Homily:
Today’s Gospel reading begins with “Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea.” Jesus enjoyed sitting on the sea shore. He was enjoying Himself by the sea and when it was overcrowded, He had to get into a boat and preach from there. He sat there and started telling them parable after parable. But no one understood the parables. They enjoyed hearing the parables but did not wonder what our Lord Jesus was trying to say. After hearing the parables, they went away happily, thinking that they had done their part well. It was such a big crowd that our Lord did not have a place to stand on the sea shore. But not even one person from the crowd tried to understand the parables of our Lord Jesus. They went away in the same status just as they came.
Though they physically heard the voice of God, they grasped nothing. They listened but could not understand.
The people in today’s Gospel reading reflect the first set of seeds sown on the path, which the birds ate up. It’s similar to most of us. When we come to church on Sundays, we hear but do not try to understand. So we return back to home in the same state. We may have been doing this for 30 or 40 or even 50 years. Making an effort to understand what we hear and analyse how to apply it in our personal life is very important. God’s Word should result in changes in our lives. If we do not undergo change then, as our Lord Jesus said, birds will come and eat away the seeds. The seeds will be gone from our thoughts. We invest time to think about our insurance plans for our earthly life. But are we working on our insurance for our never-ending life after death? Doing what God tells us is both our insurance plan for earthly life and heavenly life. Whenever we read the Bible or listen to the Word of God, we should ask the Holy Spirit to make us understand “What God is telling me through this”. The Apostles asked this question to our Lord Jesus, then the information became a revelation. If they had not asked Jesus, we would not have received this revelation.
Our Lord Jesus said, “Seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand” – These words perfectly fit us. We go to church, to the house of God. We know our Lord Jesus is there, but we still do not realise it. We hear the words, but do not realise that it is God directly speaking with us. “The testimony of Catalina on the Holy Mass” is a good read to overcome the dullness of our heart.
Another takeaway is the crowd wanted to listen to our Lord Jesus, even though He did not do any miracles here. Even though they could not understand anything. Our Lord Jesus preached the Gospel with full zeal, enthusiasm and energy. We need to be energetic and filled with enthusiasm when we proclaim God’s words. It is our great responsibility to get our younger generation to God. Saint Don Bosco used to conduct a running race for the boys and he himself used to run in it. Then for the boy who ran first he used to give a prize – the medal of Our Lady. Then to arouse their enthusiasm, he would ask, “Do you want to know the story behind the Lady in this medal?” All the boys will be eagerly looking forward to listening to the story. By this he could bring all the young boys and girls to Jesus.
The second type of soil is “rocky ground”: The seeds which fell on rocky ground were received with joy, but when troubles came they wither away. “Rocky ground” is the hard-hearted people. We have a longing to hear the Word of God, but we cannot do it with any sacrifice. The ‘Word of God’ will be applied as long as it is comfortable, but when there is any discomfort to it, we discard it. For example, if someone approaches us to visit a sick person, but we have blocked the time for seeing a movie, we can tell a lie saying that we have important work and skip visiting the sick person. Giving offerings – the heart becomes especially hard during the offering times.
The nature of hard-hearted persons is that we are always bitter and sour. We are drowned in self-pity. We always keep people around us unhappy because we do not have happiness. When others are happy we get irritated, we are jealous, we find fault in them and keep accusing them.
Once an elderly father said to his daughter on his deathbed, “Your mother made me suffer all my life just by scolding me”. Let us be pleasant to everyone. Let no one give such a testimony about us.
A father and mother testified about their only daughter. ‘Our daughter is so selfish and hard-hearted, that we do not have peace when we are around here. Even if we take her for a joyful trip or give her the best things in life, she does not realise it. She can find fault in everything and keeps accusing us. She has made our life very miserable.’
The Bible always says, “Our Lord Jesus was moved with compassion”. Let people have the experience of the compassionate heart of Jesus through us.
The third type of soil is “thorny soil”: We are enthusiastic about God and walking close with Him. We are happy minded, and keep people around us happy. The scripture we are not able to follow is “Seek first the kingdom of God… ” The only issue is that God is not our first priority. We will work hard in our lives. We will climb our ladder very hard, reach the top and finally find that the ladder is placed on the wrong building. We work hard but live and die with regrets. When a parent was questioned about what they wanted their child to be in the future, the parent replied, “I want him to live a life which will make him satisfied at his death-bed”.
