OMELIE / Omelie EN

16 lug 2023

16/07/2023 - 15th Sunday in O.T. – year A

16/07/2023 - 15^th Sunday in O.T. – year A

Reading 1 IS 55,10-11 Psalm 64 Reading 2 ROM 8,18-23 Gospel MT 13,1-23

The prophet Isaiah has observed the rain falling from the sky and has seen the weat growing in the fields, the weat which men need to survive. His thoughts though were concentrated on the Word God had given him to report to the people of Israel. That Word too is coming from the sky, and it too does not come for nothing, but comes to be fruitful, to fulfill God’s desires and plans!

Jesus starts from Isaiah’s vision to continue the talk He gives us today. The seed comes from the sky to the field. It comes thanks to the farmer’s work, who is sowing generously and with full trust. The field is not even: in it there are paths and rocks, grow thorny bushes and spikes. The viable crops will only come from the good soil. They who listen to Jesus are not used to transfer practical observations to spiritual life. He Himself helps us with that, then. Not all people want to understand, because not all of them want to listen to God, who certainly is advising changes in the way of living and thinking. Those who want to be available to love God, they can see that the farmer’s work is Jesus’s work. He is the one sowing the Word in everyone, even in the sinners, in those who struggle to observe the laws as the Pharisees do, with His trust not put in the field, but in the seed itself. Jesus trusts the power of the Word, not men’s goodness. He knows that the man is incapable of offering joy and consolation to God. This will be done by the Word which will be live in their heart!

Jesus sows, speaks to everyone. We will see later which one is the good soil. It is not possible to see it earlier on, because it happens that people you might think are good do not listen to Jesus because they trust other reasonings, and people you might think are bad and useless, instead, give Jesus’s Word unexpected obedience which changes their life and makes them living stones in God’s spiritual building!

The centre of the parable is Jesus: He wants to let us know Him, wants to show Himself to us, and above all wants us to know Him to give Him trust and to take His Word seriously, nay, His person as Word of the Father, sown in our hearts.

The farmer sows everywhere. Also among rocks and thorny bushes there could be some patch of good soil. It will be clear later. He is trusty and He is not afraid of the obstacles. There are many who are hungry and are waiting for the bread. And the seed falling on fertile soil will cover the one that goes lost.

The seed, in order to bear fruit, does not only need the soil, but also a long time, which becomes a time of wait. The same for Jesus’s Word: the time waiting for the fruit of the Word is a time for crying and suffering. Saint Paul tells us so. We are part of the creation which “awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God”. This wait is letting us feel the weight of slavery, the slavery to the sin which has made us lose the joy of knowing and feeling we are children of God, has thrown us into uncertainty and fear. But our wait will be abundantly repayed, when we will realise that the Father has made our obedience to Jesus His Son fruitful.

The Word which comes from Jesus, and which we welcome in our heart and actions, will bear fruit, will allow us to enjoy again being sons with Him, being loved by the Father, being useful to His Kingdom. The suffering we live today and is accompanying us daily is going to disappear, because we will see appearing in our life the divine love: the glory of God will be revealed in us!

The certainty of the fruit of the Word sown in us, so of Jesus in us, is consoling us, relieving us and giving us hope and joy even while we bear the weight of the wait, the weight of the suffering which being sinners brings upon us.