Thursday in the Seventeenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 31, 2025

Matthew 13, 47-53

Jesus said to the disciples: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.  Do you understand all these things?” They answered, “Yes.” And he replied, “Then every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.” When Jesus finished these parables, he went away from there.

“The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind.”  The Apostles Peter, Andrew, James, and John would have especially paid attention to this parable as they had made their living from fishing before Jesus called them.  Jesus had even promised to make them “fishers of men”.  Here, they might pick up a clue as to what he had meant.  The net the Lord speaks of is indifferent to the kinds of fish that go into it: a fish of any size and any condition might be naught in it.  “When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets.”  When we read “buckets” we should think “baskets”.  The hard work of fishing is not finished when the boat returns, but continues with the sifting of the catch.  This would be done with the sunrise.  “What is bad they throw away.”  The Greek word translated here as “bad” actually means “rotten” and “useless”.  Something “bad” might still be salvaged, but not something rotten.  

“Thus it will be at the end of the age.”  The Jews believed that the world passed through six ages, and that the seventh brought an eternal Sabbath.  Jesus taught that the people of his generation lived in the sixth age, and that at its end would come the great judgment.  We know that this age began with the Lord’s Incarnation and will end with his Second Coming.  “The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous.”  The Lord repeated a number of times in his preaching that the good and the wicked — the “rotten” — would be together until the end, at which point it would be the task of the angels to separate them.  See also Matthew 13, 24-30.  The angels, always an important part of our lives, have this responsibility as well.  “And throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”  The rotten are not merely set aside but are burned into eternity.  We see from this that those deemed rotten are punished for having made themselves so, and by mixing with the good, threaten to cause them to go rotten as well.  This may remind us of the wheat and the weeds, where the weeds are wicked because they steal nutrition from the wheat.  Their punishment is eternal because they have permanently fixed their malice in their hearts through the evil they have committed repeatedly during their lives on earth.

“ ‘Then every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.’ When Jesus finished these parables, he went away from there.”  The Lord commends the scribe who understands the Gospel well enough to teach it using the works of the Prophets and also the words of Jesus and, later, his Apostles.  The Lord may be addressing whatever scribes were present, or he may have been looking to the future when Matthew and John, among those present at that time, would write their Gospels, and when James, Jude, and Peter would write their epistles.

We strive to be the good fish which the Lord puts in his baskets and we strive to recognize the dead, rotten fish  around us so that we may preserve ourselves from them.

Wednesday in the 17th Week of Ordinary Time, July 30, 2025

Matthew 13, 44–46

Jesus said to his disciples: “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.

In today’s Gospel Reading we can understand the man who finds the treasure in the field as the Lord who finds a person who is striving to lead a virtuous life.  The Lord “sells” all that belongs to him or, rather, he comes down from heaven to take on our flesh and buys him with the price of his Blood.  Of course, the Lord laid down his life for all people, but only a relative few will take advantage of the grace he offers and will repent to receive it.  This is the meaning of the treasure “buried in the field”.  The one who strives to lead a virtuous life cannot get very far without grace, which will unearth him and bring him up out of the field and into the light of God’s presence.  There are many other things buried in the field, but very few treasures.  Likewise, the merchant searching for fine pearls is the Lord.  Comparatively few humans respond to the Lord’s invitation to be saved.  Only a few grains of sand choose to become fine pearls, as it were.  And this is why the priest, when consecrating the wine at the high point of the Mass, says, “. . . the Blood of the new and eternal covenant which will be poured out for all, etc.”  The Lord pours out his Blood for all, in fact, but only a fraction of those for whom he pours it out will respond and make his sacrifice effectual for themselves.  In the third parable, a large number of things are brought up in the net from the sea, that is, the general resurrection at the end of the world, and the angels will separate the good, who are to be kept, from the wicked, who will be cast into the furnace.  That is, those who chose to become saints versus those who chose wickedness.

