15th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2020

 We are familiar with the parable of the sower. Perhaps we are so familiar that it does not impact our lives as much as it did before. Jesus understood the human heart well because he explained why he taught using parables.

You will listen and listen again, but not understand,
see and see again, but not perceive.

(Mt. 13:15, Jerusalem Bible)

At the end of the quote from Isaiah 6, Jesus tells us that God wants to convert and heal us, but we seem to be resistant to it. Our pride is the problem: we want what we want, not what God suggests. God’s word comes to us to remind us of what is truly important. Yet, we would prefer to understand it from our perspective.

Some years ago, there were advertisements on TV showcasing a Radio station. The adverts showed a tennis coach telling a man that his son was hopeless in tennis, but the man simply heard what he wanted to hear: that his son would one day be a champion. It was about selective hearing.

The Bible contains God’s word and we read it to get to know God. In it we would also come to discern God’s will for us. Do we allow our pride to only read what we want to read? Are we selective in our hearing of God’s word. This is what it means about listening and listening again and not hearing. Sometimes, we are so preoccupied with our own concerns that we cannot see or refuse to see the needs of others. It is not to say that we would like is immoral or wrong. It is just that God’s view would show us a better way to looking and dealing with the issues we have in our lives. When we have decided on a course of action and are not open to God’s recommendation, we end up short. We could have done better but did not.

So in line with the parable of the sower we have heard this morning, do we want to receive the word on rich soil? We will have to open our hearts, not just our ears and eyes. We need to open our hearts to God. We should not expect God to do our bidding. Rather, we should think of discerning God’s purposes. If not, we might end up thinking we have done well when we were actually like the the rocky ground or the ground with thorns. We listen but it does not produce fruit.