Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s Reflection
Gospel: Mt 13: 10-17
July 27, 2023 | Thursday
Then his disciples came to him and said, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”
Jesus answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but not to these people. For the one who has will be given more; and he will have in abundance. But the one who does not have will be deprived of even what he has. That is why I speak to them in parables; because they look and do not see; they hear; but they do not listen or understand.
In them, the words of the prophet Isaiah are fulfilled: However much you hear, you do not understand; however much you see, you do not perceive.
“For the heart of this people has grown dull. Their ears hardly hear and their eyes dare not see. If they were to see with their eyes, hear with their ears and understand
with their heart, they would turn back, and I would heal them.
But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. “For I tell you, many prophets and righteous people have longed to see the things you see, but they
did not see them; and to hear the things you hear, but they did not hear them.
Today’s Reflection:
Why does Jesus speak in parables? The issue of disbelief is the principal focus in the reflection on Jesus’ reason for speaking in parables. Discipleship and understanding go hand in hand. Without the commitment to respond to Jesus’ call, understanding will be lacking which results to an inability to grasp the mysteries of the kingdom. Jesus speaks in parables in
response to this disbelief that reigns among the people. In the gospel, Jesus quoted words from the prophet Isaiah “. . . understand with their heart, they will turn back and I would heal them”. The word ‘turn’ means conversion. The crowds are not so much condemned as pitied. In refusing to hear the good news with repentant hearts, they isolate themselves from what Jesus longs to bring them, which is healing. Do your words bring healing to others? How comforting and therapeutic are your words? /Vulnerasti, 2023
