20210127 UNDERSTANDING WITH THE HEART
27 January, 2021, Wednesday, 3rd Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour: Green.
First reading |
Hebrews 10:11-18 © |
Jesus achieved the eternal perfection of all whom he is sanctifying
All the priests stand at their duties every day, offering over and over again the same sacrifices which are quite incapable of taking sins away. He, on the other hand, has offered one single sacrifice for sins, and then taken his place forever, at the right hand of God, where he is now waiting until his enemies are made into a footstool for him.By virtue of that one single offering, he has achieved the eternal perfection of all whom he is sanctifying. The Holy Spirit assures us of this; for he says, first:
This is the covenant I will make with them
when those days arrive;
and the Lord then goes on to say:
I will put my laws into their hearts
and write them on their minds.
I will never call their sins to mind,
or their offences.
When all sins have been forgiven, there can be no more sin offerings.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 109(110):1-4 © |
You are a priest for ever, a priest like Melchizedek of old.
The Lord’s revelation to my Master:
‘Sit on my right:
your foes I will put beneath your feet.’
You are a priest for ever, a priest like Melchizedek of old.
The Lord will wield from Zion
your sceptre of power:
rule in the midst of all your foes.
You are a priest for ever, a priest like Melchizedek of old.
A prince from the day of your birth
on the holy mountains;
from the womb before the dawn I begot you.
You are a priest for ever, a priest like Melchizedek of old.
The Lord has sworn an oath he will not change.
‘You are a priest for ever,
a priest like Melchizedek of old.’
You are a priest for ever, a priest like Melchizedek of old.
Gospel Acclamation | 1S3:9,Jn6:68 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Speak, Lord, your servant is listening:
you have the message of eternal life.
Alleluia!
Or: |
Alleluia, alleluia!
The seed is the word of God, Christ the sower;
whoever finds this seed will remain for ever.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Mark 4:1-20 © |
The parable of the sower
Jesus began to teach by the lakeside, but such a huge crowd gathered round him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there. The people were all along the shore, at the water’s edge. He taught them many things in parables, and in the course of his teaching he said to them, ‘Listen! Imagine a sower going out to sow. Now it happened that, as he sowed, some of the seed fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some seed fell on rocky ground where it found little soil and sprang up straightaway, because there was no depth of earth; and when the sun came up it was scorched and, not having any roots, it withered away. Some seed fell into thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it produced no crop. And some seeds fell into rich soil and, growing tall and strong, produced crop; and yielded thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold.’ And he said, ‘Listen, anyone who has ears to hear!’
When he was alone, the Twelve, together with the others who formed his company, asked what the parables meant. He told them, ‘The secret of the kingdom of God is given to you, but to those who are outside everything comes in parables, so that they may see and see again, but not perceive; may hear and hear again, but not understand; otherwise they might be converted and be forgiven.’
He said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables? What the sower is sowing is the word. Those on the edge of the path where the word is sown are people who have no sooner heard it than Satan comes and carries away the word that was sown in them. Similarly, those who receive the seed on patches of rock are people who, when first they hear the word, welcome it at once with joy. But they have no root in them, they do not last; should some trial come, or some persecution on account of the word, they fall away at once. Then there are others who receive the seed in thorns. These have heard the word, but the worries of this world, the lure of riches and all the other passions come in to choke the word, and so it produces nothing. And there are those who have received the seed in rich soil: they hear the word and accept it and yield a harvest, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’
UNDERSTANDING WITH THE HEART
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Heb 10:11-18; Ps 110:1-4; Mark 4:1-20]
The question that bothered the disciples of Christ, both during His time and in the early Church is the same question we ask, how is it that when the Word of God is preached, some accept and some would not? Has the reception of the Word of God got to do with understanding or something else? If it is pure understanding alone, then how do we explain why there are many great intellectuals and brilliant people in the world, politicians, scientists and doctors who accept the gospel and yet as many reject it? Indeed, the disciples of Jesus must have felt discouraged because the teaching of Jesus on one hand drew many people but it also drew much opposition from the authorities, the supposedly intelligentsia of society, well instructed in the Law and knowledge of God.
This puzzlement seems to be made even more complex with the Lord saying to His disciples, “To you is granted the secret of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside everything comes in parables, so that they may look and look, but never perceive; listen and listen, but never understand; to avoid changing their ways and being healed.” (cf Isa 6:9f) Why would God instruct Isaiah to, “Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed”? (Isa 6:10)
The answer is clearer than we think. The message of the kingdom and God Himself is not meant to be understood with our minds. It is meant to be felt in our hearts. Closing our eyes, ears and minds help a person to enter deeper into himself and his heart. This explains why Jesus taught in parables. By communicating in parables rather than giving a discourse on the Kingdom of God, Jesus drew His listeners to identify themselves with the realities conveyed through the stories taken from their daily life which they could immediately associate with. One does not need to think to identify with the story because they are living the story every day in their life. So, the parables bring about an immediate response of the heart when the story is heard. They would be able to see themselves in that story.
