Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle A)

Z. González Velázquez, Francis of Assisi giving his cloack to a poor man (1787), 

oil on canvas, Museo del Prado (Madrid). 

In the early part of the Thirteenth Century, Giovanni Franceso Bernardone was headed to a prosperous life as a cloth merchant in the Province of Umbria, Italy.  He was also headed to a life of complete self-gratification. He was a young man who loved every sort of pleasure. But,  Francis, as he preferred to be called, didn’t become a merchant. After spending a year as a military captive in nearby Perugia, Francis decided to change the course of his life, radically change the course of his life.  He wanted to focus on serving God and only serving God.  He saw his status as part of the rising merchant class as blocking his ability to experience Jesus Christ.  He gave up his possessions and his future as a merchant, and embraced poverty.  He begged for food in his native Assisi, and spent his days in prayer. Francis attracted a few like-minded companions who joined him in courting what he called Lady Poverty.  One day Francis went to pray at a rundown old chapel just outside of the city, the chapel of San Damiano. As he was praying before the icon of the crucified Jesus, he heard a voice calling to him three times: “Francis, rebuild my Church.  Francis, rebuild my Church. Francis, rebuild my Church.”  Initially, Francis thought that he and his friends should rebuild the chapel of San Damiano, but as time went on, he realized that he was being called to rebuild Christ’s Church on earth. The message is addressed to us. Can we do this? Can we build the Kingdom of God on earth?  We have available to us that which we need. But are we willing to do something with it? It is there.  It is there for us. There is a lot of it, or to use the biblical terminology, it is abundant. It is the Word of God.  God pours His Word upon us; He drenches us with His Word as though we were in a rainstorm. We want it.  We want the Word of God. He gives us all that we need, the Word.  

We long to make His Kingdom a reality, we groan in labor pains, but longing is not enough.  It is not enough to come off a religious experience and say, “I want to be an integral part of Jesus Christ’s solution to the world.”  It is not enough to say, “I want to be united with Christ.”  It is not enough to say, “I want others to be united to Christ.”  We have to use the spiritual gift of the Word. But sometimes we construct roadblocks to our embrace of the Word. The parable in the Gospel says that sometimes the Divine Sower’s seed falls on the pathways through the fields. There is no union with the Word, it is simply there, and it is lost to the birds of the sky.  Sometimes we refuse to make God’s Word the guide of our lives.  We refuse to delve into what God is calling us to.  We know we can learn about the Lord by studying the Bible, by praying over the scripture, by keeping a union with God, but sometimes we are just too lazy to pray.  We don’t make time for Him, the Love of our lives, and then we become shocked that His Presence has been stolen from us by the birds of the air.  There is a war being waged for the Kingdom of God.  We need to prepare for battle.  We need to pray every day in our homes as well as unite together in the Eucharist at least every week. The parable says that sometimes the seed falls on rocky ground. It does not develop roots.  This part of the parable really cuts us to the core, because it says that the enthusiasm for the Word, the enthusiasm for the Lord, is not good enough.  All those good feelings will die out with time, unless it is far more than feelings we search for. It is not the feelings that matter.  What matters are the actions we take when we are exposed to the Word of God.  If we do not change our lives after our continual encounters with Christ, then our spiritual experiences are merely feelings, moments of fleeting joy. Sometimes the seed falls among the thickets and thorns.  God’s word takes root, but other things take priority in our lives.  All of us have many activities and obligations.  Often, we forget  that our primary responsibility is to Jesus Christ.  We have been given the Word. We cannot allow the concerns around us choke off his Presence within us.  We cannot allow ourselves to become deaf to His Call to rebuild His Church. Sometimes the thickets and thorns are the vices of immoral society.  Drugs, alcohol, porn, other areas of immorality are all thorns that choke our grasp of the Word of God.  When we fight immorality, we are not just avoiding sin, we are allowing God’s Word to grow in the world. But there are times, many times, that God’s seed falls on good soil.  There are many people who care for the Presence of the Lord, who are more concerned with His Kingdom than their own emotional feelings of His Presence.  There are many people who refuse to let anything the world throws at them destroy the mission they have been entrusted with by the Divine Sower. We can be these people, you and I.  We can be the people who  are dedicated to the Kingdom of God.  We can rebuild His Church. We need to be good soil.  We have to cultivate the Presence of the Lord in our lives, and serve God no matter whether we feel His Presence today as we did last week, last month, last year, or whenever we were given the gift of a spiritual high.  We can fight off anything that tries to destroy our determination to live in union with Jesus Christ.   We can be the good soil that returns to the Lord more fruit than we could ever imagine • AE