We can also understand the searchers in these two parables as the person who is searching for God.  These searchers look everywhere.  They are not born with wealth and have no one to point out for them likely places for wealth to be found.  Yet they persevere until they find him.  However, all the while God is drawing them to himself invisibly, imperceptibly.  He rewards their endurance and persistence with his grace.  The searchers immediately recognize the One for whom they sought and do not hesitate in giving up everything in order to possess him utterly.  As St. Paul says, “I count all things to be but loss for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ, my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but as dung, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3, 8).

An alternative way to understand the Parable of the Pearl is to keep in mind that for ancient people the purest pearls were ground up into powder for use as heart medicines.  Because of their scarcity, only the rich could afford such a cure.  The merchant, then, was searching for a pearl to treat his own heart condition.  He was driven to desperation by his sickness, and nothing had availed him to this point.  Only one medicine remained and he must search for it himself.  This is why he sells everything he has to purchase the fine pearl when he at last finds it.  And so we have the human being who restlessly looks for purpose or peace or eternal life or perfect love and has found it nowhere, but then he hears or reads the words of Christ or is drawn to read them through the good work of a believer which he witnesses, and he realizes that he has found more than he had ever dared hope for.  He gives up his entire previous life to have Jesus.

The one who finds the Lord Jesus should not allow himself to grow complacent for that is a sure way of “losing” him — losing our faith.  We should always be finding him.  A truly great treasure must be examined and studied and shown to others for us to grow in our knowledge and appreciation of it.  A truly great book must be read over and over and studied, and each time it is read the reader makes new discoveries, and this is true of a great piece of music.  And every prayer we make to Almighty God, every glance at the crucifix, every verse which we read in the Bible leads us deeper in the Lord’s majesty and love, where we will find the end of all our desires.

The Feast of Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, Tuesday, July 29, 2025

Luke 10, 38-42

Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.  She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.  Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?  Tell her to help me.”  The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. 

There is need of only one thing.  Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”

Formerly, distinct feast days were assigned for Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, with Mary of Bethany identified as Mary Magdalene.  The calendar that resulted from Vatican II puts them together on the same day and assigns St. Mary Magdalene her own feast day.  All that is known for certain of these sisters and their brother is found in the Gospels: the present Gospel Reading, the account in St. John’s Gospel of the Lord Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, and the feast held in their house for the Lord at which Mary anointed the Lord.  Later traditions in the East pass on that the three of them were set adrift in a boat without rudder or sail which eventually reached southern France.  The three separated once arrived and preached the Gospel, with Lazarus becoming the first bishop of Marseille.  Eastern tradition holds that Lazarus went off to Cyprus after the Resurrection due to threats by the Jews and he preached the Gospel there, being anointed bishop of the island by Saints Paul and Barnabas.  More probable is the report made by (I believe) St. Cyril of Alexandria (around the year 200) saying that Lazarus was so greatly affected by his sojourn in limbo before Jesus raised him that he never smiled again except on one occasion. 

The account preserved by St. Luke and used for today’s Gospel Reading shows us the house of these three saints.  Martha is hurriedly preparing (or supervising the preparation) of the midday meal, the main meal of the day.  Mary sits at the Lord’s feet as he teaches.  His Apostles are assuredly also present though Luke does not mention them.  Also, Lazarus is assuredly present as well, though he is not mentioned either.  The point of this little, homey, jewel of an account is not what the Lord is teaching Mary and the others, but to show that we should think less of what we can do for Jesus and more of what he does for us.

“Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.”  The village, we learn from St. John, was that of Bethany, a short distance from Jerusalem.  Luke does not identify Martha is the friend of Jesus as John will in his Gospel because at this point, they have only just met.  Now, Martha “welcomed” him, that is, invited him to the midday meal at her house as though she were the primary owner.  More likely, Lazarus owned the house through the death of their parents, but such was the love and respect of the three children for each other that it was owned, in effect, mutually.  Now, this was a large house, from the details we find in St. John’s Gospel, and they were fairly wealthy.  They were also young: none of them is said to be married and St. John would certainly have named the widow of Lazarus in the story of his raising by Jesus if there had been one.  This would put them as not exceeding twenty years of age at that time.

