FIFTEENTH SUNDAY-A July 13, 2008

Isaiah 55:10‑-11 Ps 65 Romans 8:18‑-23 Matthew 13:1‑-23

On a hot day like today, if you cannot concentrate on the homily, here is a line from each of the four reading which you could meditate upon during the day: From

· Isaiah: “the Word of God will go out and not return empty”

· Psalm: Your Word O Lord brings forth life.

· Romans: Sufferings cannot be compared to the glory that awaits us.

· Gospel: Some seed brought forth 30 fold, others 60 fold, others 100 fold.

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In the Musical, My fair Lady, Liza Doolittle lets off steam and says, “Words, words, words, first from him, now from you. Is that all you blighters can do?” Words are being uttered by all. Some are Words of encouragement. These give life, strength, and lift up the spirit. The others are words of criticism. These destroy a person. In our Gospel Matthew speaks of the Word of Kingdom (Word of God) as seeds that the sower, God has planted and will eventually produce fruit.

1. The Word of God is sown - either through our readings, through the preaching of the minister, through song, through the kindness and caring of another. However, this word may never bear fruit if they are planted among weeds that will choke them. We are caught up with worries. These worries may be real. We may not have the resources to pay our rent, to pay for our medication, to pay for food. Or they may fall on hard ground where the Word of God cannot take root in our hearts. Our hearts may be hard because we are filled with anger, jealous, resentment. We may find it difficult or we may be unwilling to forgive. We may just be so self-centred that we do not care for others who will help the Word of God to bear fruit in our lives. This is the Word of God as we said in the responsorial psalm: Your Word, O Lord brings forth life.

2. The degree of success in the Gospel is 30 fold, 60 fold, a 100 fold. Jesus is pretty generous in fruit that is borne. Farmers in Palestine would tell you at a 2% to 8% yield would be considered very good with the soil and with the difficulty in the seed finding good ground. Was Jesus only a carpenter who did not know about sowing? - or did not know about fishing: remember the time when Peter said, “We have toiled all night and caught nothing”. Yet Jesus tells him to cast his net into the sea? It does not seem so, because Jesus knew that the Word of God would always bear fruit. It would not come back empty as we hear in the first reading.

3 Sometimes, I have my doubts as well. How can a 7-15 minute homily even well prepared, be in competition with values and ideas given in music that is listened to for hours each day, and for ads on TV which have video graphics as well. And yet for the last 2000 years, the Word of God has borne fruit. The Word of God has not returned empty, because the Spirit that was there in the beginning in the creation of the world, is there today to renew the face of the earth. But like Paul in the second reading we always have our doubts.

4. Paul tells us that the sufferings we endure in this world cannot be compared to the glory that awaits us. Now Paul knew what he was talking about. We look at the life of Paul and his letters and we admire the man, his generosity with the grace of God, and his tireless activity in proclaiming God’s word. By our standards, Paul would rate as an A+ preacher and apostle. And yet in every one of Paul’s letter - there is a tension, there is a yearning for a sign of success as a result of his preaching. He considered himself a failure. He felt that his message had fallen on rocky ground where the seed would quickly spring up but die because they were not fully grounded in Christ. At other times he thought, that the message had fallen among thorns and weeds (if you listen to the Galatians: You foolish Galatians, so quickly you are deserting the one who called by the Grace of God.)

Whether it was the Corinthians or Ephesians, the Thessalonians or even the Romans whom he had yet to see when he wrote that letter, Paul seems to beg them to cooperate with the Grace of God that is freely given. People in Paul’s time and even now want quick and easy answers to solutions. They seek pleasure and the easy way. They are not willing to pay the price for a reward that will last. As we come up to the Olympics in Beijing, we can see the athletics and the grind and hours they put in - all for a gold medal. By the next year, even their names are forgotten. Paul is encouraging us to put the suffering we have in comparison to the Glory that awaits us. The suffering will pale in insignificance.

Many years later the Artist Auguste Renoir would say the same thing but in different words. Renoir died at the age of 79 in the South of France on December 3, 1919. Towards the end of his life, he was stricken with severe arthritis, he was hardly able to hold the brush any more. So he had the brush tied to his wrists. His friends asked him why did he continue painting when he was in such pain. His reply was simple. Pain passes, beauty endures.

Paul challenges us to pay the price, so that the Word of God may bear much fruit, because the Word of God according to Isaiah will go forth, and not return empty.

Appendix:

St. John’s Gospel tells us “in the beginning was the WORD” not a text message or voice mail! It was the Word. This is the Word that we understand as the Second Person of the Trinity. It was the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us. In our first reading, Isaiah does not have a sense either of the Trinity or the Incarnation. When he speaks about the God’s Word coming forth it more in the sense of the Spirit of God that came forth at the beginning of creation, or Wisdom personified as a woman who accomplished the work of God.