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From the Pastor's Desk: July 16, 2023
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From the Pastor’s Desk: July 16, 2023
With the celebration of this Sunday, we continue through the Ordinary Time of the church’s liturgical life. It is “the green season”– it is the season of growth. At the height of the growing season in the northern hemisphere, today's liturgy reminds us that the soul, like soil, must be well prepared if we expect good things to grow from it. Today we are invited to reflect on the first of a series of parables of the Word of God that offers a rich parallel between the natural world and the life of faith. In the series of teachings, Jesus helps us to understand how to be a fruitful follower and an effective evangelist, how to hear God’s word and how to proclaim His word, how to receive God’s grace, and how to live in accordance with it.
So, today we are invited to reflect upon the quality of our soul, the disposition of our relationship with the Lord, and the reality of our fruitfulness as His disciples. The questions that come to mind put in question some basic realities of our existence. Why do some of us follow Jesus to live holy lives and many others walk away following their own bliss? Why among the students of a poor, inner-city school will some kids from down-and-out circumstances go on to become famous surgeons and others end up in jail? Why do some children go on to become great athletes while others with the same coaches and even greater physical coordination and endowments never make it? There are obviously various factors in these disparities, but one of the most basic reasons is that some people are more receptive and more responsive to coaching, education, and to grace.
Today Jesus Himself gives us an answer to these questions - “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear!” Jesus tells plainly and simply - “Pay attention!” This is all the more important today because so many of us have a spiritual attention deficit disorder. In an age of so many words, thousands of emails, YouTube videos, text messages, and blogs published every day, we are so bombarded with words that we necessarily begin to become selective listeners. We block out a lot of the verbiage and we only half-listen to much of the rest. And we can take that selective listening, especially to how we hear what is most important, the word of God. Today Jesus wants us to call our attention to how we listen to Him.
The point of today’s parable is that God wants us all to listen to Him, receive His word, and respond to Him with good soil of our souls. To become a saint, we do not have to be a spiritual superhero; we simply need to give God permission and correspond to what He wishes to do in and through us. We just need to have good, receptive, and responsive soil. If we are going to do that, however, we must grasp what good soil is. “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear!”
This weekend over 50 youth and chaperones from our parish together with Fr. Jaison and seminarian Ken are in Orlando at the Youth Steubenville Conference. This special time dedicated to our youth is a wonderful opportunity for them to rediscover their faith and grow stronger in their desire to live a life of discipleship. Please keep them in your prayers so they will encounter the living Lord in their lives and make Him the center of their lives always.
As we continue with summer vacation, I wish everyone to stay safe and healthy and to find time to relax and enjoy each other’s company. Let us also take seriously the invitation to “hear” and to attend to the needs of our hearts so we would rediscover Jesus and His loving relationship in our lives.
With prayers,
Fr. Andy
