Gospel Reflection for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time 16th July – The Seed is the Word of God
When election campaigns begin we are generally bombarded with politicians looking for our time and our votes. We often hear phrases such as; you have my word on that, I give you my word and my word is my bond.
This Sunday the first reading from the Prophet Isaiah speaks about the power of God’s Word. The Word of God rains down from the heavens and will not return until it has succeeded in what it was sent to do. In the gospel Jesus continues this message by telling his followers and us today the powerful parable of the sower and seed. The farmer sows his seed. According to where it fell and how it took root, some of it died, withered and produced no fruit crop. Other seeds fell on rich, deep and fertile soil and produced a bumper crop.
We know that through this parable Jesus is talking about and describing himself. The sower and seed is Jesus himself, the Word. He is the Word that has come down from heaven and he will not return until he has succeeded in what he was sent to do. The soil into which the seeds are sown are our daily lives. At times the words that Jesus speaks to us literally falls on deaf hears. We hear these powerful and challenging from Jesus, but perhaps because of fear, we are reluctant to let them take root in our lives. But there are also times when we hear and welcome the words that Jesus speaks to us. We allow them to be sown in us, they take root, we nourish and nurture them and they produce fruit that can be seen in the quality of our daily lives.
Generally we hear the word of God proclaimed when we gather as part of the parish community on a Sunday. Hopefully through the hymns, the readings and the gospel and the homily we hear a word that nourishes, nurtures and challenges us as we strive to live the Christian life. The real challenge is how we take that word away from the church after mass and live it our daily lives with and for others in our families, parish community and neighbourhood.
In his letter to the Hebrews, St. Paul wrote that ‘the word of God is alive and active’. This is as challenging now as when it was first written and read. It is a relevant now to us as to those who first heard it. The Word of God is alive and active, not out there somewhere, but in you and me, in all of us. May this word take root in us and bear much fruit, fruit that will last.
- Michael Moore OMI
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