Page 224 - spiritual_accompaniment_montreal_archdiocese

HOMILIES

32. Homily - Sunday, July 12, 2020 2020

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A (Mt 13:1-23)

How is it possible that God still wants to reach out to me?

Do you fear the Word of God? What are our fears before God, before the Word of the Lord?
One of our fears could be for instance that “I feel I am unworthy to hear the Word of the Lord!
One day I believed, one day I prayed, but I distanced myself from God, I distanced myself
from the commandments of the Lord, and why would God still want me anyway? How is it
possible that God still wants to reach out to me?”

When Jesus speaks about the parable of the sower and when he speaks of different types of
land, he uses an analogy because normally a farmer would not sow the seeds on the road, on
rocky ground, or among the thorns. He must first prepare the land and then he will sow there
where the land has been prepared.

But in this parable of the sower, Jesus plants seeds everywhere, at random! On the road, on
the side of the road, among the thorns. And finally, also in the good soil! He sows everywhere.
He sends his Word everywhere. He addresses everyone’s heart. He speaks to every person, in
all stations of life, to every life’s history, in all its complexities. He really knocks on every door
of every human heart, regardless of how hardened that heart may be, regardless of how God
may be forgotten by it, regardless of how far God is distanced in the life of that person.

Jesus never ceases to come to us with his mercy. He always offers his word, He offers his
salvation, as well as God’s forgiveness. He never ceases to offer God’s life, as well as eternal
life. He always offers himself to every person. We do not need to worry or fear of being too far
away from God or to be distanced from Him.

Jesus never stops from coming to meet us. He comes to us even before we reach out to him.
As St. John or St. Peter said, “God loved us first”. He loved us even before we were ready to
receive him. He gives himself to us and lives within us. And finally, it is God himself who
prepares us to receive him.

Like the farmer, the labourer will work his land, he will prepare the soil, even if it is rocky. He
will prepare it to receive the seeds. So, God does more than just sow the Word, which is Jesus.
And Jesus does more than just give us his Word, Jesus does more than just sowing his Word
in what would be good soil, in what would be the hearts already prepared to receive him. He
prepares the soil, and he prepares the hearts. He prepares us to receive him.

(cont’d)

Collection of texts by the Most Rev. Christian Lépine 224