Sexagesima
Sunday – February 3, 2013
Epistle
2 Corinthians 11: 19-23 & 12: 1-9 * Gospel Luke 8: 4-15
The Curé of Ars, St. John
Vianney, tells the story of a French Army Officer who was stationed where a
certain Fr. Bridaine was giving a mission at a church. The Officer was
Catholic, but did not practice his faith. He did not know the priest but heard
of his great reputation. When he entered the Church where the mission was being
held he heard Fr. Bridaine describing in graphic detail the state of a soul
deep in sin. Father then pointed out how easy it is to give up a sinful life by
making a general confession. The Officer
waited for the priest that night. He made a general confession and left the
church in tears of happiness because of the burden that was lifted from him. He
told the parishioners who stayed in the church how sweet it was to shed tears
of gratitude and love. Oh, how blind is a man, he told them, who does not love
God and who lives as God’s enemy, while all the while God loves him so
tenderly.
The Curé asks: “What was the cause of this soldier’s conversion?
None other than the Word of God, which he understood, and which found his heart
[ready for] the call of grace.” How many
would be converted, and how happy the world would be, if people, especially
Christians, listened to the Word of God and took it to heart. Jesus knew how
few would profit by His Word, and so He told us the parable of the sower in
today’s Gospel reading.
Some have an unteachable heart and the seed, the Word of
God, does not enter into these hearts. This seed lies by the wayside and is
trampled on by living a fowl life. Some of the seed falls on a rock. This rock
is a hard and stubborn heart. The moisture these hearts lack is love and
persevering in virtue. Those who are ruled by earthly pleasures are called
thorns, and they smother the seed of God, the Word of God. And, finally, some
of the seed fell upon good ground and yielded much fruit. This “good ground”
are those who take the Word of God to heart and live accordingly.
We are told in Psalm. 77: 2 that the King would be a
man Who would “open his mouth in parables.”
In today’s Gospel Jesus speaks to a large gathering of people in a
parable, but since they were unworthy to understand the mysteries of heaven, they
didn’t understand Him. This may strike
us as harsh. So we ask: Why were they
unworthy to understand? It is because they did not have the will to believe Him
and many even actively opposed His teaching, especially the chief priests and
the Pharisees. Their position in society was threatened by Christ. We learn
that from John 11: 48, when they met and consulted after Jesus raised Lazarus from
the dead: “If we let him alone so, all will believe in him; and the Romans will
come, and take away our place and nation.”
Simply stated, they were afraid they would lose their jobs so they
conspired to kill Him. These chief priests and Pharisees were by this time
thoroughly corrupt.
Jesus shouted out at the
end of today’s parable, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” This echoes Isaias 32: 3 where Isaias wrote: “The
eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall
hearken diligently.” What makes our eyes ready to see and our ears ready to
hear? The fear of God we are told is the beginning of wisdom. That fear of what
such a powerful Being can do to us makes us ready to hear Him. That fear will
cause us to learn about Him, how He created the universe, including the earth
and mankind, how the sin of our first parents established what it means to be a
human being – to work hard for a living, to bear children in pain, to suffer
concupiscence and sorrow, and to die. Fear of God will cause us to learn how,
slowly, through His patriarchs, priests and prophets, God revealed the coming
of the Messiah, His Son, who would pay the price of redemption and thereby
reopen the doors to Heaven, which were closed after the first sin.
This fear of God then
becomes our love of God when we realize that He loved us so much that he sent
his only Son to become like us in all things except sin, and to suffer and die
like us. Why would the Son of God, the Creator of the universe, humble Himself
and submit Himself to suffering and death unless He loved us?
In one of his Homilies,
Pope St. Gregory preached that those riches that we can keep only for our
lifetime are deceitful riches. The riches of earth cannot relieve the poverty
of our souls. True riches are those that make us rich in virtue. If you want to
be rich, then seek those true riches. If you wish to be honorable, then obey
the Commandments of God and the rules of
His Church. If you want the honor and distinction of a title, then seek to have
your name written down at the Court of the Heavenly King where we will live in
joy forever.
Take the Word of the Lord
to heart. When our stomach is sick we throw up the food that is in it. In a
similar way our souls are sick with sin when we hear the Word of the Lord and
throw it right back up and don’t take it to heart. The Word of God is food for
our souls, and if we cannot keep that food down, then our souls are in
desperate danger. +++
We Celebrate the Traditional Tridentine Latin Mass
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