Eighteen Sunday In Ordinary Time

“Give them some food yourselves”

(Mt. 14,13-21)

Rev. Alexander Diaz

This Sunday’s Gospel presents us Jesus in the banks of the sea of Galilee, surrounded by a vast crowd from all over the region.  They follow Jesus longing to hear his words.  Jesus, in His teachings, talk to them about the Kingdom of Heaven and hours will go by without the people being aware.  

They were  attentive to his mouth.  When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said, “It is already late, dismiss the crowds to that they can go the villages and buy food for themselves” and Jesus, in a certain ironic tone answered them: “There is no need for them to go away, give them some food yourselves”.

If they were his guests, they were also invited to eat with Him.  He was not going to allow them to go away with an empty stomach.  Probably, because of this answer, they were more confused than ever. ¿How were they going to feed all these people? Not even two hundred dollars worth of bread, in our time, will feed all these people, they thought. A boy from the multitude offers Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, all he had in his lunch box, five loaves and two fishes.  But this, it was nothing for such a vast crowd.   It was a minimal amount of food. It was really nothing. 

This is when Jesus intervenes and begin to realize the wonderful miracle of the multiplication of the loaves that we all know about.  ¿What really happened?  Two things, apparently very simple, but prodigious and crucial:   First: the boy’s offering of his “food”, which was hardly nothing and second that he put it in Jesus hands.

And we know what happened afterwards: five thousand men were filled with five loaves, not counting women and children, and the evangelist tells us that;  “twelve wicker baskets were filled with the fragments left over”.  All Jesus miracles were done because of the strong faith of the people who asked for them.

 This one, in addition, required the generosity of this young boy.  As if the evangelist was trying to tell us that, to obtain a miracle of your own conversion or the self human and spiritual progress of oneself, it always requires the generosity of someone else. Give it all and give it from the heart.   

Similarly, when it comes to helping others, there are so many times we have in our baskets the five loaves and two fishes that our neighbor needs.  Sometimes to give alms, sometimes to allow another person to go by in the street, give a smile that will give confidence to our own children or a coworker, after we have suffered a mishap or a small accident. 

The five loaves are, without any doubt, a representation of the gifted talents that the Lord has given us.  Only in the measure we give to others, will they be fruitful and produce all that they can.  If we save them for ourselves, they might perish.  We have to remember that the miracle began when the young boy gave the Teacher his loaves, so He was able to feed the vast multitude.   There were only five loaves and two fishes.  That was insignificant, it was nothing of course. 

It was absolutely evident the huge disproportion between the material means that they disposed of and the results that the Lord attained.  Yes, but to materialize this miracle it was necessary those five loaves and two fishes.  Without them, nothing would have taken place.  And the Lord wants to count with that, in order to realize the miracle.

The Vietnamese Cardenal Franxis Van Thuan, spent thirteen years in prison under the communist regime during the cruel religious persecution in his country said: “I will do like the boy in the Gospel, he gives Jesus his five loaves and two fishes: that is nothing for such a vast multitude of thousands of people, but that is all I have. Jesus will do the rest.” 

If we look for our happiness with passion and determination, we have to give Jesus all that we are and all that we have. It does not matter if it is almost nothing or practically nothing.  The important thing is to give it all, because he wants to count with hardly nothing in order to do his deeds.  The only thing you need to do, is very simple,  put it all in His hands. He will take care of everything else.   

Let this be then, the moral and the teaching of today:  Be generous and magnanimous with the Lord and with the others, give yourself, don’t be selfish and stingy.  Let us give of our material and spiritual possessions.  Share our time, our things with others, but most of all, give yourself to your neighbor.   

It does not matter if we only have five loaves and two fishes!  Lets us lay all our projects, worries, concerns, fears, desires, dreams, families, relations, “everything” in the hands of the Lord, because we know that “everything is in the hands of the one who is in charge of the matter”.

Amen!!

SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

“Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind.”