“She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.”  We should notice that Luke does not identify Mary of Bethany with the Mary of Luke 8, 2, “out of whom seven demons were cast”, whom he lists with other women followers of the Lord.  Mary of Bethany here places herself in the posture of a handmaid, a household slave, beside and at the feet of Jesus, alert and prepared to serve.  “Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him.”  The Greek has: “Martha, distracted” or “greatly troubled”.  Even with slaves, this meal would have required enormous work to prepare.  Perhaps Martha acted impulsively in inviting Jesus to her home, not realizing how many others would accompany him, and now found herself overwhelmed.  Finally, Martha saw that her sister was not going to leave the Lord to assist her as she normally would have helped her on any other occasion.  “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?  Tell her to help me.”  Martha’s words sound abrupt, and they certainly are meant as a rebuke to Mary.  But we should not fail to appreciate Martha’s situation: she was desperate, and the whole meal was about to fall apart unless she had her sister’s help.

“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. 

There is need of only one thing.  Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”  Martha has addressed a prayer to Jesus that he send Mary to help her.  Here we see how Jesus sometimes answers prayers.  He answers not with what we want but what would be best for us.  It is better, the Lord is saying, for Mary to listen to my words, for they bring eternal life.  It is also better for you that she remains with me so that you can see what is more important.  As for feeding me, I will feed you.  The Lord does not minimize what Martha is doing but showing that what Mary has chosen is the greater thing even than the eastern rule of hospitality in which the whole family comes together to serve the guests, invited or not.

We do not do God the favor of attending Holy Mass on Sundays, but it is he who provides hospitality to us.  And as important and necessary as it is to serve him in carrying out his commandments, in the end what this does is prepare us to receive the good things he has to give us.

Monday in the 17th Week of Ordinary Time, July 28, 2025

Matthew 13, 31-35

Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds. “The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.” He spoke to them another parable. “The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened.” All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables. He spoke to them only in parables, to fulfill what had been said through the prophet: I will open my mouth in parables, I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation of the world.

The weekend was hard but I am continuing to feel a little stronger each day.  I did have some confusion late in the afternoon and faintness in the evening but not as much as previously.  Thank you for your prayers!

Jesus tells the parable of the mustard seed to explain something of the kingdom of heaven.  He explains in a vivid and — to the Jews — astounding way in order to reveal that the kingdom of heaven was not going to be a victorious army of soldiers going forth to do battle with the Gentiles; it was not going to feature a restoration of the dynasty of David.  He uses the work of nature to describe it and does not issue a call to arms.  The people of the time struggle with this, as Matthew subsequently shows the Apostles doing when they ask Jesus to explain for them the parables that he had taught during the day.  His plain exposition did not satisfy them since it did not go along with what the Pharisees had taught them and their parents all their lives.  They simply took in his words and set them beside what they had been taught as children and waited for further elucidation.  Rather than showing their weakness in doing so, the strength of their faith truly shines: they did not fully understand, but they loved and trusted Jesus and continued to stake their destinies with his.

The real wonder of the parable lies in the fact that the birds of the air choose to gather in the branches of the mustard bush, which could grow to about a man’s height, eschewing the mighty cedars of Lebanon and even the olive trees of Galilee and Judah.  Jesus teaches that it was to this issue of the tiniest seeds that attracted the birds, that is, those searching for salvation.  Certainly their were greater trees in which they could be safer, but they chose the humbler mustard tree.  This is a sign of grace, that though the world is full of religions and philosophies and the false promises of the devil, those who yearn for the Way, the Truth, and the Life, come to the Holy Church and find refreshment there.  We can also see the mustard tree as Jesus himself, the Son of God who descends from heaven to be born of a humble Virgin in a stable and who grew up in the shadow of the false teachings of the world, offering not power but peace to all who came to him.

The Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 27, 2025

Luke 11, 1–13

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.”  And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him,’ and he says in reply from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.’ I tell you, if he does not get up to give the visitor the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.  And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

“Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”  This request reveals that the person who spoke it recognized that the Lord Jesus was not himself a disciple of John the Baptist or one of the Pharisees.  This shows a significant development in the growth in faith of the disciples.  It also showed the desire to increase as a disciple of the Lord, to pray as the Lord himself taught him.  Finally, it shows, on a very basic level, the human desire to pray in the right way.  Despite the claims of certain people in the West today to be “autonomous”, the human person craves structure.  In part this has to do with the need for security, but more than that, it is about living the right way.  In this request we see the desire to worship God the right way.  The Lord will provide this structure in the prayer he teaches and later at the Last Supper when he orders the Apostles to “do this in memory of me”.  We seek order because the God of Creation is orderly and imposed order on the universe he created.  This structure and order within us enables us to live and even to prosper.  The structure and order we we desire is a sign of God’s existence, his power, and of his essence.

“Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, etc.”  The lectionary translation that follows tries to stick to the prayer as it is traditionally translated, going back five hundred years, but also attempts to render the final petition correctly according to the Greek, though it should more simply be translated as, “Do not subject us to the test”.  The Lord speaks of this test in Matthew 26, 41, when he sees the Apostles sleeping in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Keep watch and pray that you not be put to the test.”  This “test” may differ for each of us, but it will consist of some crisis in which our faith is tested and we must make an enormous effort in the face of dire circumstances and consequences to maintain it.  It may come at work when a boss tries to force us to perform some action which goes against the Lord’s teaching, or when peer pressure mounts on us to conform to the crowd in some sinful undertaking.  It could come while we are faced with being killed for the Faith.  To overcome these tests, which may recur throughout our lives, we must “keep watch”, to be aware of the fact that our faith will be severely tested at some point, and “pray” for the grace to persevere in it.

The Lord’s Prayer, as St. Luke preserves it for us, differs slightly from the prayer as found in St. Matthew’s Gospel.  This may be because the person from whom Luke learned about it remembered it differently, or because the Lord taught his disciples to pray in slightly different ways as he moved from one village to another, for certainly he would have been asked to do this wherever he preached.   The meaning and purpose of the prayer itself is not affected in any way.  

Now that we have this prayer, it is necessary for us to pray it rightly.  We ought not to pray it hurriedly or inattentively.  It is the Lord’s Prayer because he gave it to us.  We repeat the words he gave us to say.  It ought to be said solemnly and with our hearts.  We ought to think carefully about what we are asking from the Father and to conform ourselves to desiring earnestly the things for which we ask.  The prayer primarily asks for the Kingdom of God to come — we are praying for the end of the world and the final judgment, and for all that we need to prepare for it: our “daily bread”, the graces we need, especially that of perseverance, and for the grace to forgive others while we can.

Continuing in prayer for the accomplishment of God’s will in our lives is a lifelong task.  We have to be careful that we are praying for his will to be done and not ours, though, and we pray that we may prefer his will over ours.  He is the all-knowing and all-powerful Father.

The Feast of Saints Anne and Joachim, Saturday, July 26, 2025

Sirach 44, 1; 10-15

Now will I praise those godly men, our ancestors, each in his own time: These were godly men whose virtues have not been forgotten; Their wealth remains in their families, their heritage with their descendants; Through God’s covenant with them their family endures, their posterity for their sake.  And for all time their progeny will endure, their glory will never be blotted out; Their bodies are peacefully laid away, but their name lives on and on. At gatherings their wisdom is retold, and the assembly proclaims their praise.

Often with children, parents and other family members will study carefully their faces in order to see some physical trace of his or her heritage: the color and shape of the eyes, the contours of the nose, the curve of the smile.  We delight on finding these shared traits because they reinforce for us the feeling of connection we have with past generations.  We feel connected.  As the child grows, the presence of certain talents and abilities may be noticed as well, usually to the delight of the one who detects them.  Similarities of this kind could be found in the Lord Jesus as well, for he had taken the flesh of the Blessed Virgin Mary and thus inherited much of his appearance and innate talents and traits from her heritage.  It is humbling to think that the Son of God could have his grandfather’s hands and feet and his Mother’s smile, but in becoming incarnate such would be inevitable.  He would have inherited his handedness through Mary, as well: whether he was right- or left-handed.  His blood type, too — the very rare AB+, to go by the bloodstains on the Shroud of Turin, the “universal” blood type which anyone can receive in transfusion.  The Lord Jesus would also have received the sound of his voice this way, and whether or not he could sing well.  If he had any ability with his hands, such as to mold objects from clay, this would have come from his Mother and her parents as well.  As An infant, Jesus would have heard his Mother chatting with him and singing to him, and from him he would have picked up any accent that would have been noticed by the Judeans.  From his Mother, too, he would have heard nursery stories that she had heard from her mother which he could have used for material for his parables.  From his own skill, it would seem that Mary and probably her parents before her had a gift for story-telling.  

