Ordinary Time

Jan 12 2025

Sowing Seed—Attentively

Farming has changed. Imagine, just for a moment, how Jesus might have told this parable differently today:

A sower went out to sow. The seed was the Word of God, precious and life-giving, too good to be scattered about without careful preparation. Therefore, the Sower paid careful attention to the soil: where it was rocky, he dug out the rocks; where it was too acidic or too alkaline, he adjusted the pH. Late in the autumn, he added three inches of manure and planted a cover crop, which he then turned under in early March. When planting season came, he set the seeds one by one in rows spaced six inches apart. Where the seeds dropped on the rocky path, he placed them back into the rich loam. He sent the sun to shine. He watered the seeds carefully. He asked the Holy Spirit to breathe on them each day. And before the weeds got too big, he hoed the soil, being careful not to damage the roots of the Word of God plants. With such personal care, the seeds grew tall and bore fruit, a hundred-fold to the glory of God.

What do you think? In Jesus’ original version, the message is that our receptivity to the Word of God is what matters. In the modern version, as God’s hands, we share in sowing the Word of God. Do we “scatter the Word of God” without attending to the soil? As much devotion needs to go into what is being received as to what we are saying. Sometimes we have to be willing to sacrifice our own assumptions to nurture the growth of others. More nourishment, a little less acidic, a bit of weeding . . . the care with which we plant the Word of God: it matters.

Consider/Discuss

We cannot make seeds grow; that is God’s job. But we can attend to the conditions within which growth is most likely to occur. What have you yourself seen? What “soil conditions” have most helped your faith to grow?
The reign of God is worth our best efforts. Yet throughout Christian history, because of this parable, “they’re not good soil” has excused ministry that has not borne fruit. (To be fair, some soil is so acidic that nothing will grow.) Rather than pointing a finger at others’ unreceptivity, how can we ourselves become more adept at preparing soil?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord, you give us rain from heaven to water the earth. Your showers keep the earth soft. You want your word to bear fruit; you want it to achieve what you sent it for. We, in turn, want to serve you and your Word. Teach us what we need to know so that the words that we say will be living and effective. Holy Spirit, come to the aid of our weakness so that we bear fruit that will last.

Jan 12 2025

Scripture Study for

The first reading concludes chapters 40–55 of Isaiah, most of which come from the end of the exilic period. This section of Isaiah, which focuses on God’s intention to restore a people under judgment, begins with attention to God’s “word” as sure and effective (40:5, 8). What God announces will happen simply because it is the word of God. Now God promises that repentant sinners will find mercy because, unlike human beings, God does not nurse grudges but is instead “generous in forgiving” (55:7). Those who cannot believe in God’s mercy or in the divine intention to save are exhorted to trust in the always-efficacious word of God.

Continuing his line of argument from the last couple of weeks, Paul reflects on what it means to have died with Christ. Not only have the baptized, now “in Christ,” been released from slavery to sin and death, they have also been adopted as God’s children and heirs along with Christ. But this inheritance, which is their glorification, comes with a price, suffering (8:14–17), which is nevertheless a small price to pay for what awaits them. And not only them, but all of creation, which right now is also subject to death. Just as “the children of God,” who in their physical bodies share in the corruption of the created world, will one day experience the “redemption of our bodies,” so too will all creation be redeemed.

Jesus’ parable describes the three classic obstacles to doing the will of God: the evil one, who prevents the word from being truly heard; the flesh, that part of the human person that will abandon God’s will if it means struggle or trouble; and the world, those aspects of human society that are opposed to God, yet appealing to the flesh. Jesus speaks in enigmatic parables because the kingdom is only for those who are willing to put in the time and struggle to understand its proclamation, which cannot be appreciated on a single, simple hearing. The medium, then, is the message: the kingdom of God, in which the will of God is known and lived, is for those who are willing to sacrifice to enter it. This has been Jesus’ message from the beginning.

Jan 12 2025

Burdens Borne by Love

I lie in bed half awake and half asleep, thinking about “my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” In this blurred mental state, scenes flash through my head.

The burden is light? Ponderous chords from the musical Les Misérables say not. Prisoners sweat in the sun. Their backs are hopelessly bent. How can the yoke be easy? Oppression and misery and pain; there is so much bondage in the world.

In the darkness behind my eyelids, my mind zooms to yesterday. I see my friend. I recall the hospital bed in her living room: a time she will never forget. Her husband died in that bed while they were saying the rosary.

I see a young mother and her six-month-old son. Rocking and feeding, playing and interacting—all day and all night, she is yoked to that boy. Babies are hard work.

