06-Jul-2008
Dear Friend,
Words can be empty and meaningless or they can be potent and life-giving. On
the one hand we hate listening to pompous speakers and glib politicians who
love to address a captive audience. On the other hand we will go to great
lengths to listen to a person we love, we will spend hours listening to someone
speaking from the heart, whose words are relevant to our lives. But do we
listen to the word of God? Have we found time to ponder on His word? Have a
quiet weekend listening to Him! -Fr. Jude
Sunday Reflections: Fifteenth Sunday ‘Letting God’s Word transform
us!’ 13-July-2008
Readings: Isaiah 55: 10-11; Romans 8: 18-23;
Matthew 13:1-23;
This first reading from Isaiah speaks in simple words of the richness and power
of the word of God. God’s word is filled with the power of God himself.
Therefore it is always effective and productive and it can yield much fruit. It
is not ineffective or irrelevant. Just as the rain comes down, soaks the earth
and becomes part of the earth and the world of human beings, making the earth
fruitful, yielding grain and fruit to nourish humankind, so God’s word comes
from God to nourish us and make our lives fruitful. But as the rain has to
penetrate the earth and become part of it, so God’s word should penetrate our
hearts to transform us.
Attuned to God’s word
One day a farmer went to the city. As he was walking down a busy street he
suddenly stopped and said to his friend who was with him, “I can hear a
cricket.” His friend was amazed and asked, “How can you hear a cricket in the
midst of all this noise?” “Because my ears are attuned to this sound.” The
farmer replied. Then he listened even more intently, and following the sound,
found the cricket perched on a window ledge. His friend couldn’t get over it.
But the farmer showed no surprise. Instead he took a few coins out of his
pocket and threw them on the pavement. On hearing the jingle of the coins, the
passers-by stopped in their tracks. “You see what I mean,” said the farmer.
“None of those people could hear the sound of the cricket but all of them could
hear the sound of money. People hear what their ears are attuned to and are
deaf to the rest.” –We could be tuned in to God if we took a little trouble.
Flor McCarthy in ‘New Sunday and Holy Day Liturgies’
In the second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, Paul speaks about
hope. Life in the Spirit is a life of hope. It is the Spirit that gives the
Christian life and hope. Paul believes that hope is the basis of consolation
and encouragement. Paul says that the Christian can even exult in affliction
because affliction produces endurance and endurance gives us the ability to
look beyond the present happenings and live in hope, finding meaning in
hardships endured. Christian hope is ultimately based on God’s love for us and
the assurance that he will always be with us and never abandon us in our moment
of need. Human beings and the world itself are locked up in a struggle from
which they will emerge victorious and free because our hope is in God.
Film –Chocolat (2000) -Remember and live by the word ‘Love’
This movie takes place in a small town in France in 1959. The town has always
expressed their community life using the word “tranquilite” (tranquility). You
knew what was expected of you, you knew what your place was. And if you
happened to forget, someone would remind you. They trusted the wisdom of ages
past, lived with the values of tradition, family, and morality. Into this town
comes Vianne, played by Juliette Binoche. She does not go to church, has a
daughter without a father present, and has the gall to open a chocolaterie
right in the middle of Lent! As she opens and conducts her business, it becomes
clear that she is anything but traditional. Vianne does nothing by the book.
She does nothing out of obligation, but everything out of love. It is her
encouragement that brings Josephine out of her abusive marriage. It is her
encouragement that brings Armande together with her grandson. It is her
encouragement that brings a widow of 30-some-years
out of mourning and into a new relationship. The town is transformed by her
chocolaterie and her grace.
Carla Thompson Powell in Films and Images from ‘Text this Week’
In today’s gospel Jesus compares the word of God to the seed falling into the
ground. While the first reading spoke of the absolute efficacy of the word of
God which always produces fruit, in the Gospel reading the parable of the sower
modifies the effectiveness of the seed – the word, that is sown in men’s
hearts. Its effectiveness for the individual depends on how they accept or
reject it. Different types of men are described in this allegory in terms of
different types of soil in which the seed is sown. The Gospel of Matthew puts
the emphasis on understanding the word. The disciples are distinguished from
the crowd by the fact that they understand while the crowd does not. While the
disciples are open and accepting of the word, the crowds are obdurate and
refuse to accept and believe the word. It does not imply that the disciples are
more intellectually gifted to understand the word but that they are open and
believe the word and let themselves
be affected by God’s word. Understanding is absolutely essential for the word
to bear fruit. This understanding of the word is a gift given by God to those
who believe and are open to it.
