Reflections on Scripture | Wednesday of the 16th Week in Ordinary Time

Join Msgr. Don Fischer as he reads and delivers a short reflection on today’s gospel, followed by 3 1/2 minutes of contemplative music and a closing prayer. Msgr. Don hopes that today’s reflection on the gospel will empower you to carry the Word in your heart throughout the day.

Choose either the video or audio below.

Gospel
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.”

Reflection

Jesus makes clear that the truth of who we are and who God is, and why we're here, is being proclaimed over and over again in our lives. And it comes into our imaginations, and sometimes it stays just for a little bit and we forget it, and sometimes it takes a little longer to forget, and that makes it a little bit more like part of us

and then it goes through all these other stages. But it finally comes to there's one necessary thing, the seed of truth. An idea that is truthful, that really radically changes your life, is possible if the soil is rich, fertile, moist, open. That's what redemption is. God somehow changing the world, enabling us to take in something that would have been impossible for us to understand or believe without the death of Jesus.

Closing Prayer

Father, there is much that we long to see and to know. And we know that we have been given time, help us not to be impatient about our transformation that takes years and years. Just help us believe that always, when any of us make any improvements in ourselves, it is contagious. It touches everyone. That's the challenge of knowing that the little we each do, when it’s connected to the little everybody else does is always enough. We ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Kyle Cross