Wednesday in the 16th Week of Ordinary Time, July 24, 2024

Matthew 13, 1-9

On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood along the shore. And he spoke to them at length in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold. Whoever has ears ought to hear.”

“On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea.”  The Gospel Reading for today’s Mass takes up where the Gospel Reading for yesterday’s Mass left off.  The Lord taught in the house, which was filled with people (meaning also the courtyard around the house and beyond), and now he goes out to the shore to teach in order to accommodate the crowd which continued growing.  “Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood along the shore.”  This is Peter’s fishing boat.  The Lord resorted to it because the crowd was pressing upon him.  The boat provided for his safety and allowed him room to speak to the multitude.

The Evangelists often remark on the size of the crowds Jesus attracted, especially in Galilee.  The fact seems to amaze them even after a number of years.  Here was an unlearned carpenter from a nondescript town, dressed in ordinary clothes, teaching about the Law of God and doing so despite his rejection by the Pharisees and the hostility of the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem.  His enemies also note the crowds, and fear to take action against him because of them (cf. Matthew 21, 46).  The crowds indicate the desire of the Jews of the time to hear about God and to see a wonder-worker.  They do not necessarily represent those who truly believe in Jesus.  

The Lord, in his parable, is speaking about the crowds and about those among them who believe.  The Lord tells us that the entire field is covered with seed.  There is no spot that is not saturated with it: the good soil, the thorny soil, the rocky soil, even the path receives seed.  As the Lord explains subsequently, the field is the world and the seed is the word of God — that is, the preaching of the Gospel, and also faith and grace.  The crowd before him is the field, Jesus also says to the multitude before them, and they are at that time being seeded.  What sort of “soil” each person in the crowd is will show itself in whether the person repents, believes, and perseveres. 

From the Lord’s own words, rebuking the cities of Galilee, including Capernaum, where he performed so many miracles, we know that not many people took his words to heart and repented.  Like Herod to John the Baptist, they liked to listen, but they did not act on what they heard (cf. Mark 6, 20).  Probably many things he taught them puzzled them, or they could not reconcile what he taught with what the Pharisees taught.  At any rate, they did not often ask him to explain what he taught.  They looked, the listened, they marveled, and then they moved on.

How merciful and patient the Lord shows himself in persisting in casting the seed of the Gospel in every part of the field of the world, however likely it may seem to the eye to be fertile soil!  And he does this continually.  In Capernaum and in the other towns and cities of Galilee and Judea he did this on his own for three years, and then since his Ascension into heaven through his Apostles and then their disciples.  We pray that we may look, listen, marvel, and be strengthened in our faith so that we may please our Lord.