Saturday September 18

TWENTY-FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

THE SEED OF THE WORD

 

Introduction 

At the end of his letter, Paul gives as a program of life to Timothy to remain faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ.

We hear today Luke’s version of the parable of the seed. In Jesus’ original intent, it pictured the difficult growth of the kingdom towards its final accomplishment, of which also Paul speaks in the first reading. Luke applies it in the explanation of the parable to the reception of the Word of God and the life of faith in people’s hearts. God sows the seed, but people receive it differently and react to it in various ways, for it is hard to let it grow and remain loyal to it in the humble and sometimes difficult realities of daily life. How does God’s Word grow and bear fruit in us?

 

Opening Prayer

Lord our God,
we thank you for speaking to us
the Word of your Son, Jesus Christ,
and sowing in our hearts and minds
the seeds of faith.
Open our ears to his Word, day after day,
that it may grow in us
in pain and effort and joy,
that it be rooted ever more deeply
and bear fruits of justice and love,
until the final coming of Jesus Christ,
your Son and our Lord for ever.

 

Reading 1: 1 TM 6:13-16

Beloved:
I charge you before God, who gives life to all things,
and before Christ Jesus,
who gave testimony under Pontius Pilate
for the noble confession,
to keep the commandment without stain or reproach
until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ
that the blessed and only ruler
will make manifest at the proper time,
the King of kings and Lord of lords,
who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light,
and whom no human being has seen or can see.
To him be honor and eternal power. Amen.

 

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 100:1B-2, 3, 4, 5

(2) Come with joy into the presence of the Lord.
Sing joyfully to the LORD all you lands;
serve the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful song.
R. Come with joy into the presence of the Lord.
Know that the LORD is God;
he made us, his we are;
his people, the flock he tends.
R. Come with joy into the presence of the Lord.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
his courts with praise;
Give thanks to him; bless his name.
R. Come with joy into the presence of the Lord.
For he is good:
the LORD, whose kindness endures forever,
and his faithfulness, to all generations.
R. Come with joy into the presence of the Lord.

 

Alleluia: LK 8:15

Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are they who have kept the word with a generous heart
and yield a harvest through perseverance.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

 

Gospel: LK 8:4-15

When a large crowd gathered, with people from one town after another
journeying to Jesus, he spoke in a parable.
“A sower went out to sow his seed.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path and was trampled,
and the birds of the sky ate it up.
Some seed fell on rocky ground, and when it grew,
it withered for lack of moisture.
Some seed fell among thorns,
and the thorns grew with it and choked it.
And some seed fell on good soil, and when it grew,
it produced fruit a hundredfold.”
After saying this, he called out,
“Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”

Then his disciples asked him
what the meaning of this parable might be.
He answered,
“Knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God
has been granted to you;
but to the rest, they are made known through parables
so that they may look but not see, and hear but not understand.

“This is the meaning of the parable.
The seed is the word of God.
Those on the path are the ones who have heard,
but the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts
that they may not believe and be saved.
Those on rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear,
receive the word with joy, but they have no root;
they believe only for a time and fall away in time of temptation.
As for the seed that fell among thorns,
they are the ones who have heard, but as they go along,
they are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life,
and they fail to produce mature fruit.
But as for the seed that fell on rich soil,
they are the ones who, when they have heard the word,
embrace it with a generous and good heart,
and bear fruit through perseverance.”

 

Intercessions

– Lord, give wisdom and courage to all teachers in the Church, that they may help us understand your Word and proclaim it as Good News, we pray:

– Lord, inspire by your Word all the mighty of this earth, that they may join forces to bring to all lasting peace, food and human dignity, we pray:

– Lord, make us receptive to your Word. Free us from banality and fear for our security and certainties. Give us new insight in your message, that we may live as we believe, we pray:

 

Prayer over the Gifts

Lord our God,
accept in this bread and this wine
our eagerness to receive your Son
and to listen to his Word
with noble and generous hearts.
Give him to us as our companion on the road,
that he may keep speaking to us
in people and in the events of life
and that we may understand him
and bear a rich harvest
that lasts, for ever and ever.

 

Prayer after Communion

Lord, our God,
let our words and deeds
echo the message of your Son
and fill us with his life.
Make our human words reliable
and serve unity and the truth.
Pour out your compassion in them,
your love and your joy,
that they may bring strength,
insight and friendship,
by the power of Jesus Christ,
your living Word and our Lord for ever.

 

Blessing

Let the seed of God’s Word fall in the good soil of our eager and receptive hearts, and may Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

Commentary

The soil is the heart, the place where the seed of God’s word is to be received and hidden, and from where it will appear in its own time in a revolution of freshness and new life. But the difficulty is that the soil is never perfect. 

“Some seed fell along the path….” The path is where everyone walks: it’s public. It’s not a place of interest in itself; it leads elsewhere. When you are on a path you are between places, you are nowhere. The path has no interiority. If I’m always on the way to somewhere else (and which of us isn’t nowadays?) I’m nowhere, and the word of God cannot find a place in me. 

“Some seed fell on rocky ground….” The heart can be like a rock or a stone: solid, impenetrable, self-enclosed, separate, unloving and unloved…. Throughout the ages it has been a common metaphor for the heart. “I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh” (Ezk 11:19). 

“Some seed fell among thorns….” It has a chance to grow there, but everything else is growing there too. My power is divided into a thousand parts, and only one is available for the word of God. It’s like flicking through the pages of a magazine: nothing remains in the heart, even though everything was promised. 

“Some seed fell on good soil….” It’s good soil when none of the above applies. Then the heart is deep and soft and silent. Then I may hear the word of God.