15th Sunday of the Year (A)
Mt 13: 1-23
«Blessed are your eyes because they see»
Dear brethren:
Today,
the Liturgy of the Word brings to us
the gospel of the “Parable of the sower” (Mt
13: 1-23). We can say that this text is a familiar one to us all, a very well
known text.
«A sower went out to sow. As he sowed, some
seed fell on the edge of the path… Other fell on patches of rock… Others fell
among thorns… Others fell on rich soil and produced their crop, some a
hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.» (Mt
13: 4. 5. 7. 8).
However,
even though we seem to know the text, and to understand its meaning, once more
we need to open our hearts to Jesus’ words. We need to be like the «rich soil» that is open to receive the
seed of the Lord and is able to let it be fruitful.
«Why do you talk to them in parables?»
If we
look at the text with attention, we can see that its structure consist of three
thematic parts: the parable itself (Mt
13: 4-9); a dialogue between Jesus and his disciples (Mt 13: 10-17), and the explanation of the parable (Mt 13: 18-23).
I
wish to meditate on the dialogue between Jesus and his disciples. The disciples
ask the Lord: «Why do you talk to them in
parables?» (Mt 13:10); and Jesus
gives them a very interesting answer: «Because
to you is granted to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, but to
them is not granted» (Mt 13:11).
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| Victory Shrine of the Mother Thrice Admirable of Schoenstatt. Ibadan, Nigeria. |
«To you is granted». It is a gift, it is
an offering, it is a privilege and –because of that- it is a mission. These
words in today´s gospel help us to realize that to have access to «the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven»
is a great and beautiful gift. To have access to the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ, to have access to his Gospel, to his intimate friendship in prayer; to
have access to his Church and to his sacraments, is a great gift and a great
joy.
All
of this brings to my mind another words contained on the Gospel: «I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, for hiding these things from the learned and clever and revealing them
to little children» (Mt 11:25).
So
today we are invited to take awareness of all the things that have been given
to us through the faith in Christ, though the faith of the little ones.
Are
we aware of all the gifts we receive daily from our Lord? Are we aware that all
of this is a gift? Do we bless the Lord for all the things he has granted us?
Do we bless the Lord for the gift of his Son to us?
A gift and a task
In
the dialogue with his disciples, Jesus continued his answer saying: «The reason I talk to them in parables is
that they look without seeing and listen without hearing or understanding»
(Mt 13:13).
That
means that Jesus was critical of many of his contemporaries because even when
they saw many of the miracles and sings that Jesus worked among them, they
didn´t seem to understand the profound meaning of them. Even though they look,
they didn´t saw. Actually, the problem lay not in the eyes or the ears, but on
the heart.
The incapacity to see or to hear is actually the
incapacity of the heart to be open to the signs of God in everyday life; and,
if we are not open to God´s presence in everyday life, then we are not able to
believe, to really believe. We are not able to base our life –our decisions- on
our faith.
At the same time, if we do not believe, then we do not
see or hear. That is why the encyclical letter Lumen fidei teach: “Those who believe, see; they see with a light
that illumines their entire journey, for it comes from the risen Christ, the
morning star which never sets.”[1]
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| Statue of Fr. Joseph Kentenich, Founder of the Schoenstatt Movement. Ibadan, Nigeria. |
Therefore faith it is a gift, but also a task and a
mission. So, as disciples of Jesus, which one is our mission regarding faith in
our daily life? We can say that our mission, our everyday task consist in
learning how to listen in order to understand and how to look at reality in
order to perceive the ways of God.
As sons of Fr. Joseph Kentenich we want to enter in
the school of faith in Divine Providence.
We want to learn to perceive with the eyes and ears of our heart the presence
of the living God in the midst of our life.
We want to develop in our selves –with the help of the
Holy Spirit and the intercession of our Blessed Mother- a capacity to
contemplate life, as we pray in Heavenwards:
“That is how you want to work in our Shrine: strengthening our weak eyes of
faith so that we might see life as God sees it and always walk by heaven´s
light.”[2]
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