(Mt. 13, 44-52)

Rev. Alexander Diaz

The language of today’s gospel is very close to our present world: to sell and buy, riches and fortunes...  But it certainly offers a message that goes beyond the purely material.

Let us first look at the symbols used in this gospel.

The treasure buried in a field 

Today, if you have something valuable you put it in a safe in a bank or at home; in Jesus’ time when someone had something of great material value he buried it in the ground. The Rabbis of the time used to say that there was no safer place to save money: the ground.

In the church of the Middle Ages the Virgin Mary was artistically depicted as an uncultivated field, where the biggest treasure was saved (Jesus) and that she however had not been touched by anyone, in clear reference to her virginity.

Where do we hide the gifts that God has given us?  In fear, in shame...?  What do we do with the treasure of faith?  Do we hide it so no one will steal it from us?

The pearl

In the ancient tradition the birth of a pearl was attributed to the burst of a thunderbolt from the sky into an open oyster.  In the ancient world, a pearl was the most wonderful possession for which one would go to any length.

In the New Testament, the pearl is an image of the divine, that which is not of this world.  Jesus says: do not give what is holy to dogs or throw your pearls before swine (Mt. 7, 6).  Jesus refers to the pearl as a symbol of the Kingdom of God.

In the medieval church the Virgin Mary is artistically depicted as a shell in which the most valuable treasure is kept: Jesus.

What do you consider most valuable in your life?  Why?  What is the pearl of your life, both material and spiritual?

The net 

In ancient times the nets, ropes and traps were images used to point to evil.  In the Old Testament the net is one of God’s weapon. 

Since the end of the 2nd century baptism was represented by the image of fishing with hook and net; the fisherman is a symbol of the one who baptizes, the fish of the baptized.  The net full of little fishes is a symbol of the church.  The sea is an image of the world.

Do you feel like you are church?  What is the church to you, in your daily life?

In these three parables we see a clear difference with respect to those of prior weeks.  Up to this time, Christ had compared God’s Kingdom with little things, but now He compares It with two valuable things:  the treasure buried in the field and the pearl that was found.

            In both examples something valuable is shown to us, while in both there is also a clear difference:

·      the man in the first parable finds the treasure by accident

·      the man in the second example looks for fine pearls

Something similar happens to human beings with respect to God.  Sometimes we find before our lives that immense treasure that is faith, almost with no effort, we just have to look... many other times in our lives we see how people search for a purpose in life, they search for that treasure that will make them feel alive and complete.  Between searching and finding is where all human beings are...

1.     The man in the field refers to Christ, who gave all He had, including His life, to save us.

2.     The hidden treasure is the service to Christ.  The treasure is not in a closed

garden, but in the open field of life.

Many times I ask myself if Christians can see the faith and our belonging to the church as that immense treasure, that magnificent gift that we can take as a presence of God.

            After the explanation given by Jesus of the principal parables of this chapter, he asked the disciples if they had understood these things, to which they answered in the affirmative.  Today we too can understand many many things from the Lord thoroughly studying Him,  in your lives, in your prayer, in your experience of a constant encounter with Him resurrected.

The Gospel ends telling us that we have to reconcile the old and the new, what the Old Testament proclaimed to the New Testament.  What there is in us from the faith we received as children to the adult faith that we try to live.  In that updated encounter is where our faith and life are found and like each other. 

SIXTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

“Let them grow together until harvest”

Mt. 13,24-43

Rev. Alexander Diaz

Mathew,  great educator, teacher and systematizer,  puts together on all chapter thirteen, a chapter that we started last Sunday with the parable of  “The Sower”,  all together this chapter has seven parables about the Kingdom of Heaven, taken from various places of the tradition, and  laid out as a group, two blocks, one in public and the other in private, (Mt.13,1-35) takes place in public and contains the teachings directed to the people, who do not understand them.  

The purpose of this group is to offer a reflection about skepticism, not believing, and the posture the believer should adopt facing it.  The Gospel corresponding to this Sunday, exhibits and demonstrate to us three of these seven parables, and these are:  the parable of the Weeds among the Wheat; the parable of the Mustard Seed and the parable of the Yeast. They are all a concrete presentation of the kingdom of heaven.  

