What are the seeds? What are the fruits?

By F. Luis Casasús, General Superior of Idente Missionaries
Commentary on the Sunday Gospel of 16-7-2017, Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Book of Isaiah 55:10-11; Letter to the Romans 8:18-23; Saint Matthew 13:1-23)

A Test. Pretend that you are a bus driver. Early one morning, you leave the garage with no passengers. At the first stop, 10 people get on the bus. At the next stop, 6 people get on. At the next stop, 4 people get off the bus, and 7 get on. After that, 5 people get on, and 2 people get off. At the next stop, 4 people get off, and no one gets on. How old is the bus driver?

A high percentage of people taking the test for the first time will not be able to correctly answer the question…and this shows that to be a good listener is not easy even in trivial topics. When you begin to think about what you will say while someone is still talking, you are not listening well. When your mind is on other things, you are not listening well.

We look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand, is Christ’s diagnosis for us today. By contrast, Jesus Christ was perfect listener with the Samaritan woman. The Greek word understand means not just “get what it says” but to “appreciate and enjoy what it says.”

If you hear the words of Jesus and the messages of the Holy Spirit with just your intellect it is going to fall flat. If you only listen with pure emotion and no desire to grow in knowledge of what God’s Word says, the flame will soon be extinguished.

But the person who hears the word with all her soul (including unitive faculty, applying every little thing she considers valuable, coming from the kingdom of God), will bear fruit and yield a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.

In today’s Gospel text we are talk about listening and perceiving beyond the physical senses. In fact, in the beautiful and instructive Parable of the Sower Jesus is telling us what living with God is all about:

* His task: Initiate and pursue a dialogue with our soul.
* Our job: To remove weeds and rocks and to protect the plants form birds (and insects). It is not the soil’s job to remove weeds, but the job of the gardeners.

The parable is NOT talking about planting tree, but it is an allegory (the seeds) of the multiple, abundant and clear signs of His presence among us.

He is not only referring to the written Word, to the Old and New Testament, but to the numerous messages we receive from the Holy Spirit through the lives of others (good and bad examples, their dreams and suffering), rendering us more aware of the consequences of our good and bad deeds, inviting us to a true purification (against our tendency to many forms of discouragement), sharing with us the plans of our Heavenly Father…all these initiatives are frequently stated in form of parables, to give us the knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, as we are told today.

Christ himself expressed His sense of urgency: As you go, make this proclamation: The kingdom of heaven is at hand. To be “at hand” means that it is touchable and within your grasp. It is here and now. It is before you and you only need to reach out to take it and enter it.

This is why many efforts are made to correctly understand the meaning of this expression, the kingdom of heaven. Jesus was -and is always- very concerned with our lack of awareness about the presence of this kingdom. What did he mean by the kingdom? In simple words: It is wherever God’s will is recognized and done. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

On a Sunday pastor preached an impressive sermon and everybody loved it. They were a bit surprised, however, when he preached the same sermon the following Sunday… and even more surprised when he preached it again the next week. After he preached the same sermon the third week in a row, the leaders met with him to find out what was going out. The pastor assured them: I know what I’m doing. When we all start living out this sermon, I’ll go to the next one.

This illustrates the crux of the problem. As one who has known Jesus, I have to make it clear to everyone that the kingdom of heaven is not simply an idea; nor is the kingdom a state of mind, but a call to a new, everlasting life to be started now, a life in which we share in the divine life of God. The words of Jesus are truly words of life. And this is made clear in the Parable of the Sower. We need to learn how to listen carefully with an attentive heart. Not a hard heart. Not a shallow heart. Not a divided heart

This kingdom can be conceived as a special form of righteousness, an internal unity, where my actions do not contradict my words.

We all thirst for the kingdom because we are created in order to find unity and peace, fulfillment in eternal communion with God, who is himself our origin, our sustenance and our end. God alone quenches every thirst of the parched human heart. God alone satisfies every desire. Therefore, this righteousness is more than a behavior. In the Letter to the Romans righteousness does not directly touch on behavior. It is not what you do; it is what you are! That is even more important, because your behavior stems from what you are. The gift Paul is talking about, the gift from God is that of a righteous standing. And, of course, this has immediate consequences in my behavior: Each time I am going to say or to do something I ask myself is this edifying? Is it godly? Is it loving? Is it profitable for the Kingdom of God? Ultimately, my only concern is: would God be pleased?

This is good news; news of freedom and purpose in our life. Those who encounter Jesus and receive the Gospel fill their hearts with joy and they are set free from sin, loneliness and emptiness in their lives. The Gospel always gives hope and meaning to those who receive it. This is our message: we are not orphans; I bore you up on eagle wings and brought you here to myself (Ex 19:4).

The fruits Jesus is talking about are not only our personal relationship with the Most Holy Trinity, but the shared fruits that the apostle Paul lists in the Letter to the Galatians: Love, joy, peace, magnanimity, benevolence, goodness, fidelity, meekness, self-control (Gal 5:22).

We would be inclined to think that the more we look at Jesus, the better apostle we become. No one could deny it. But that is only half the truth and, once more, our father Founder, Fernando Rielo, invites us to a larger vision:

Any act of apostolic confession increases our familiarity with the Divine Persons (Nov.1, 1997).

In other words, the ascetical effort required by the apostolic mission has an immediate mystical response: Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father (Mt 10:32-33).

In our worldly affairs we have a very similar experience: The more we contribute to make a difference to somebody’s life, make others happy, bring a positive difference to people’s lives, the better person we become; there is a substantial change in ourselves. In teaching others, we teach ourselves, goes the proverb. It seems a little paradoxical, but even more surprising is the statement of Jesus: He that finds his life shall lose it, and he that loses his life for my sake shall find it (Mt 10: 39). Is there a better metaphor than the grain that dies to give life in Jesus?

But in 2Pe 1: 3-5 , we see that we are invited to participate with God, not only in what we do, but to participate in His divine nature. To become like him in character and in our desires. The essence of discipleship is following and obeying Jesus. And in the process, we become more like Him in our thoughts, our motives, our speech, our actions, our relationships and priorities.

He is telling us that the ultimate fulfillment of a religious life is not to be found in an intellectual or emotional private and individualistic relationship with God, but in losing our life for His sake, for His interest: If you really love me, feed my lambs.

These are the inner fruits and the external fruits: In restoring others to health and life, we receive faith and life ourselves because we see the power of God at work in us like the early apostles who, going out, preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by signs that accompanied it (Mk 16: 20).