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Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 13, 2014
(Isaiah 55:10-11; Romans 8:18-23; Matthew 13:1-23)

The Old Testament view of the heavens included the idea that all
the moisture that came down to earth was located above the
firmament. The firmament was like a vaulted dome that protected the
earth from the waters above. The Lord could release what was needed
in due season to water the earth or in winter to provide snow to
beautify the earth. It was probably thinking along these lines that led
to the Roman Missals Eucharistic Prayer II which mentions sending
down your Spirit like the dewfall.
The Lord was thought to live above the firmament and above the
waters and Isaiah seized upon the imagery to capture the process of
sending the divine word to the earth. Like the rain and the snow that
fertilize the earth, so too the word of the Lord has a purpose to
accomplish and will not return to the Lord until it has been
accomplished. The purpose of the word sent was to Let the wicked
forsake their way and sinners their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord
to find mercy.(Is.55:7)
Beginning today and for the following two Sundays, the Gospel
reading will be from the parable chapter of Matthew 13. The parables
all reflect in some way aspects of the kingdom of heaven which
Jesus has been announcing since the opening of his public ministry.
The most common form of Jesus teaching comes in the form of
parables. They are generally short and to the point and require the
reader or listener to draw a conclusion. Occasionally an explanation is
provided in the Gospels. Most of the explanations are done by the
individual evangelist rather than by Jesus. It is important to understand
that the parables do not define the kingdom, because the kingdom
remains a mystery, which defies proper description. That does not
make the kingdom any less real; just impossible to define or describe.
In Sundays parable about a sower, he sows either on a pathway,
on the rocks, among thorns, or into good soil. This is a good
description of the kind of soil in Palestine of the day. The injunction to
those who have ears to hear to hear requires audience participation.
We have to think about the parable and draw conclusions. It is
important for own understanding that we first ponder the meaning of
this parable without any explanation. That is probably what Jesus did
originally.
The quotation from Isaiah (You shall indeed hear but not
understand) is Is. 6:9-10, which is no doubt added by Matthew as
yet another example of a fulfillment citation, which is one of
Matthews favorite literary devices (citing an Old Testament passage,
especially the Prophets, to prove the fulfillment of the passage in the
teaching and actions of Jesus).
The explanation of the parable given is probably courtesy of
Matthew (or of Matthews source), not of Jesus. The huge return on
what is sown into good soils (thirty, sixty or a hundredfold) is,
according to many commentators, a sign of the abundance that is
expected in the period of the Messiah.
The great German scholar Joachim Jeremias suggests that the
likely original meaning of the parable of the sower is about the end
time, not some kind of exhortation for us to produce fruit or to be
productive soil, or to keep the faith among the adversities of life that
we face. Jeremias argues that this is a parable of assurance, noting
that the kingdom will come inevitably because it is of God and is
therefore assured (The Message of the Parables of Jesus, pp. 146-150)
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Fr. Lawrence Hummer