Homily for July 13, 2014 - Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily for July 13, 2014

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Seeds and Ground

 

            I have had the privilege of sponsoring a number of young men for confirmation over the years. One of the most recent ones was a young man named Patrick. I remember a few days before his confirmation, I asked Patrick if he was excited to get confirmed. Much to my surprise, he said no. I asked him why not, and he said, “Because everyone in my class is doing it, even though some of them never go to church and some of them don’t even believe in God. It doesn’t mean much if they’re getting confirmed just like I am.”

            It made me think – for eight years, these kids had had the seeds of the Gospel sown in their lives, and yet many of their hearts were rocky, hard ground.

            I’m sure we’d all like to think that we’re the good ground, the one that is receptive to the grace of God and producing fruit a hundred-fold. But are we really? Let’s delve deeper into the Scripture to see exactly who we are…

            First, what is the seed? It is the kerygma – the central message of the Gospel. In other words, that Jesus Christ died to forgive our sins and reconcile us to God, that He rose again, and that He offers us eternal life if we believe in His name and live according to His commands. That is the seed – it’s the core of who we are as Christians. This is the Gospel that the martyrs shed their blood for, this is what defines us as believers.

            So the Gospel has been preached – how has it been received? What sort of ground does it fall upon? We are gathered here this morning because we believe in this core of our Faith, but some of us believe more strongly than others. For some of us, this defines who we are, and our lives revolve around the fact that Jesus died and rose for us. For others here, it’s a nice thought, but hey, we live in the real world of bills and jobs and doctors’ appointments, so we think it doesn’t affect us.

            For a seed to grow, it has to penetrate the ground. It can’t just stay on the surface. For us to be changed and saved, we need this Gospel to penetrate us in our deepest levels. And we can see how deeply this Gospel has penetrated by looking at the harvest. Jesus says that the harvest will be a hundredfold for those who allow the Gospel to grow in their lives. So how can we judge the harvest? I propose three ways.

            First, what is our consuming desire? Do we have a real hunger for the Lord? I mean, if we stopped and thought about it, if you were about to die and someone died in your place instead – maybe someone pushed you out of the way of an oncoming truck as you were crossing the road, or took a bullet for you – wouldn’t you be eternally grateful and think about that person every day? Wouldn’t you want to live your life to honor that person, and do everything possible to make them proud? Why, then, would we not do the same for Jesus? He died so that you don’t have to. He took upon Himself the suffering that was meant for us. Shouldn’t we, then, desire to think about Him daily, speak with Him daily, live our lives to glorify Him? Do we desire Him that much?

            Second, to know if the Gospel has taken root in our life, are we ashamed to talk about how our relationship with Jesus has changed our lives? I always have to chuckle when I talk to parents and I ask them how they’re doing, but they don’t tell me how THEY’RE doing but instead tell me how THEIR KIDS are doing. “Oh, Johnny just made the soccer team for school, and he’s getting straight A’s, and he just got a scholarship to college…” It’s easy for parents to talk about their kids, because their relationship with their kids is one of the most important relationships that they have. In the same way, if we really have a true relationship with Jesus, and this relationship is deeper than any other relationship we have, then we should be willing to tell others about how Jesus changed our lives!

            Third, can other people see our faith expressed in our love for them? Love must be made real by our choices. Love is not some mushy feeling – it is actions of love such as doing the dishes, taking out the trash, speaking kindly to others, being patient with difficult people…this is love. And if the Gospel has taken root in our hearts, then others will be able to see that through concrete acts of love.

            The good news is that even if our soul is like the thorny ground or the rocky ground, we can still change it into good soil. And sometimes this takes years. St. Augustine, for example, struggled for many years to accept the Gospel fully. When he was growing up, he was something of a hooligan – he stole from his neighbors, and made trouble for his parents. When he was older he had a child outside of marriage, and had no faith whatsoever. Gradually, however, he began to accept the Gospel bit by bit. He started to pray, but at the beginning, sin was still rooted deeply in his heart – in fact, one day, he famously prayed to the Lord, “Lord, give me purity…but not yet!” He wasn’t ready to fully accept the Gospel until much later. One day he was walking through a garden, wondering if he really could turn his life over to Christ, when he heard a child singing from a distance, “Take up and read, take up and read.” He looked down at a bench and saw a Bible upon it. He took it up, began to read, and decided right then and there to give up his sin once and for all, and turn his life over to Christ. He ended up becoming a bishop, and a saint. And many years later, as he was reflecting upon his life, he wrote, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” Our hearts are restless until the Gospel has taken root in our hearts and changed our lives.