20250920 THE HEART OF THE MATTER
20 September 2025, Saturday, 24th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading |
1 Timothy 6:13-16 |
I put to you the duty of doing all that you have been told
Before God the source of all life and before Christ, who spoke up as a witness for the truth in front of Pontius Pilate, I put to you the duty of doing all that you have been told, with no faults or failures, until the Appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who at the due time will be revealed
by God, the blessed and only Ruler of all,
the King of kings and the Lord of lords,
who alone is immortal,
whose home is in inaccessible light,
whom no man has seen and no man is able to see:
to him be honour and everlasting power. Amen.
Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 99(100) |
Come before the Lord, singing for joy.
Cry out with joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before him, singing for joy.
Come before the Lord, singing for joy.
Know that he, the Lord, is God.
He made us, we belong to him,
we are his people, the sheep of his flock.
Come before the Lord, singing for joy.
Go within his gates, giving thanks.
Enter his courts with songs of praise.
Give thanks to him and bless his name.
Come before the Lord, singing for joy.
Indeed, how good is the Lord,
eternal his merciful love.
He is faithful from age to age.
Come before the Lord, singing for joy.
Gospel Acclamation | Ps118:18 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Open my eyes, O Lord, that I may consider
the wonders of your law.
Alleluia!
Or: | cf.Lk8:15 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessed are those who,
with a noble and generous heart,
take the word of God to themselves
and yield a harvest through their perseverance.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 8:4-15 |
The parable of the sower
With a large crowd gathering and people from every town finding their way to him, Jesus used this parable:
‘A sower went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell on the edge of the path and was trampled on; and the birds of the air ate it up. Some seed fell on rock, and when it came up it withered away, having no moisture. Some seed fell amongst thorns and the thorns grew with it and choked it. And some seed fell into rich soil and grew and produced its crop a hundredfold.’ Saying this he cried, ‘Listen, anyone who has ears to hear!’
His disciples asked him what this parable might mean, and he said, ‘The mysteries of the kingdom of God are revealed to you; for the rest there are only parables, so that
they may see but not perceive,
listen but not understand.
‘This, then, is what the parable means: the seed is the word of God. Those on the edge of the path are people who have heard it, and then the devil comes and carries away the word from their hearts in case they should believe and be saved. Those on the rock are people who, when they first hear it, welcome the word with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of trial they give up. As for the part that fell into thorns, this is people who have heard, but as they go on their way they are choked by the worries and riches and pleasures of life and do not reach maturity. As for the part in the rich soil, this is people with a noble and generous heart who have heard the word and take it to themselves and yield a harvest through their perseverance.’
THE HEART OF THE MATTER
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1 Tim 6:13-16; Ps 100:1-5; Lk 8:4-15]
The whole mission of our Lord is to reveal to us the mystery of the Kingdom of God. However, this kingdom can only be understood from within, not from outside. Indeed, only those who are disciples of our Lord can grasp the mystery of the Kingdom of God, for God’s kingdom is not understood intellectually but experientially. In other words, without a personal encounter with God or with Christ, our ability to understand what it means to live under the reign of God would be hopelessly inadequate. This explains why the Lord does not provide an intellectual discourse on the kingdom. As an experience and an encounter, it is a gift given to the disciples of the Lord. Love is always a gift.
Hence, the parable of the Sower and the seeds, directed to the apostles, is meant to guide and encourage them in their ministry, lest they get discouraged when they fail to elicit the desired response from their listeners. This parable explains how the Gospel message takes root in the hearts of its hearers. Just as producing a crop is a process that takes time, so too, the message of the Gospel, depending on how receptive the heart is. Indeed, if it were merely an intellectual understanding, the Lord would not have cited Isaiah: “Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand. Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, listen with their ears, comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed.” (Isa 6:9-11) In other words, the mystery of God’s kingdom cannot be understood by the mind but only by the heart. To the disciples, however, the Lord said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God,” because they share the mind and heart of the Lord through their personal contact with Him.