Like their contemporaries and their ancestors, Anne and Joachim would have yearned for the coming of the Messiah, for the salvation of Israel, for the righting of all wrongs at the great judgment to come.  They would have lived in or near Nazareth and were Galileans by birth, though their grandparents or earlier forebears came from Judea and were part of the Jewish effort to resettle the uninhabited region of the north after returning from the Babylonian Exile.  They would have played with Jesus as an infant and as a child, and would have heard from Mary and Joseph of the signs of his divinity.  They would have died happy, knowing that their salvation was near.

We give thanks to God for the connections that bind us to our families as we praise him for the gift of Saints Anne and Joachim, who raised their child Mary in her virtue and wisdom to be the Mother of God.

The Feast of St. James the Greater, Friday, July 25, 2025

Matthew 20, 20-28

The mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something. He said to her, “What do you wish?” She answered him, “Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your Kingdom.” Jesus said in reply, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?” They said to him, “We can.” He replied, “My chalice you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left, this is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” When the ten heard this, they became indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus summoned them and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Comparing the lists of the women who followed the Lord Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John, we find that the name of the mother of James and John, the wife of Zebedee, was Salome.  The ancient Syriac translation of the Gospels can be read so that Salome, in the lists, is seen to be the sister of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  This would go far in explaining why, for instance, the Lord entrusted his Mother to the Apostle John: John would have been the Lord’s nephew, in this case.  It might also explain why the Lord chose James and John to be his Apostles — they were already family members, as was the James (so-called “the Lesser”, the son of Alphaeus) who was known as “the brother of the Lord.  However, the Greek text does not allow for this interpretation.  It is not clear when this James was first called “the Greater”, but it does seem to go back practically to Apostolic times.  The term is thought to be used to distinguish him from the other James, but it might also have indicated that he was taller, or, since he was already known as James the son of Zebedee, it might have been used to show that he was older than his brother John.  This does appear to be true in that whenever the two Apostles are named, James is named first.

The Zebedee family seems to have been fairly wealthy due to the fact that Mark 1, 20 discloses that Zebedee engaged hired men to assist him in his fishing business, which also indicates the large size of his boat.  In addition, his wife Salome is reported to have been one of the women who provided for the Lord and his Apostles (cf. Matthew 27, 55).  James and John may have still been comparative youths when the Lord called them since we find their mother amongst his followers and since she spoke on their behalf, as we find in today’s Gospel Reading.  Certainly their impetuosity got the them the nickname “the sons of thunder” from the Lord.  This impetuosity shines forth in Luke 9, 54 when the young men ask Jesus if he wants them to call down the wrath of God on a village which refused them entrance.  The Lord included James as a witness when he raised the daughter of Jairus and when he was transfigured, among other events.  This may be accounted to the Lord’s favor for his zeal or because the Lord wanted John to see these things and included his brother James so as not to give reason for jealousy between them.

James was the first of the Apostles to die for the Lord, as we read in Acts 12, 1-2.  He was arrested by order of Herod Agrippa, who wanted to curry favor with the Jewish leaders, who were persecuting the Church out of their hatred for the Lord Jesus.  This occurred in the year 44 A.D. 

In the early Middle Ages the belief was current that St. James had preached in Spain and that after his martyrdom in Jerusalem his body was miraculously transported there,  later to be brought to the city of Compostela, where a shrine was built for it.  It became an important site of  pilgrimages during the Middle Ages and remains so today.  Early Church historians such as Eusebius are silent on this matter, however.

