Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), July 13, 2014 – Is 55, 10-11; Rom 8, 18-23; Mt 13, 1-23
As we wait for redemption (Rom 8, 23)
Jesus is the divine Word. Attuned to him and remaining in him, we will bear much fruit.
God spoke through the prophets. He now speaks through his Son, the eternal Word made flesh, in order to reveal himself fully and definitively.
This last Word is the last hope. For we, to whom God entrusted his vineyard, are not too trustworthy: we want to take ownership of it unjustly and of the whole vintage, boasting as though everything were the fruit of our labor and we did not depend on anyone; we disregard the terms of the lease. Jesus teaches and exemplifies faithfulness to the covenant.
He is really, in other words, the only pontiff, the one mediator. He is both the perfect divine word of invitation to the kingdom and the perfect human word of response to the divine initiative. To know exactly the mysteries of the kingdom and the secret of being fruitful, and to partake besides of Jesus’ priesthood, it is enough that we listen to him and do what he did.
Hence, like Jesus, we will take our time, getting out of our self-absorption and sitting down by the sea, let us say, and we will let the Lord open our ears so that we may listen while availing of the experiences of daily life to learn and to teach. Connected to daily life and living by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God, we will have an adequate reply to every distortion of the Scriptures and of life that the evil one proposes to steal away what is sown in our hearts.
If the Scriptures are deeply rooted in our tender, not stony, hearts, we will not fall away, but will remain faithful to what God has entrusted. We will even hand ourselves over to those who would torture and insult us, for compared with the awaited plentiful harvest, all our endeavors and sufferings are nothing.
Worldly anxiety and greed will not choke us either if we make our own the lifestyle of Jesus, and not that of the comfortable in life with hearts that are dull, who only hear and see themselves. Life with Christ will free us from self-centeredness, and will give us a well-trained tongue so that we may be able to rouse the weary.
Indeed, the proof that we hear and understand the Word is our effective willingness to give our bodies up and shed our blood for others. St. Vincent de Paul, consumed by charity, hearer and doer of the Word, proved this to be so. The two fundamental sources of his spirituality are the Gospel and life, and he saw to the harmony between the Gospel and life; that is why his teachings and his numerous good works have the simplicity of everyday life and the penetrating and efficacious strength of the Word of God (Jacques Delarue).
Ross Reyes Dizon
Tags: A Vincentian reading of the Sunday readings, Ross Dizon
