Homily for 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
15th Sunday of Ordinary Time

July 12, 2026
Is 55: 10-11
Ps 65: 10-14
Rom 8: 18-23
Matt 13: 1-9
Collect
The Fountains, Tuckahoe
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx

The Sower
(taken from InTouch newsletter, 9-30-25)

“My word shall … achieve the end for which I sent it” (Is 55: 11).

2 words stand out in today’s readings:  word and seed.  They’re linked when Jesus compares the seed strewn about by a farmer with God’s word offered to our ears.

In 1st-century Palestine, farmers trudged thru their fields with bags of seed—wheat, barley, rye, or millet—and scattered it by hand.  As Jesus’ parable suggests, the seeds might land anywhere.  Some wouldn’t produce much.  Some would produce prolifically.

The “word of God” carries 2 meanings to us:  the words spoken by prophets like Moses and Isaiah, and the living Word of God, Jesus of Nazareth.  Isaiah reminds us that God’s prophetic word is always fulfilled—both words of disaster when Israel is unfaithful, and words of promise and deliverance: “my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it” (55:11).

The psalmist and Jesus both speak of seed falling on good, fertile ground that yields a fruitful harvest.  Without speaking of seeds, St. Paul presents a similar thought:  when the Spirit of God is at work, creation brings forth a rich harvest of life and freedom, “the redemption of our bodies” (Rom 8:23) that were laid in the earth, springing up alive and reborn as God’s children for eternal life, risen with Christ.  Creation will “be set free from slavery to corruption”—being dead and buried—“and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God” (8:21).  That’s the end for which God has sent his Word into the world, and his Word will be effective, like the farmer’s seeds, in receptive soil.

So we need to ask ourselves what kind of soil are we?  When the seed of God’s saving word—the teachings of Jesus, and Jesus himself—lands in our hearts, does that seed find ready soil to bear fruit?  Are we receptive, “eager with expectation [for] God’s revelation” (Rom 8:19)?  Or is our soil hard and rocky or filled with weeds and thorns, so that God’s word hasn’t got a chance?

God has been preparing his holy ground:  “drenching its furrows, breaking up its clods, softening it with showers” (Ps 65:11).  We hear the word of God every Sunday.  Perhaps we read the Scriptures during the week.  We’ve been catechized, maybe gone to Catholic school, maybe listen to some Catholic teaching on TV or the internet.  Do we let God’s word sink into our hearts and plant deep roots (cf. Matt 13:5-6)?  Do we water it with prayer?  Do we resolve to act on what God tells us in Christ?

In the collect we prayed that “all who profess the Christian faith”—that’s us who are baptized, come to church, recite the Creed—may by God’s grace “reject whatever is contrary to the name of Christ and strive after all that does [his name] honor.”  Do we try to live as Jesus teaches us:  giving God 1st place in our lives, loving our neighbor, speaking well of others and being patient with them, forgiving injuries, sharing our goods with the needy, voting for candidates who will treat everyone with the human dignity that belongs to them because everyone’s created in God’s image?  Do we confess our sins and resolve to do better, to “return to the right path,” as we prayed in the collect?

God has given us his Word so that it might bear fruit for eternity.  “Whoever has ears ought to hear” (Matt 13:9)—and after hearing, to act.