So why are some yokes easier to bear? There was a deep love between my friend and her dying husband. There was warmth in my daughter-in-law’s eyes yesterday when she looked into the eyes of my grandson. We will do difficult things for love. Love makes the burden light.

Sin makes the burden heavy. We cannot act as though everything is not so bad after all. Oppression is wrong. Misery harms. Prisoners matter. We carry the burdens of others—not nameless faces in a movie, but the needy folks who surround us. Yet the joy of discipleship is that we do not carry that weight alone.

Now I am ready to wake up. The love of this world is strong. The burden of the world is heavy. This is a paradox bigger than I can shoulder. I get out of bed, grateful that this world has a Savior, and more grateful that it is not me.

Consider/Discuss

God is the one who wants to save us, to carry our burdens, to set us free. How do we resist that? How do we burden ourselves down?
The joy of love makes life lighter. Who has helped you to carry your cross?

Living and Praying with the Word

Jesus, you ask us to be childlike, to trust you to carry our burdens. Love has lifted us up. Sin has torn us down. You know that we have experienced both. Lord, give us the strength this day to do all that we can today for whomever you put in our path. We are willing to work hard to make a difference in this world, but you are going to have to carry it, for we cannot. Come, Savior of the world, come!

Jan 12 2025

Scripture Study for

In this salvation oracle to the post-exilic community, the identity of the royal figure is unstated, but he fulfills the expectations of many prophets of the ideal Davidic king. Donkeys were regularly associated with royal figures in the ancient Near East and the fact that he arrives on a donkey rather than on a horse, with all the military connotations of that animal, suggests this “just savior” will be humble and peaceful. He ends warfare in both the former kingdom of Israel (Ephraim) and in Jerusalem. The mention of Israel, destroyed centuries before the oracle was probably uttered, points toward the divine will to bring all of God’s people, currently scattered around the world, back to the land.

Paul continues his exploration of how the death of Christ has released those in bondage to sin. He now introduces the idea of flesh versus spirit. Flesh refers to that aspect of the human person that opposes God, that remains under the thumb of sin and inclined toward it. For the baptized, this “flesh” constitutes the “old self,” which is opposed to the spirit, that aspect of the human person that is not under the reign of sin but under the reign of the Spirit of God in Christ. He reminds the Romans that those in whom the Spirit dwells are no longer under the bondage of sin and therefore are not “debtors to the flesh.”

Jesus has just proclaimed that Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum will face judgment for not repenting after witnessing his mighty deeds; they have not recognized who Jesus is and what he is about. They represent “the wise and the learned,” whose sophistication prevents them from accepting Jesus and his message. Only the “little ones,” capable of “childlike” faith, are able to see that Jesus does the work of the Father and reveals him. Those willing to take on the yoke of discipleship will discover it to be a source of refreshment, not only because of the subject matter (God), but also because their teacher (who reveals God) is gentle and kind to those who wish to learn from him.

Jan 12 2025

A Season of Generosity

It might seem to be a funny time to be talking about death. Right now, much of the northern temperate region is in full flower: roses are blooming, peach trees are setting fruit, and rivers are flowing. Thinking about death belongs to those dark and gloomy days in mid-January when it is so dreary.

But Jesus talks about losing our lives. And it is June: bright, happy, generous June. How are we to make sense of that paradox? Losing life, when we are surrounded by so much life?

Perhaps, though, life is made up of small deaths. To die to self, to make ourselves do what we don’t really want to do, actually seems easier in June. It is an almost playfully die-to-self time, time to take the hand of a child and go look at the grasshoppers when you know that the guests are about to pull into the driveway and the dishes are not washed; time to call an elderly friend when it will use up an hour of your life; time to say yes to an adult son or daughter even when it may cost a lot.

June is the time to strive for the greater, the more expansive, the honorable. The way that we choose to live is the way that we will die—with our hands wide open or with our fists tightly closed. Jesus’ call to generosity, to give ourselves away, can blossom because of the buoyancy breaking all around us. How can we not be more conscientious today when the bees are working so hard to make honey? Give a cup of water to a little one? Certainly. Take up the cross, Jesus? Surely. Die to sin, St. Paul? Indubitably. It is June. Lord, your glory and your grace are here. We can do that!

Consider/Discuss

God’s bounty is all around us. What can we do today to be more generous?
When was the last time that you looked at the grasshoppers? The clouds? The birds in a tree? Take a moment and do something “unimportant” with someone you love.

Living and Praying with the Word

Creator God, sometimes we forget how buoyant your salvation is. Grace us today with time to savor all that you have given us. Sometimes we walk on by something that is so beautiful. Thank you for the stars. Thank you for babies’ toenails. Thank you for the smile on my friend’s face. Thank you, most of all, for being our lavish God.