SAINT LAWRENCE OF BRINDISI, PRIEST AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH (OPTIONAL MEMORIAL)

Why do you speak to the crowd in parables? 

The lost coin, the lost sheep, the prodigal son, the persistent widow: Jesus’ parables have become so ingrained in our memories that we recognize them even by these shorthand titles. But despite our familiarity with them—or maybe because of it—we can sometimes resemble the people Jesus speaks of in today’s Gospel: “They look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand” (Matthew 13:13).

How? We might gloss over the words or partially tune them out at Mass because we know how each story ends. Some of the moral truths the parables convey might seem fairly obvious, so we don’t look for other meanings. Or images like mustard seeds and fig trees or people like Pharisees and Samaritans, so much a part of Jesus’ first-century culture, don’t seem particularly relevant to our lives today.

But Jesus knew the struggles of the human heart; he knew that these stories would have the power to speak to us in the day-to-day circumstances of our lives. For example, the parable of the sower and the seed might show you that your heart needs to soften about a specific situation so that it doesn’t become like the rocky soil that doesn’t bear fruit (Matthew 13:5). The parable of the servant who refused to forgive a small debt when he had been forgiven an enormous one might help you to forgive someone who has hurt or angered you (18:23-35). Or you might be feeling guilty over a sin in your life but afraid that God won’t forgive you. Yet what better portrait of the Father could Jesus have painted than that of the compassionate, merciful father in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32)?

God has something to reveal to you through these stories—not only universal spiritual truths for all time, but something very personal for you today. So be expectant. When you sit with one of Jesus’ parables, no matter how familiar it is, let it slowly sink into your mind and heart. And remember Jesus’ words: “Blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear” (Matthew 13:16)!

“Jesus, open my ears and heart to your word today.”

Jeremiah 21:1-3, 7-8, 12-13
Psalm 36:6-11
Matthew 13:10-17