Fifteenth Sunday of the Year – Cycle A – July 12, 2020
Readings: Isa 55:10-11; Rom 8:18-23; Mt 13:1-23 (or, 1-9)
“The word that goes out from my mouth shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose” (Isa 55:11)
Prologue: The Word of God—along with God’s Spirit—are powerful coworkers in God’s action of creation, redemption and sanctification. The readings can be threaded together with the theme of not only the word of God in the First Testament, but also by seeing the power of the words of Jesus, who, essentially, is God’s Word made flesh. How can the word of God be made alive and active today?
Three Scriptural Signposts:
- The word of the prophet: The first reading is from the last chapter of the so-called ‘Book of Consolation’ or ‘Second Isaiah’ or ‘Deutero Isaiah’ (chapters 40-55), contrasting the present state of the downcast Israelite community with its brighter future prospects in poetic, figurative language. Its first chapter opens up with a stress on the power and permanence of God’s word by declaring: “The word of our God will stand forever” (Isa 40:8). The prophet consoles and encourages a people on the point of return from the Babylonian Exile. The return is not a mere homecoming to some external, geographical location but it promises to be a moral turnaround and inner transformation—deeply personal and spiritual—moulded by the word of God. There is an earthy comparison of God’s word with the effects which the elements of nature bring about: “for, as the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return without watering the earth … so shall my word—i.e., God’s word spoken through the mouth of the prophet—accomplish that which I purpose.”
The prophet uses evocative earthy images and symbols to lead his people from the natural to the supernatural, from the conventional to the spiritual, and from the temporal to the transcendental. This will become clearer in the gospel passage.
- The word of God’s Word, Jesus: In line with the First Testament’s prophetic tradition, Jesus performs prophetic functions: announcing the good news of God’s Reign and denouncing everyone and everything that frustrates its flowering. Moreover, he not only proclaims God’s word but personifies, incarnates and embodies it in himself. Jesus is God’s word.
Today’s popular passage of ‘the parable of the sower’ begins with “Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea” (Mt 13:1). He has come to proclaim God’s word not only to the ‘insiders’ at home but also to the outsiders if only they have ears to hear and eyes to see (v.16). Jesus wove words into parables—meant to be comparisons, allegories, riddles, proverbs or symbols—so that simple folks could ponder, perceive, produce hundredfold!
Today’s ‘sower and seeds’ story resonated with Palestinian peasants who knew how unproductive their soil was despite tremendous toil. Thus, many seeds would get wasted: stifled by thorns, trampled underfoot, scorched by the sun or rootless upon rocky ground. Unlike the other evangelists, Matthew stresses the stubbornness of some of the Jewish authorities who reject not only God’s words, but also God’s Word, Jesus.
- Jesus makes words flesh: Jesus is a teacher par excellence. Unlike the scribes and Pharisees who loved their own teachings—crowded with many words, loaded with lofty expressions and meticulously stressing the minutiae of rules, rites and rituals, Jesus loved the giver of the word, God, and the receivers of the word, his people. Thus, he taught them with images, ideas and examples from real life that they were familiar with. Jesus comes down to their level and tells them “many things in parables” since he sees it as the best way to journey from the known to the unknown, from the head to the heart, and from relating to his words to loving and serving God. Thus, his parables have an outer crust and an inner core. He makes words flesh. Those who are open to the insights of the word and allow the Spirit to lead, will “get it” and go forth. Yet, all will not be able to produce fruits in the same measure, for the soil of their soul and the water of their upbringing is different. In his love, the Sower-God, has been generous in sowing seeds with unmatched generosity. It is now left to the receiver to open up, freely, in order to bear fruit—fruit that will last.
Linking the Second Reading and Psalm (65) to the theme:
The psalm of thanksgiving for the earth’s bounty was probably intended for the barley season. While the response: “Some seed fell into rich soil and produced its crop” prepares one for the gospel reading, the verses poetically praise God for the bountiful harvest. God “visits the earth, cares for it, gives it water, fills it with riches.” This is reminiscent of Genesis-generation when God’s word created the cosmos: “Let there be ……! Let there be ….!” In the parched land of Judah, the psalmist’s ‘rain’ is symbol of God’s showering of graces.
The second reading from Paul’s Letter to the Romans says, “From the beginning till now the entire creation has been groaning in one great act of giving birth.” As pregnant mother earth awaits cosmic completion, so does humankind await “adoption” as daughters and sons in The Son, Jesus.
Moreover, since every creature in the cosmos is intimately connected to all others, Paul insists that cosmic regeneration and “redemption of our bodies” (v.23) is possible only if humankind sheds its sin and lives according to the freedom of God’s Spirit.
Three Contextual Concerns:
To listen to, and learn from, God’s word: Amidst the many noises that clamour for attention, do I listen to God’s word in scripture in the silence of my heart? Am I ready to listen to and learn from Our Lord, Jesus, rather than only seek to teach about him? To preach God’s Word, not mine: The ability to teach and preach are gifts that God has given us.
The temptation is to love our own teachings and to be obsessed with wonderful words rather than point to God’s Word, Jesus, and be faithful to proclaiming only His words.
To be God’s word in the world: People are looking for those who ‘walk the talk’ and are not ready to listen and learn from those who preach without practising. How ought I not only to bear good news but be good news and be Christ’s presence in the world, today?
In Lighter Vein
A man constantly nagged his wife about how wordy she was. He said that women, in general, used many more words than men per day—30,000 to a man’s 15,000! Not one to be silenced easily, the wife retorted, “That’s because men are stupid and do not understand, and women have to repeat everything to them.” The husband turned to his wife and asked, “What did you say?” Words exchanged between spouses and friends might be unclear. But, let’s listen repeatedly to God’s word and strive to be like God’s Word, Jesus, to reap a harvest, hundredfold!
Fr. Francis Gonsalves is a Gujarat Jesuit, former Principal of Vidyajyoti College, Delhi, and currently Dean of Theology at Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, Pune. He is also the Executive Secretary of the CCBI Commission for Theology and Doctrine. He has authored many books and articles and is a columnist with The Asian Age and The Deccan Chronicle national dailies.