We might wonder why Herod chose to arrest James rather than Peter or John or James the Son of Alphaeus, already recognized leaders of the early Church.  It may have been his great zeal for the Gospel which had earned the notice of Jesus.  Truly unafraid and even eager to drink the Lord’s chalice, he did come to his right hand in heaven, ahead of all the other Apostles.  Through the grace of God we may imitate his zeal through our constant prayers for the conversion of the world and in our readiness to speak the truth about the Lord Jesus.

Today is also the feast of St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers.

I feel a little better today.  I did overdo it a little bit and some of the confusion returned, but my stamina, I think, was a little better.  Thank you for your prayers!

Thursday in the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 24, 2025

Matthew 13, 10-17

The disciples approached Jesus and said, “Why do you speak to the crowd in parables?” He said to them in reply, “Because knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted. To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand. Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says: “You shall indeed hear but not understand, you shall indeed look but never see. Gross is the heart of this people, they will hardly hear with their ears, they have closed their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and be converted and I heal them.”  But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”

“Why do you speak to the crowd in parables?”  The Apostles ask an interesting question.  Why shouldn’t the Lord speak to them in parables?  They ask as though they think there is a better way to speak to them.  And there is, if the speaker is merely trying to drum up support for a march on Jerusalem — and at this point the Apostles still think that Jesus is the military Messiah that the Pharisees taught the Jews to await.  But parables cause people to think more deeply about a matter than if it were simply stated to them.  Parables present a challenge to the usual way we think.  The use of parables for teaching on moral or religious matters offers more than learning; it offers conversion.  The conversion may take time.  Parables are not solved easily and quickly.  It may take years to understand their meaning.  To tell a parable is to cast a seed unto the soil.

“Because knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted.”  The Lord Jesus affirms that he teaches his Apostles in a different way, and he can do this because, unlike the crowds, they see and hear him every day.  And the deeper learning they receive through this experience will enable them to reveal “the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven” after he sends the Holy Spirit upon them at Pentecost.  

“To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”  The Lord speaks of faith here: the one who has faith and perseveres in it will receive greater faith, but the one who has little faith will lose even that over time.  It is up to us to live our faith so that it may grow, and to pray for this: “I do believe! Help my unbelief” (Mark 9, 24).

“This is why I speak to them in parables, because they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.”  If the intent is to make people see and hear what is being told them, it might seem a bad idea to make the understanding even more difficult through parables. But by involving them in the message by presenting it to them in parable form, they will take it to heart when they understand.  It is the same principle in telling stories with morals to small children.

“You shall indeed hear but not understand, etc.”  The Lord Jesus quotes from Isaiah 6, 9-10.  This is the commission given to the Prophet Isaiah after he sees the vision of God in the Temple and after his lips are cleansed with a fiery coal: “Go, and say to this people, You shall indeed hear but not understand, etc.”  That is, You have made yourselves deaf, blind, and without understanding through your repeated sinning.  “Lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and be converted and I heal them.”  That is, the people would rather to continue in sin than to be healed — taught — by the Lord.  The Lord’s use of this particular verse, coming as it does at the very beginning of Isaiah’s work as a Prophet, would draw the Apostles into comparing the Lord with the Isaiah.  They would have noted that for all his greatness and the beauty of his prophecies, Isaiah performed no great feats of healing and exorcism, nor did he preach as this man preached.  Indeed, the Lord Jesus often pointed out that he was fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecies.

“But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”  Blessed are your minds, because they have received the teaching of the Gospel.  This is a lovely verse in which the Lord calls us to think back over the long centuries in which people dreamed of a Savior coming to redeem them.  This brings to mind Moses, whom God took to look over the Land flowing with milk and honey which he would not be allowed to enter due to his sin.  He looked, and he yearned, and then he died.  The Lord, the Promised One of all the ages, has now come to earth and the Apostles saw him with their own eyes, heard him with their own ears, and touched him with their hands (cf. 1 John 1).  

The Lord declared that the eyes and ears of the Apostles were blessed.  They were blessed so that the Apostles might proclaim to the world him whom they saw and heard and touched.  We see and hear him in our hearts when we pray, especially when we pray before the Blessed Sacrament.  We do this for our own good, and for the good of others.