Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - July 12, 2020

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - July 12, 2020

Reflection

Jesus, in sharing the parable of the sower, highlights the fruitfulness of the Word. Just as a husband tells his wife how much he loves her, God speaks to creation and specially to humanity of his love. This speaking is his mind, his feelings, his ideas, and in fact is God's very self, communicated to us. Just as each "I love you" tugs at the strings of our hearts, so does the Word spoken by God resonates within our inmost being.

The Word bears a rich harvest because God's love is fecund. Like a seed it buries itself and grows within each heart that receives it. Everything that love touches bears fruit. An act of kindness can change a person, forgiveness restores a broken heart, and the love of husband and wife bears children. So does the Word change, transform, and bear fruit in us.

For the Christian, this growth is hidden. It is obscured in the midst of difficulty and struggle, and of ordinary life. But the Word remains within a believing heart. Fear and death has no power over it. St. Paul writes that the promise of a rich harvest is the hope that creation is waiting for. This rich harvest is the eternal life planted in and growing within us.

As Jesus sat down the boat and looked at the crowd gathered before him, he must have seen a large field that needed planting. He, the Word made flesh, is now speaking to plant the Father's Word in humanity. The world is groaning waiting for the Word that we hear today bear fruit in us.

First Reading

Isaiah 55:10-11

Thus says the LORD:

Just as from the heavens

the rain and snow come down

and do not return there

till they have watered the earth,

making it fertile and fruitful,

giving seed to the one who sows

and bread to the one who eats,

so shall my word be

that goes forth from my mouth;

my word shall not return to me void,

but shall do my will,

achieving the end for which I sent it.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14

R. (Lk 8:8) The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.

You have visited the land and watered it;

greatly have you enriched it.

God’s watercourses are filled;

you have prepared the grain.

R. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.

Thus have you prepared the land: drenching its furrows,

breaking up its clods,

Softening it with showers,

blessing its yield.

R. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.

You have crowned the year with your bounty,

and your paths overflow with a rich harvest;

The untilled meadows overflow with it,

and rejoicing clothes the hills.

R. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.

The fields are garmented with flocks

and the valleys blanketed with grain.

They shout and sing for joy.

R. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.

Second Reading

Romans 8:18-23

Brothers and sisters:

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing

compared with the glory to be revealed for us.

For creation awaits with eager expectation

the revelation of the children of God;

for creation was made subject to futility,

not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it,

in hope that creation itself

would be set free from slavery to corruption

and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.

We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now;

and not only that, but we ourselves,

who have the firstfruits of the Spirit,

we also groan within ourselves

as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint 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.”