Friends, today in our
Gospel the disciples ask Jesus why he speaks to the crowds in parables. Jesus
is explaining the kingdom of God in these provocative and puzzling
stories and images that seemed to be his preferred way of preaching. And
he replies to his disciples, “This is why I speak to them in parables,
because ‘they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or
understand.’” In other words, because the crowds refused to believe in him
and what he has to say.
Many
parables are strange and initially off-putting and puzzling. Of course,
that is the point of parables: to bother us, throw us off base, confuse
us a bit. How characteristic this was of Jesus’ preaching! He rarely
lays things out in doctrinal form: he prefers to tell these puzzling,
funny stories. Why? Because in many cases stories reveal truth that
arguments can’t quite capture.
Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Lectionary: 398
This word of the LORD came to me:
Go, cry out this message for Jerusalem to hear!
I remember the devotion of your youth,
how you loved me as a bride,
Following me in the desert,
in a land unsown.
Sacred to the LORD was Israel,
the first fruits of his harvest;
Should any presume to partake of them,
evil would befall them, says the LORD.
When I brought you into the garden land
to eat its goodly fruits,
You entered and defiled my land,
you made my heritage loathsome.
The priests asked not,
"Where is the LORD?"
Those who dealt with the law knew me not:
the shepherds rebelled against me.
The prophets prophesied by Baal,
and went after useless idols.
Be amazed at this, O heavens,
and shudder with sheer horror, says the LORD.
Two evils have my people done:
they have forsaken me, the source of living waters;
They have dug themselves cisterns,
broken cisterns, that hold no water.
The disciples approached Jesus and said,
"Why do you speak to the crowd in parables?"
He said to them in reply,
"Because knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven
has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted.
To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich;
from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
This is why I speak to them in parables, because
they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:
You shall indeed hear but not understand,
you shall indeed look but never see.
Gross is the heart of this people,
they will hardly hear with their ears,
they have closed their eyes,
lest they see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their hearts and be converted
and I heal them."But blessed are your eyes, because they see,
and your ears, because they hear.
Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people
longed to see what you see but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."
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