Thus, coming to understand the mystery of God’s kingdom requires the heart more than the head. This explains why Luke’s version of the Gospel is much shorter than that of Mark and Matthew, because Luke focuses on the dispositions of those who receive the seed, unlike the former who focuses on the sower. The failure, in Luke’s assessment, lies in the lack of receptivity of the heart. The seed on the rock represents how a hardened heart makes it difficult for God to penetrate deeply enough to bring about real conversion. Such people think they are very intelligent and question anything that does not agree with them. They worship technology and science and substitute them for the true God. They can be hostile to faith, often sceptical and uninterested. Their hearts are dulled.
Hardened hearts refer to those whose conversion is short-lived and superficial. Their hearts are shallow, and so is their response to God. At most, it is a shallow emotional reaction to Christ. They are half-baked Christians who quickly fall away. This is why those who do not prepare themselves well for baptism, confirmation, marriage, confession or a retreat find that whatever experience of God, conversion, or insights they receive does not last. If they do not allow the seed to take root in their hearts, “the devil comes and carries away the word from their hearts in case they should believe and be saved. Those on the rock are people who, when they first hear it, welcome the word with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of trial they give up.”
“As for the part that fell into thorns, this is people who have heard, but as they go on their way they are choked by the worries and riches and pleasures of life and do not reach maturity.” The thorny soil represents those whose hearts are filled with many desires, choking God out with life’s distractions. Infested hearts divide their loyalties. They want to seek the Lord, but they are more attracted by the world. By allowing their hearts to pursue riches, pleasures, power, and fame, together with worries, fears, anger, resentment, envy, and greed, whatever little space God has in their lives is eventually driven out. There is no environment for growth. As the Lord warns, “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” (Mt 6:24)
Luke often notes that wealth can destroy a person’s life and become a harmful distraction. (Lk 6:24; 12:16-21; 14:12; 16:1, 19, 21-22; 18:23, 25; 19:2; 21:1). Indeed, when we have wrong priorities and allow idolatry–the worship of false gods–into our hearts, then the true God cannot dwell in us. As the Lord says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Mt 6:19-21)
What is most telling is that those with “a noble and generous heart who have heard the word and take it to themselves and yield a harvest through their perseverance.” Indeed, it is the heart that counts in the end–a heart that perseveres, especially under persecution, will see us through. In another passage, Luke recounts the Lord saying, “You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.” (Lk 21:16-19) In Luke’s understanding, persecution, rather than the pleasures of life, is the obstacle to fruitfulness. Those who possess an honest and good heart will bear fruit with patience, for those with faith in God can endure trials much better than those who rely only on themselves or the world. Only when we cling to the Word of God in faith can we overcome the tribulations of life.
It is important to bear in mind that this parable is not speaking about a response to the Word of God at any given moment, but the different moments in which we respond to the Word of God in our daily lives. Faith is something that grows, just as the loss of faith happens gradually. No one becomes an angel or a devil overnight. It takes time–little by little–for us to grow in faith or deteriorate in it. Over time, pleasures can erode our love for the Word of God and for worship. Over time, bad habits and worldly pursuits can possess our hearts until we become indifferent to the Holy Spirit at work in our lives. This is why we must hold on to the Word of God if we want to remain hopeful, faithful, and fruitful.
This explains why, following this parable, Luke reminds us of our responsibility to keep the Word of God alive in our hearts by constantly and faithfully bearing witness to it in our lives. In the parable of a lamp under a jar, he says, “No one after lighting a lamp hides it under a jar, or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nor is anything secret that will not become known and come to light. Then pay attention to how you listen; for to those who have, more will be given; and from those who do not have, even what they seem to have will be taken away.” (Lk 8:16-18)
To crown it all, Jesus gives us the perfect example of one who listens to the Word of God and bears fruit – His own mother. “Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. And he was told, ‘Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.’ But he said to them, ‘My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.'” (Lk 8:19-21) Mary’s heart was entirely focused on the Lord, with undivided love and total obedience to the Word of God. God’s Word took root in her, and so she conceived Jesus both in her heart and in the flesh.
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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