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Contemplating today's Gospel

Today's Gospel + homily (in 300 words)

Saturday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading (1Tim 6:13-16): Beloved: I charge you before God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who gave testimony under Pontius Pilate for the noble confession, to keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ that the blessed and only ruler will make manifest at the proper time, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, and whom no human being has seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal power. Amen.
Responsorial Psalm: 99
R/. Come with joy into the presence of the Lord.
Sing joyfully to the Lord all you lands; serve the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful song.

Know that the Lord is God; he made us, his we are; his people, the flock he tends.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, his courts with praise; give thanks to him; bless his name.

For he is good: the Lord, whose kindness endures forever, and his faithfulness, to all generations.
Versicle before the Gospel (Cf. Lk 8:15): Alleluia. Blessed are they who have kept the word with a generous heart and yield a harvest through perseverance. Alleluia.
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.

“This is the meaning of the parable. The seed is the word of God. Those on the path are the ones who have heard, but the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts that they may not believe and be saved. Those on rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, but they have no root; they believe only for a time and fall away in time of temptation. As for the seed that fell among thorns, they are the ones who have heard, but as they go along, they are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life, and they fail to produce mature fruit. But as for the seed that fell on rich soil, they are the ones who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance.”

“The seed that fell on rich soil, they are the ones who bear fruit through perseverance”

Fr. Lluís RAVENTÓS i Artés (Tarragona, Spain)

Today, Jesus tells us about the sower —“a sower went out to sow his seed“ (Lk 8:5) and that seed was nothing else but the “the Word of God.” But “the thorns grew with it and choked it” (Lk 8:7).

Thorns, we have many. “As for the seed that fell among thorns, they are the ones who have heard, but as they go along, they are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life, and they fail to produce mature fruit.” (Lk 8:14).

—My Lord, Am I to blame for having worries? I wish I would not have any, but they keep coming to me from everywhere! I do not see why they should deprive me from your Word, if they are not sin, vice or defect.

—Because you forget that I am your Father and you are being enslaved by a tomorrow you do not even know whether you will ever reach!

St. Josemaria tells us: “If only we could live with more trust in divine Providence, strong in faith, in the certainty of God's daily protection which never fails, how many worries and anxieties we would be spared! Then that fretfulness which, as Jesus said, is typical of pagans, of 'the heathen world', that is, of people who lack a supernatural outlook on life, would disappear… I would like to engrave upon your minds the conviction that since 'your Father well knows what you need', we have every reason to be optimistic on our journey through this life, with our souls completely detached from those earthly things that seem so very necessary. God will provide.”

David said: “Cast your care upon the LORD, who will give you support” (Ps 55:23). This is what Saint Joseph did when the Lord tested him: he pondered, he consulted, he prayed, he resolved and left everything in the hands of God. When the Angel arrived, he did not dare to wake him up and spoke to him in his dreams.

“I should have no other concern than your Glory… in other words, your Love.” (Saint Josemaria).

Thoughts on Today's Gospel

  • “For when the divine word is poured into a soul free from all anxieties, then it strikes root deep, and sends forth as it were the ear, and in its due season comes to perfection.” (Saint Cyril Of Alexandria).

  • “The Gospel seed makes fertile the history of mankind and promises a rich harvest. Jesus also cautions, however, that the word of God grows only in a well disposed heart.” (Saint John Paul II)

  • "The invocation of the holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying always. When the holy name is repeated often by a humbly attentive heart, the prayer is not lost by heaping up empty phrases, but holds fast to the word and "brings forth fruit with patience..." (Catechism Of The Catholic Church, Nº 2668)