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Master·evangeli.net

Today's Gospel + short theological explanation

Saturday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
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Gospel text (Lk 8:4-15): When a large crowd gathered, with people from one town after another journeying to Jesus, he spoke in a parable. “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path and was trampled, and the birds of the sky ate it up. Some seed fell on rocky ground, and when it grew, it withered for lack of moisture. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. And some seed fell on good soil, and when it grew, it produced fruit a hundredfold.” After saying this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”

Then his disciples asked him what the meaning of this parable might be. He answered, “Knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you; but to the rest, they are made known through parables so that they may look but not see, and hear but not understand...

From the Cross, God “opens our eyes and our ears”

EDITORIAL TEAM evangeli.net (based on texts by Benedict XVI) (Città del Vaticano, Vatican)

Today, after listening to the "parable of the sower", the disciples asked the Master for its meaning. By way of an enigmatic answer, He tells them why He is speaking to the people in parables. In the crux of this answer we can find some words, almost ironical, inspired by Isaiah.

The prophet had “failed” for his message was not "politically correct ". But, throughout this very failure, his words turned out to be effective. It is Jesus Christ’s same fate: The Cross, from which sprouts a great fecundity. Right there, the “parable of the sower" is very descriptive. Jesus’ time is the "sowing seeds" time. The very Jesus is the grain that, "failing" in the Cross, will die, producing fruit —a hundred times as much. Having been raised on the Cross —as He had predicted— He would draw all men to Him.

—Jesus, with You the prophet's "failure” can be viewed in a different light: Your Cross is the way to attain that all eyes and ears are opened to God.