The parable of the weeds is one we are accustomed or used to hear in our personal dialog and our daily communication, “to sow weeds” is our  lexicon-and even in the Dictionary- this means to put enmity or do wrong to others, it is an element so alive and certain that it does not need a lot of explanation and yet, Jesus, in a very simple but very profound way makes reference to all the great questions we make ourselves around our surroundings.    

¿Why the evilness, the wickedness?  ¿Why so much suffering?  ¿How can we understand the power of God, when we are surrounded by evil deeds, wicked things?  ¿What is the role that God plays in all these things?   Facing all these questions, an answer is given to us, which is more incredible than what we can imagine:  good walks besides evil in the same path, thru the same tracks.

This is what Jesus tells us in the parable: “Let them grow together until harvest, then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters; “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning, but gather the wheat into the barn.” (Mt. 13,30)  The Lord allows this to march at the same rhythm, without taking notice that at the end, they will be separated from each other.   But there is one certainty; the evil will disappear, vanish, before reaching the end of the path.   

It will vanish by the invisible force of good and righteousness.  Evil only is destroy with the exercise of good deeds. “Defeat evil with goodness”;   to use the tools of love in the solution of great conflicts.  Love is stronger than anything else, even when it seems to many as harmless, that is the real solution.

Therefore, there is no reason to fear evil, we have to keep sowing the kingdom of heaven with passion.  The Kingdom of God needs to be sowed, taken care of, pampered, lived.   Evil propagates on its own, you only have to sow it.   There is a reality that is very easy to prove, and that is, evil manages to hide for a long time in the lives of people in the form of hate, evil, jealousy, being distant from God, etc. 

In the world, evil is present in all kinds of actions that leads the human being to permanent unhappiness .  There is a state of existence where the person loses the north of his life and at the end does not even know who he is, where he is at or where he is going.  The paradox of evil and good in the world seem not to demand a great effort, it’s done very easily and even with impunity. 

To make a person suffer is very simple,  to destroy is easy, but to do good deeds, to create, to let others grow, make them feel human,  to free them of the ties of their sins, is a good deed that can be done only by God thru us. A person can become infected of evil, wickedness very easily thru the actions of another person.  

A person can be permanently incited to do good only if God illuminates him, gives him the necessary strength and support in the interior of his heart.   In order to sow good, each person has to be a brother or sister to the other.  For many people, the Gospel appears as something without strength, without possibilities to transform the lives of the people around us.  ¿Do you feel transformed by God? ¿If you do, why? ¿On What? 

The Gospel is like a small seed, almost insignificant, it is not full of philosophy, it does not boasts, it can be preached and understood by anyone who opens his/her heart to goodness.  We should not forget that both plantings, the sowing of God’s mercy and the sowing of evil is done almost at the same time. Each person must decide which harvest he will chose to gather. 

I am convinced, because it was promised by the  Word, that Christ  will triumph at the end of History.  To know what is wrong and what is right, we have to turn time and time again to the Word and the heart of God, to the Christian experiences of so many men and women where goodness made its dwelling.  

We have to turn back, time and time again to our own hearts, so that the interior and personalized dialog with God, will allow  us to understand that we are not call to judge anyone.  Jesus did not named us judges to anyone, but brothers and sisters to our brothers and sisters. I leave the judgement to the Lord and I prefer to welcome  the one who allows the weed to grow within himself, with the love which God accepts and welcomes me. (Mario Santana Bueno)

Now we have the opportunity to recourse ourselves to the limitless  Mercy that God gives us, but when our final hour comes, be it by death or by the end of the world, we will have to recourse to Divine Justice.   Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father, the evildoers will be thrown into the fiery furnace.  The parable and the explanation of our Lord are very clear.  “Whoever has ears ought to hear.”  Mt. 13,43 . 

Amen!!

FIFTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

“A  sower went out sow"

Mt. 13, 1-23

Rev. Alexander Diaz

This Sunday’s Gospel is one of the better known parables of Jesus “The Sower”, a very simple parable but with lots of meaning and very profound in its’ evangelic content.   It is an invitation for personal and interior reflection of the gospel in our own lives.  When I analyze this parable, I think about a country person, a peasant, who prepares the land with dedication and care with the hope that the seed he will deposit on the ground will be fruitful.   

He dreams of having an abundant harvest, that is the reason why he prepares the land with his own hands lovingly.  All human beings are soil in which God each day, tries to sow something new, but just like the peasant prepares his land, He prepares us to be fertile in the dedicated listening of the divine word, so it will develop inside each one of us. 

 In face of this challenging event, the human being should ask himself the following questions: ¿what place does the word of God occupies in my daily life?  ¿Am I capable to read, meditate and try to live this Word in a conscious manner? Sometimes I think that the human being just vegetates on his development.  We get stuck and destroy the spiritual nutrients that will let us develop, that will make us grow and develop more.   The Word distributes itself but falls in uneven terrain. 

It is the same word, but each person has to turn to fertile land in order for it to germinate and grow.    Jesus goes over the parable with His disciples, for them He enlarges the sense for the things of God.  Each believer has to be a carrier of God to the others, he should become the sower of the spiritual seeds for his brothers’ souls, in other words , we are sowers and seeds at the same time, because we have a challenge, to be fruitful, we also have the responsibility to sow what we produce in the lives of others.  

I am sure we are very clear that the terrain where the seed of the Word has to fall is in the human heart, but we also know that not all human hearts are made or prepared for the same things.  The worries, desires, fears, ambitions are the ones who give the base to our interior.

The different human characters are represented by different types of terrains.  There are four types of hearts, of terrains, in which the word is sowed.  I am quite sure there are a lot more types of terrains, when I see how the human being have changed in our days, but our teacher only mentions and gives us examples of a few:

A.     Seed sown on the Terrain by the path:  is the one who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it. The word does not soak through them, there is no interest to go deeper. They are distracted, are not interested in what they hear.  Are those who come once in a while on Sunday, but the way they walk in, they walk right out, they are traditional Christians and have a Christianity that is in its death throes, dying , completely disinterested.              

B.     The seed sown on - Rocky terrain/rocky ground -  is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy,  but only lasts for a short time,  they have no firm convictions in their minds or their hearts.  They have no roots, do not have depth or any idea of what they want.  These are the fickle Catholics, they get emotional but have nothing specific in their lives,  they will not bother to be trained and are not interested in learning, the rocks are all those habits and complexes that to them are so strong and will not let them breath or develop.  When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, immediately they fall away.       

C.     The seed sown among thorns -  this overtakes the other two, the seed was received and it grew deep roots, but it bears no fruits because of the  hindrances/nuisances that were there while it grew.  The thorns did not allow the root to prosper, to do well and stopped it from being fruitful.  ¿Which are these thorns?   The Word reminds us in another text that there are three things that fundamentally will keep us away from God:

1.        Our worries (the toils of the world, the worries in our lives)

2.      The lives’ pleasures (they turn their human hearts to others that are not God)

3.      The riches (when they become like gods to the human being)

D.     The seed sown in rich terrain, rich soil: this is the results of finding good soil with good seed.  These are the ones who hear  and understand  the word and bear  fruit.  This is the productive soil, it does not mean there are no thorns, but everything is overcome with the force of the growing life. The Christian who stays firm and strong even in the middle of difficulties, anchored only in God.  To bear fruit is to practice the word.   There are different levels of fruits, we don’t have to give the same or with the same intensity.   (Mario Santa Bueno)

We have to allow our prayers to fly high and far in these warm and difficult times.  The Word is what makes us strong and merciful.  Today, truly, we should think that all, one more time, is beginning.  The seed that makes the Word produce, help us to start, to begin a second creation. 

Time of truth, of love and of happiness.

AMEN!!