Daily Retreat 01/24/07

2007 Jan 24 Wed: Francis de Sales, bp, rf, dr M
Heb 10: 11-18/ Ps 109(110): 1. 2. 3. 4/ Mk 4: 1-20

From today’s readings:  “by one offering He has made perfect forever those who are being consecrated....  You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek....  Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables?”

The Seminal Parable

Of all the things that Jesus taught, most people find His parables particularly memorable.  All good teachers, of course, strive to not just present facts for their students to memorize and parrot on tests, but rather, to inspire the students to think about the facts as they learn them.  Parables are well-suited for such efficacious teaching, since they effectively engage the listener in the search to understand their meaning - no wonder that the best Teacher made extensive use of parables in His teaching!

The Parable of the Sower is particularly detailed and prominent, and one of the few parables for which Jesus explicitly appended His own explanation, simply because of its fundamental theme of exposing the obstacles to the fruitful reception of the Word of God.

Those who first heard and those of us who most recently heard again this punchy parable are thus left with some thought-provoking and action-inspiring questions:

Since I have heard the Word of God, how rich of a harvest has been yielded? 

Thirty? Sixty? A hundredfold? 

If less than that, why? 

Has my inattention too often allowed Satan to steal the Word before being well implanted in my heart? 

Has my lack of follow-up and follow-through exposed me as one with lack of rooted convictions concerning the Word of God? 

Have my worldly anxieties, the lure of riches, and other preoccupations choked the Word of God in my life? 

What can I, with the help of God, do today about that?