Jesus Christ, will
achieve the end for which the Father sent him into the world, into our history;
as Isaiah says, God’s Word shall do his will, achieving the end for which he
sent it (55:11). That end, that purpose,
is to redeem us from sin and bring us into eternal life.
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