“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened…. Learn from me,” Jesus told us last Sunday. Now comes the precise follow-up: “Whoever has ears ought to hear” in the gospel reading that reveals the centrality of listening to and receiving the word of God (Matthew 13:1-23).
God’s efficacious word
WE are daily subjected to a deluge of words: words of love and wisdom, of joy and inspiration, as well as words of untruth and shamelessness, of hatred and violence; words of triviality as also words that transform. What words do we receive and enshrine in our hearts, to live by and draw meaning from—ultimately, God’s word or those of the snake? Though man may turn a deaf ear to the Creator’s word, it shall prevail. God’s word does not return void; it does the divine will (Isaiah 55:11). God means what He says, and what He says creates history.
When the Word of God became flesh to dwell among us (John 1:14), God’s irrevocable and most powerful Word was spoken to us, the Word of life and of our salvation. And the invitation of Jesus Christ to us is to listen to Him and learn from Him and together with Him to follow the will of God. Unlike the days of old, we are not to harden our hearts but to open our ears to hear what we ought to be hearing, and so accept the reign of God.
Hindrances and difficulties
Notwithstanding the generous sowing of the word of God’s kingdom, the seed thrown to the four winds to reach every nook and cranny, the result varies. The hungry birds, the rocky soil, the scorching sun, and the choking thorns are familiar features in most agricultural settings. In describing these obstacles to growth, Jesus recognized the difficulties, and even human resistance, that hinder the establishment of God’s reign. In His own ministry, many rejected His preaching.
The actual experience of the apostolic community interpreted for them the parable of Jesus, as we in our time must do. The question then as now is why do people not listen to God’s word so that it can bear fruit in them, fruits they themselves need? First, there are those who do not understand at all what is proclaimed to them, meaning they reject it outright. They have ears, but hear not. They are picked clean by the birds. Second, we have the abundance of fair-weather and nominal Catholics, who initially rejoice at some fascinating elements of the faith, cafeteria-type believers who just select (turo-turo) what they fancy on the menu, but are turned off by the cross and the imperative of perseverance in hardships and persecutions. The burning sun is simply too much for them, plus the fact that they hardly have roots on their rocky ground. Third, many are those whose intentions are in order, but worldly interests detour them into a maze of confusion, contradiction and futility. The inducement and intoxication of money or power or ambition metamorphose them into lying thieves or masquerading fools. But, finally, there are those who hear, receive and live the word of God.
Alálaong bagá, God’s word is efficacious, transforming those who listen to it with open hearts. The liberality of the sower goes hand in hand with the fecundity of the seed. To reap 30-fold or 100-fold underlines the miraculous, for that is how divine grace works. The reign of God comes as surely and as richly as the hundredfold harvest described. Vital is the disposition of the respondent to God’s word: openness, conversion and continuing trust in the God who speaks to us, in spite of our obstructing sinfulness. The indifference, hardness of heart, defection, inconstancy, betrayal and the seeming failure of the word that we witness in others around us can also all happen to us at different times. We all need to relisten, ponder some more, and hear again with renewed vigor God’s word of love and life.
Join me in meditating on the Word of God every Sunday, from 5 to 6 a.m. on dwIZ 882, or by audio streaming on www.dwiz882.com.