The fourth type of soil is “good soil”: This soil does not require any explanation. We will live a fulfilled life and will have a fulfilled death too. We live with Christ so people around us are always peaceful. We do not seek people but people come seeking for us. Since we are listeners and doers of God’s Word, God fills us with more and more revelation. He will develop us and bring us out of all our trials and tribulations and finally grant us the winner’s trophy!!
Dr Johnson said that the only decent reason for publishing anything is to earn money. Better to say: the only good reason for doing anything is for the greater glory of God.
That was the motto of the Jesuits and of Johann Sebastian Bach, phenomenal achievers who never sought glory for themselves.
Why should I do anything, say the talent-buriers, when no one notices and when all I do will be forgotten? Wrong questions.
Plant the seed.
What a privilege to have even a single day of human life at one’s disposal. Whatever you do with it, and you must do something, even if it be to sleep or to watch Netflix, do it with the right intention.
Purify the motive.
The little nameless unremembered acts of kindness and of love — do one of them now, even if it be only to pray for someone, or to “offer up” some woe.
Crushed and flattened by the summer heat — think of your fellow-sufferers, those who have to work hard in this heat, or those in places where the heat is life-threatening — give thanks to the Lord that you have water to cool you, instead of whining in self-pity. The Lord has placed you here, now, under His protecting gaze. Whatever little thing you do, whatever wholesome energy you put forth, is a tiny seed, a contribution to the mighty project of the Kingdom.
Confide your ways to Him, and you will bear fruit, even if invisible, unnoticed and unknown.
Why did Bach write so much music? Too much, his critics say. Why this immoderate proliferation (not to mention his umpteen children)?
But you cannot have too much of a good thing, or too little either. The golden quality of good thoughts and good deeds is not measured by human calculation. It shines in the Lord’s sight.
And so together we plant the good seeds, until with amazement we see rearing up before us that great Tree, when all the tares of superficial and vulgar activities are swept away, the great Tree of God’s planting in which the birds of heaven nest.
Key Message:
Eagerly Listen!! Eagerly Do!!
Homily:
Today’s Gospel reading begins with “Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea.” Jesus enjoyed sitting on the sea shore. He was enjoying Himself by the sea and when it was overcrowded, He had to get into a boat and preach from there. He sat there and started telling them parable after parable. But no one understood the parables. They enjoyed hearing the parables but did not wonder what our Lord Jesus was trying to say. After hearing the parables, they went away happily, thinking that they had done their part well. It was such a big crowd that our Lord did not have a place to stand on the sea shore. But not even one person from the crowd tried to understand the parables of our Lord Jesus. They went away in the same status just as they came.
Though they physically heard the voice of God, they grasped nothing. They listened but could not understand.
The people in today’s Gospel reading reflect the first set of seeds sown on the path, which the birds ate up. It’s similar to most of us. When we come to church on Sundays, we hear but do not try to understand. So we return back to home in the same state. We may have been doing this for 30 or 40 or even 50 years. Making an effort to understand what we hear and analyse how to apply it in our personal life is very important. God’s Word should result in changes in our lives. If we do not undergo change then, as our Lord Jesus said, birds will come and eat away the seeds. The seeds will be gone from our thoughts. We invest time to think about our insurance plans for our earthly life. But are we working on our insurance for our never-ending life after death? Doing what God tells us is both our insurance plan for earthly life and heavenly life. Whenever we read the Bible or listen to the Word of God, we should ask the Holy Spirit to make us understand “What God is telling me through this”. The Apostles asked this question to our Lord Jesus, then the information became a revelation. If they had not asked Jesus, we would not have received this revelation.
Our Lord Jesus said, “Seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand” – These words perfectly fit us. We go to church, to the house of God. We know our Lord Jesus is there, but we still do not realise it. We hear the words, but do not realise that it is God directly speaking with us. “The testimony of Catalina on the Holy Mass” is a good read to overcome the dullness of our heart.