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XV Domingo Ordinario (Ciclo A)

V. Van Gogh, El sembrador (1888), óleo sobre tela, Kröller Museum (Holanda)

Con esta hermosísima parábola del sembrador el Señor nos explica el significado auténtico de la propia misión. Es como si nos dijera: “Sí, yo soy el Mesías, pero no de la manera que ustedes imaginan. No he venido a juzgar, sino a salvar. No he sido invitado a poner en su sitio las cosas, sino a iniciar algo. Mi tarea no es la de hacer las sumas, sino la de dar la señal de partida. Inauguro no el tiempo del juicio, sino el de la paciencia. Mi misión está bajo el signo de la siembra, no de la cosecha”. Por eso el evangelio de hoy hace resaltar la figura del sembrador -Jesús mismo- y su su gesto de sembrar. Mas de uno se ha obstinado en explicar que es la parábola de la confianza en el éxito final. En realidad se trata de poner la confianza en los principios. Lo importante es la siembra, no la cosecha. El Señor nos dice que el Reino es una siembra, y la tarea específica del sembrador es el sembrar. Ni siquiera es importante saber lo que siembra. Con frecuencia nos sentimos angustiados: ¿por qué tanta fatiga desperdiciada? ¿por qué se obtienen unos resultados tan modestos? ¿vale la pena insistir? ¿qué se consigue? ¿para qué tantos esfuerzos, tantos sacrificios, tantas esperanzas vanas? Sí, es la preocupación por los resultados, por sacar las cuentas. 

Es esta la parábola del contraste. Contraste entre las dificultades y el resultado final, entre la aparente derrota y el éxito, entre los principios modestos y los crecimientos grandiosos. Es una preciosa invitación a no quedarse en las apariencias. El éxito ya está presente en los fracasos. La mies ya está comprometida en la siembra. Diría más: la mies es el gesto de sembrar. Aun más. El sembrador no elige el terreno. No decide cuál es el terreno bueno y cuál es el desfavorable, cuál apto y cuál menos apto, cuál del que se puede esperar algo, y cuál por el que no vale la pena esforzarse. El terreno se revela en lo que es, después de la siembra, no antes ¡Ay si todos los cristianos recordásemos esto! Nuestro quehacer no consiste en clasificar los varios tipos de terreno, en trazar el mapa de las posibilidades. Tenemos que arriesgar la palabra por todas partes, sin   olvidar que la semilla, que es la palabra, tiene también el poder de transformar el terreno, puede romper las rocas, abrirse un paso en el camino trillado hacia las profundidades del ser. La palabra es creadora. También del terreno. Basta dejarla obrar. Es la palabra que puede transformar el "corazón de piedra" en "corazón de carne". La semilla se pierde, de verdad, sólo cuando se queda en las manos cerradas de un sembrador "razonable". Que no "sale" para no poner en peligro la Palabra • AE

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Fr. Agustin’s Schedule for July 12, 2020.

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Sunday July 12, 2020.

8.30 a.m. English Mass

@ Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church 

(outdoors Mass)

10.30 a.m. English Mass

@ Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church 

(outdoors Mass)

12.00 p.m. English Mass

@ Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church 

(Main church)

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