FIFTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - A

15TH SUNDAY – A: (Is 55, 10-11; Rom 8:18-23; Math 13:1-23)
Theme: We Reap Only What We Sow

Reflection:
- We are in the fifteenth Sunday of the year A and we are nourishing ourselves with the food of the Gospel of Mathew;
- We have entered into the discourse of Jesus on the kingdom of God and the thirteenth chapter is full of parables about the elements/qualities of the kingdom of God;
- The Church calls us today to meditate and assimilate the message of the ‘parable of the Sower’: the intention of the sower; the condition of the field; and the sprouting of the seed and the percentage of the fruit;
- And the end we can only say that we reap only what we sow


First Reading:
- This the splendid oracle of the Lord which comes as an ending part of the Second Isaiah (chapters 40-55); it celebrates the efficacy and the fertile force of the word of God; the prophet takes the image of the ‘agricultural sphere’ and thus enters into the mind of the listeners very easily because in his historical context most of them were workers of the land, who depend mostly on the mercy of the rains and snows; the prophet makes a figure of a ‘complete cycle of process’ of relations between the divine word proclaimed and the humanity which received it.
- The Nature and the Mission of the rain and the snow:
o They come from above
o They go deep down into the earth
o They make the soil creative and potent
o They return again in the form of a vapor
- The word that God speaks
o Com from above that is from the mouth of the Lord
o It enters into the ears/heart – life of each listener
o It produces its effect of growth and
o It makes its return journey to the original destiny
- The analogy is very clear: the potency and the purpose of the Word that God Speaks and Sends: the mystery and mission of Jesus, the Word of/with/in God.
- Isaiah, the prophet of hope, again speaks of the salvation that will be effected with the descending, entering into the world, and ascending of Messiah from God, for God and to God; He produces the life in his listeners and in his followers;
- The word that comes from the mouth of the Lord (v.11):
o We can also find the presence and the power of the Trinity: God, the Father who Speaks; God, the Son is the Word; God, the Spirit is the Potency;
o In the very act of creation and in the courses of the events in the redemptive design of God for man is process is seen: God spoke, the word came out and it power, the Spirit, worked/fulfilled the purpose for which it was sent: for example, the light: God said that there be light and there was light.
o It the same process that God has followed in all his marvelous action for the people of Israel: from the calling of Abraham (God called, the word has come out, and the power has made Abraham to accept and follow it) to the deliverance of the people of Israel from the slavery of the Egypt; it is the same process that He puts in the mouth of the prophet to speak out to the people.
o In the reciprocal art of ‘embracing’ the word, speaking and listening, the whole life of man is contained and it is for this reason Jesus also says that “Man lives not by bread alone but by the word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Mt 4:4);

The Second Reading:
- The only destiny of man is the ‘future glory’ of being the children of God;
o Being the sons of God is not a simply a pious and holy word or invitation, but it has a Nature and it has a Mission;
o The Nature of being sons of God is: accepting and embracing the will of God;
o The Mission of being sons of God is: living for it till the end;
o This nature and mission has to be completed/accomplished (like that of rain and snow) in spite of the sufferings that press us and suppress us, because we have the hope as Paul holds that these sufferings of the present moment are not to be compared to the future glory that will be revealed to/in us (v.18);
- Both the creation and the man are groaning for the revelation:
o Man has lost his dignity of being ‘with the Lord’ with his fall into sin and thus buying the death, because the wage of sin is the death, and finally lost the status of being the children of God;
o Creation was brought down to the ‘falling status’ and to the level of death by the disobedience of man;
o Now they both of groaning to be born again, like woman in labor, to become new creation and new man and that will be realized ‘in the embracing and accepting’ of the Word (Jesus Christ) that has come down from God and has accomplished the purpose of salvation;