Another takeaway is the crowd wanted to listen to our Lord Jesus, even though He did not do any miracles here. Even though they could not understand anything. Our Lord Jesus preached the Gospel with full zeal, enthusiasm and energy. We need to be energetic and filled with enthusiasm when we proclaim God’s words. It is our great responsibility to get our younger generation to God. Saint Don Bosco used to conduct a running race for the boys and he himself used to run in it. Then for the boy who ran first he used to give a prize – the medal of Our Lady. Then to arouse their enthusiasm, he would ask, “Do you want to know the story behind the Lady in this medal?” All the boys will be eagerly looking forward to listening to the story. By this he could bring all the young boys and girls to Jesus.
The second type of soil is “rocky ground”: The seeds which fell on rocky ground were received with joy, but when troubles came they wither away. “Rocky ground” is the hard-hearted people. We have a longing to hear the Word of God, but we cannot do it with any sacrifice. The ‘Word of God’ will be applied as long as it is comfortable, but when there is any discomfort to it, we discard it. For example, if someone approaches us to visit a sick person, but we have blocked the time for seeing a movie, we can tell a lie saying that we have important work and skip visiting the sick person. Giving offerings – the heart becomes especially hard during the offering times.
The nature of hard-hearted persons is that we are always bitter and sour. We are drowned in self-pity. We always keep people around us unhappy because we do not have happiness. When others are happy we get irritated, we are jealous, we find fault in them and keep accusing them.
Once an elderly father said to his daughter on his deathbed, “Your mother made me suffer all my life just by scolding me”. Let us be pleasant to everyone. Let no one give such a testimony about us.
A father and mother testified about their only daughter. ‘Our daughter is so selfish and hard-hearted, that we do not have peace when we are around here. Even if we take her for a joyful trip or give her the best things in life, she does not realise it. She can find fault in everything and keeps accusing us. She has made our life very miserable.’
The Bible always says, “Our Lord Jesus was moved with compassion”. Let people have the experience of the compassionate heart of Jesus through us.
The third type of soil is “thorny soil”: We are enthusiastic about God and walking close with Him. We are happy minded, and keep people around us happy. The scripture we are not able to follow is “Seek first the kingdom of God… ” The only issue is that God is not our first priority. We will work hard in our lives. We will climb our ladder very hard, reach the top and finally find that the ladder is placed on the wrong building. We work hard but live and die with regrets. When a parent was questioned about what they wanted their child to be in the future, the parent replied, “I want him to live a life which will make him satisfied at his death-bed”.
The fourth type of soil is “good soil”: This soil does not require any explanation. We will live a fulfilled life and will have a fulfilled death too. We live with Christ so people around us are always peaceful. We do not seek people but people come seeking for us. Since we are listeners and doers of God’s Word, God fills us with more and more revelation. He will develop us and bring us out of all our trials and tribulations and finally grant us the winner’s trophy!!
AD MAIOREM DEI GLORIAM
Dr Johnson said that the only decent reason for publishing anything is to earn money. Better to say: the only good reason for doing anything is for the greater glory of God.
That was the motto of the Jesuits and of Johann Sebastian Bach, phenomenal achievers who never sought glory for themselves.
Why should I do anything, say the talent-buriers, when no one notices and when all I do will be forgotten? Wrong questions.
Plant the seed.
What a privilege to have even a single day of human life at one’s disposal. Whatever you do with it, and you must do something, even if it be to sleep or to watch Netflix, do it with the right intention.
Purify the motive.
The little nameless unremembered acts of kindness and of love — do one of them now, even if it be only to pray for someone, or to “offer up” some woe.
Crushed and flattened by the summer heat — think of your fellow-sufferers, those who have to work hard in this heat, or those in places where the heat is life-threatening — give thanks to the Lord that you have water to cool you, instead of whining in self-pity. The Lord has placed you here, now, under His protecting gaze. Whatever little thing you do, whatever wholesome energy you put forth, is a tiny seed, a contribution to the mighty project of the Kingdom.
Confide your ways to Him, and you will bear fruit, even if invisible, unnoticed and unknown.
Why did Bach write so much music? Too much, his critics say. Why this immoderate proliferation (not to mention his umpteen children)?
But you cannot have too much of a good thing, or too little either. The golden quality of good thoughts and good deeds is not measured by human calculation. It shines in the Lord’s sight.
And so together we plant the good seeds, until with amazement we see rearing up before us that great Tree, when all the tares of superficial and vulgar activities are swept away, the great Tree of God’s planting in which the birds of heaven nest.