He spoke in parables and told stories….
Jesus spoke in parables. We tell stories all the time. Someone has said we
ourselves are an unfinished story! Consider the following: “A story must be
told in such a way that it constitutes help in itself. My grandfather was lame.
Once we asked him to tell a story about his teacher. And he related how his
teacher used to hop and dance while he prayed. My grandfather rose as he spoke,
and he was so swept away by his story that he began to hop and dance and show
how the master had done. From that hour he was cured of his lameness. That’s
how to tell a story!”
Martin Buber
Living the Word
Once upon a time there was a great biblical scholar who was also noted for his
piety. He spent hours every day secluded in his room studying the Scriptures,
and praying and meditating. One day a holy man visited the town in which the
scholar lived. On hearing about it the scholar set out to look for him. He
looked first in the church but did not find him there. Then he looked in a
local shrine, but he wasn’t there either. He looked in other likely places but
failed to find him. Eventually he found him in the market place. On meeting him
he told him who he was, and how he spent hours every day in the study of
scripture and in prayer and in meditation. Then he said,” I have come to seek
your advice on how I might grow in the service of God. The advice he got was
simple and direct. Looking at him intently, the holy man said, “It is easy to
be a sage and a saint in your room. You should go out into the market place and
be a saint there.” –It is the
kind of advice Christ himself would have given!
Anon.
Unsurpassed bounty of God
“What’s so surprising about his Sunday's parable of a farmer who goes out to
sow seed? Farmers sow seed all the time. And anyone who knows anything at all
about what a plant needs to grow won’t be surprised to hear that seed cast in
the middle of a road, or on the rocks, or among thorns doesn’t grow. But this
parable contains a surprise to jolt us into openness to the word of God’s
Spirit among us and in our world. It’s not at all surprising that most of the
seed didn’t grow. What’s surprising is that the farmer chose to sow it there.
This isn’t a rich man we’re talking about here: this is a poor farmer, a tenant
farmer who can only eke out a living for himself and his family if he not only
makes wise choices about where to sow, but also is blessed with good weather
and a great deal of luck. Good seed is hard to come by; the wise farmer makes
sure to entrust the precious grain he has to the best of soil. In short, this
farmer behaves
as though that which were most precious was available in unlimited supply.
What on earth is he thinking? But here’s the real corker: God blesses a farmer
like this beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. Normally, the farmer who reaps a
twofold harvest would be considered fortunate. A fivefold harvest would be a
cause for celebration throughout the village, a bounty attributable only to
God’s particular and rich blessing. But this foolish farmer who, in a world of
scarcity, casts his seed on soil everyone knows is worthless, and is blessed by
God in shocking abundance: a harvest of thirty, sixty, and a hundred times what
he sowed. God is a generous giver, whose bounty is unsurpassable!- Sarah Dylan
Building on his word!
Some years ago, while Russia was stilled ruled by the communists, some
dissidents were arrested. They were subjected to a thorough body-search. One
man was found to have a small ball of paper in his mouth. It contained a few
pages from a book. The man knew that long years in some remote prison camp lay
ahead of him and that it was quite possible he would never return home. What
pages was he taking with him to give him the necessary courage and strength to
face such a bleak future? The pages contained the Sermon on the Mount, which is
the summary of the teaching of Jesus. It is reasonable to assume that he was
not turning to the words of Christ merely as a last resort. Rather he was
turning to something that had already filled his life with meaning and hope.
This suggests that he was not just a listener of the word but also a doer of
it.
Flor McCarthy in ‘New Sunday and Holy Day Homilies’
May His word enter into us and transform us!
Fr. Jude Botelho
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
PS. The stories, incidents and anecdotes used in the reflections have been
collected over the years from books as well as from sources over the net and
from e-mails received. Every effort is made to acknowledge authors whenever
possible. If you send in stories or illustrations I would be grateful if you
could quote the source as well so that they can be acknowledged if used in
these reflections. These reflections are also available on my web site
www.netforlife.net Thank you.
Best Jokes, Best Friends, Best Food and more. Go to
http://in.promos.yahoo.com/groups/bestofyahoo/
