Nourished by both Word and Sacrament

Jesus used parables all the time. July 10th's gospel reading (Matt 13:1-23) is a powerful parable that helps us understand how well we receive the Word of God. But there’s a reason why Jesus cloaks the message in a parable.

“When Socrates took on the responsibility of educating the youth of his native Greece, he formulated a method of inquiry and debate in order to stimulate critical thinking and illumine the truth. Pythagoras, like a midwife bringing a child to birth, would draw out of his students the knowledge he knew to be there. Aristotle began with what can be known through experience and challenged his students to probe deeper and investigate more fully.”*

Jesus came later than these men and taught in parables – taking something familiar in order to shed light on the truth about the Kingdom of God. “A parable is meant to convey one basic moral lesson [and it was] intended to persuade, to challenge, to move the listener to some decision, resolution or action. In order for this moral response to be forthcoming, listeners would have to look beyond the story itself to the deeper meaning and allow themselves to be grasped by its truth. While Jesus did not originate the literary form of the parable, he made powerful use of it in order to: (1) evoke a transformation in his listeners; (2) challenge them to embrace a new system of values; and (3) have them open themselves to a new concept of salvation – as not a reward to be merited by the righteous, but the gift of a loving God to sinners.”*

Parables force us to pay attention, to ponder their meaning and ultimately to be open to respond in faith in order to see into the heart and mind of God. If we are closed minded, spiritually prideful, or slothful in our relationship with God, the parable will remain a puzzle to the degree we are unwilling to accept God speaking to us through it.

As Christians, we are called to ponder not just Jesus’ parables but all of the Holy Scriptures over and over again in faith and openness. And we do this not just to be obedient but to be nourished by God’s Holy Spirit through hearing God’s Word and to grow in intimacy/communion with God. “If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, open our minds to understand the Scriptures.” (Catechism line 108).

The Scriptures are a main vehicle/media in which God uses to communicate himself to us. “For this reason, the Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord’s Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God’s Word and Christ’s Body.” (Catechism line 103)

Much like air and food is necessary for life in the human body; so we need both God’s Word through Scripture and Sacrament with equal importance for life in the Spirit.

So, as today’s parable says, what part of us is hardened soil that needs God to jackhammer it loose? What part of us hears God’s word but gets choked out by other ambitions other than to grow in communion with God? And, how well do we thank God for those areas in our life that have been open to his Word and blessed by his Spirit?


(* Quotes from Patricia Datchuck Sanchez, Rafael Sanchez Alonzo, "Jesus Spoke to Them in Parables." Celebrations, July 2011.)