Gospel Reading:
- The meaning of parables:
o Parable which signifies ‘comparison’ in Greek, is a method of using the imaginations and fables to indicate the ‘hidden reality’ and which in turn demands very often the explanations;
o It is not a simple means to make the people understand the difficult things but more than that, it is a presentation of a religious mystery which goes beyond the human knowledge and the presentation under the form of enigmas.
o It provokes in the listeners, their curiosity, their research, their task and thus it makes the discernment between the believers and those who refuse the faith.
- The necessity of parables:
o The appeal of Jesus to the people to see, to understand, to observe and to listen which is not so easy many times; there is a need for a sincere search;
o When needed and asked Jesus explains them the meaning and to those who ask him with the good will to understand and in turn they enter into the familiarity and intimacy with the kingdom of God and others close themselves outside and in the darkness of ignorance.
- The destiny/task of the parables:
o There is the clear contrast between ‘them’ and ‘you’: reading the parable cannot keep us neutral. There is a need to make an option to invest not only one’s intelligence but one’s whole life.
o That’s why even Mathew keeps this chapter in the centre of his Gospel (13th chapter); it was preceded by ‘the true family of Jesus’ (12:46-50) and followed by ‘the people of Nazareth refusing Jesus’ (13:54-58); thus it is a chapter which makes the clear-cut difference between the ‘poor in spirit’ who accept to enter into the mystery of the salvation of God and the ‘hard-hearted’ who reject it. It open the drama of the division in the people of Israel in the matters of Jesus;
- The parable of the Sower:
o ‘going out’: Jesus goes out to meet the people to sow in them the seeds of the kingdom of God; the farmer has to go out into the fields to sow; if he sits at home nothing happens and nothing moves ahead and so ‘going out’ of one’s own house is the first step to sow:
 That’s why Jesus tells again that if we want to be worthy of God’s kingdom we have to leave what is ours – our home, our parents, our relatives and also our own possessions;
 That’s what Jesus himself has done: He has ‘come out’ of his Glorious House, the Father’s Bosom, the heavens in order to fulfill God’s will and to lead people to the path of salvation;
 Like a sower, he has come out of his own residence of glory and he is spreading the seeds of joy and peace amidst the people, the field that he has chosen for the irrigation of redemption.
o ‘the house’: in the gospel of Mathew there is many reference to the ‘house’ but it is very difficult to point out what exactly Jesus means about the house:
 is it of Jesus, is it of Peter or is it of someone else; for Jesus the house is a ‘place of reunion and place of teaching’ to the disciples;
 surely, ‘the son of man has no place to lay his head’ (Mt 8:20); but it does not mean that Jesus was wandering and living only in the open place or on the streets; Jesus had his own moments of rest under the fixed houses.
o The sower: Mathew talks about ‘the’ sower, not the ‘one’ sower; he intends to indicate one precise and specific person; the sower does not throw voluntarily the seeds on the path, on the rocky ground or among the thorns; he fulfills his task of sowing as a good worker/good farmer; it all depends on the readiness/preparedness of the receiver;
o Listen who has ears: this is the mode of bringing an attention in relation to the preceding parable and the listeners of Jesus should embrace his word as a good soil which embraces the seed when it is sowed;
- ‘You – They’: the opposition underlines the mysterious aspect of the gift of God; to all is given the same project but some – YOU – listen to it and accept it, and others – THEY – neglect it and reject it. Some, the twelve and the receivers, receive abundantly and profoundly the gift of God; others, the only-listeners, receive only the form and its image and not the true meaning and therefore, what they also will be removed from them.
- Understand: the seed is the word of the kingdom; the soil is the heart of man with all his grades of embracing/accepting it. It is the word which may become a fruit or barren but the man who receives it who is influenced by the Satan and all the situations that he is surrounded by.
- The four types of soil:
o On the roadside: it indicates the lack of profundity because of the superficial and lazy responses; the beauty and attractions of the world along side of the road are very much provoking that the mind is blocked to think what is good and right and the heart is far way from understanding what is truth; man falls into the slavery of the beauty of the world forgetting the beauty of soul and salvation;
o On the rocky ground: it indicates the trials and the attacks that come on the way which hardens the heart to believe in the truth; the various distractions and preoccupations in life makes the listener of the word to neglect it or forget it immediately after its reception;
o Among the thorns: it indicates the passions, the possessions, the illusions of the world which suppress the goodness of man and block all the channels of divine inspirations; finally the sin kills the life (Rom 7:5); the problems and the sufferings take the great importance in life. We give more time and more energy for the unimportant and unnecessary passions. This kills and hinders our opportunities to understand and assimilate the word that is listened.
o Good Soil: it is known by the good fruits that it bears (7, 16-20), but not immediately but in the time of reaping only (21,34). There are different percentages, not because of the merits of the listeners, but because of the deeds he fulfills and because of the faith that he manifests and because of the energy he puts in to make it grow (like that of the parable of the talents).

Conclusion:
- Christ is the ‘GREAT WORD’ of God who has been sown into every part of the world and who listens to him and who receives him will bear the fruit: fruit of salvation;
- We are called to be ‘the word of God’ in our daily lives: as Christians we are sent out/we are sown into the community/society and into the world; we have to sow the seeds into all types of grounds (religions/cultures/languages); we have to sow the seed and whether it is received or rejected will depend on it final product of the fruits;
- Powerful Weapon: A word can create peace/goodness/kindness and therefore, a community of fraternity and solidarity; a word can also pave the way to the misunderstanding, fight and war; a word is a such a powerful weapon; it all depend on how we makes use of the word and what word ‘come out’ from our mouth.
- Attention in Talking: the tongue has no bone; it simply moves however it wants; it simply puts out whatever it desires; we, as Christians, have to be attentive when making the ‘word come out’ of our mouth; it can makes us friends of many or it can also make us enemies of many; we have take great care in letting the word (our speaking) out; Good seed is always fruitful; Good word is always powerful;
- Let us be good word of God for all those who are around us because the truth is: ‘we reap only what we sow’.