Homily for the 11am Mass on the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
“What are we learning from this time of disruption in our world?” Questions many people are asking at this time of global turmoil when we have encountered trauma, fear, loneliness, suffering physical and mental, grief. Pope Francis is inviting us right now to discern and so model the future, seeing this “change of era” as a challenge and opportunity to take stock and have our hearts turned towards creating a better world. Seeds have surely been sown. But how will we allow those seeds to flourish? How will we allow ourselves to grow through this time?
In the Gospel this weekend plenty of seeds are being sown in a very haphazard, disorganised manner it might seem – the seeds of faith being scattered on the people and land of biblical Palestine amid all its conflicts in the name of tribe and religion and politics and resistance to the one who claims he is the long-awaited Messiah. But what a stupid Messiah he seems – he appears to know nothing about agriculture, the lie of the land here – if this was Mark’s Gospel we would hear the disciples tell him so. Even more laughable is the suggestion that this wasting of seed would paradoxically result in a bumper harvest beyond their wildest normal expectations. And that’s one reason why Jesus had to explain this parable. It just didn’t add up/ at least in pre-machine agricultural terms.
So what is Jesus really on about? And how might we pick up the pieces from what has been, and is, a catastrophic public health crisis, which surely is not sent by God to make us better? Well – of course it’s not a parable for farmers but for disciples and, more so, for those outside the orbit of the fledgling Church, for those who are losing hope, who despair of organised religion, seeing only conflict, in-fighting, inhumanity. The seed is scattered widely and generously because this is what the Sower is all about. Yes, this is who God Incarnate is. And we can imagine where we are in it when Jesus comes to plant his seed indiscriminately: sometimes on the periphery on the edge of the road of discipleship or on the rocky ground of doubt - or among thorns – perhaps people, perhaps situations, which choke us and prevent the seed from growing. Or, perhaps sidelined or even, despised for our Christian faith, as it’s seen to be irrelevant or worse still the cause of so much darkness and pain and conflict.
The Messiah could have made a point of planting seed on the firm ground we prepare for him which will undoubtedly bring the bumper harvest. But the seed of the Word is for all people, for a long-term future which is about peace and unity which embraces all humanity – which propels our minds and hearts to a hope outside of this valley of darkness and light to the consummation of all things in the new creation. Hope is unbounded by in-fighting, conflict, even wrong-headed religion. The seeds of hope point us beyond our understanding in a world which will never be perfect this side of the grave but that hope inspires us to bring God’s Kingdom to this earth through how we co-operate with his grace, how we sow seeds of goodness, kindness, respect for all people, in our everyday lives. And that challenges us to be bolder still in a world looking for seeds of hope for a brighter future built on integrity, justice and truth. The Word of God has the power to sow seeds which propel us forward in hope, to lead the most wayward to reroute, the most rocky to stabilise, and the most choked up to be freed from the thorns which beset us.
Fr Dominic Robinson SJ