This way of communicating God to the common and ordinary people was much more effective than giving a theological discourse on God and His kingdom. From the earthly, Jesus brought them to understand the heavenly realities. God cannot be described but can only be experienced. No amount of theological exposition on God can replace a personal encounter with Him. This was why St Thomas Aquinas at the end of his long intellectual pursuit in theology, after almost completing the Summa Theologica, said after his encounter with the Lord in the Eucharist, “The end of my labours has come. All I have written appears like straws compared to what has been revealed to me.” The Lord therefore wants us to go beyond our intellectual inquiry to the understanding that comes from the heart.
In other words, the crux of the matter is whether we are ready to surrender our minds and open our hearts to receive the gospel. As long as we hold on to our intellectual knowledge, we will never be able to arrive at the realities because such theological knowledge are shadows of the heavenly realities. Understanding the concept of love is different from falling in love personally. This explains why personal experience and personal contact, especially in critical and heart-wrenching events, changes our perspective of people, situations and suffering. It is easy to give a dogmatic explanation of moral doctrines, expounding on what can be done and what cannot, but when we are faced with a real-life situation, and when our loved ones are involved, it is a different story all together. Like parables, we are not dealing with abstruse and abstract truths but concrete truths and events in our life. We need to ask how we should deal with it specifically, especially when it affects our heart and pains us.
The parable of the sower shows how different people respond to the Word of God differently. Of course, right from the outset, it is true that the preacher or teacher has an important part to play in the communication of the truths. It depends how we sow the Word. If we follow the way of our Lord, that is, if we know how to communicate the Good News effectively, perhaps, more people would be able to identify with our message, open their hearts and receive it. So we cannot dismiss the role that good teachers and preachers play in helping their listeners to hear their message. Such teachers and preachers are rare today. To be able to connect with the life struggles of our people, their aspirations and their struggles, requires the preacher to be in touch with himself and in touch with God.
But the preacher can only do so much, as St Paul said, “But not all have obeyed the good news; for Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our message?'” (Rom 10:16) And the reason given is this, disobedience! “Again I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, ‘I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.’ Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, ‘I have been found by those who did not seek me.’ I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.’ But of Israel he says, ‘All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.'” (Rom 10:18-21)
The key to understanding the mystery of the Kingdom is not an intellectual understanding but a reception of the heart in faith. This explains why the seed that fell on different soils had different reception. The seed that fell on the pathway symbolizes those who are totally disinterested in the gospel. They have more important pursuits in life. And this happens so often today. Many put their ambition in politics, money, power, business and fame before God. So their hearts are not ready for the gospel. Then there are those whose hearts are hardened by the sufferings and trials of life. This is the rocky ground where the seed was sown. So wounded are they, because of betrayals, failures, abuses and injustices, that they have hardened their hearts towards God and people. They are often very skeptical of goodness and truth, especially when they have experienced only evil and hypocrisy. Thirdly, the seed that fell among thorns and got choked by them. This is the group of people who have allowed their preoccupations of daily life, their struggles, their anxieties over work, money, health, business and family, to take away their time for God. They feel so torn and exhausted attending to the demands of daily life that they have no more energy for God.
Finally, we have the seed that fell on rich soil. “They hear the word and accept it and yield a harvest, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” It is significant what the Lord said. Firstly, they heard the Word and then accepted it. On all these levels, the Lord was not speaking about understanding the Word or the mystery of the Kingdom. He had been underscoring that hearing is obeying. Obedience is our response to the Word of God. St Paul put it succinctly, “So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.” (Rom 10:17) When we accept the Word as it is, not some human thinking, it will have its immediate effect on us. (cf 1 Th 2:13) So what is required of us is to accept not because we agree with what the Word of God says, or even understand what it is saying. But we only have to accept in faith because it is God’s word. This is the only answer why some can accept the gospel and our Lord and others cannot accept. It has nothing to do with intelligence but with the disposition of the heart and the mind.
Indeed, Jesus in the first reading is the perfect example for us of what it means to be obedient to the Word of God. Jesus is the perfect high priest and “has offered one single sacrifice for sins, and then taken his seat for ever, at the right hand of God, where he is now waiting till his enemies are made his footstool.” This is made possible because Jesus surrendered Himself to His Father by undergoing the passion and His death. By so doing, the Father raised Him to new life and He gives us the Holy Spirit which is written no longer on tablets but on our hearts. Our sins are forgiven with the perfect sacrifice of Christ and no more sin offerings are needed, except that we must now in turn offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, “holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (Romo 12:1)
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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