15 July 2023 – 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) (Sunset Mass)

by Fr Raymond Raj

So my dear friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus paints a beautiful agricultural parable, not the first one obviously, the Parable of the Sower. And this Sower happens to be over-generous, at the same time a very wasteful sower. Boros. Wasteful. Udari. Wasteful.

So my dear friends, who is this Generous and Wasteful Sower? It is God himself.
And soil, Jesus speaks of the four soil and this soil refers none other than our human heart. The human heart.
And the seed, the seed is God’s word, God’s daily message in our life.
So today, I suppose the high point of today’s Gospel is communication. Communication between God and us.

And Jesus beautifully ends today’s Gospel by saying “Anyone who has ears, listen.” That is the basic of communication.

So speaking of God’s word, speaking of listening to God’s word, I tell you a story:

One Sunday during the Mass, the priest told the congregation: “Next Sunday, Father is going to preach about sins of lying. So, all of you please go home and read the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 17.”

The following Sunday, so the priest gave all his parishioners seven days to go and read Gospel, the Mark Gospel, Chapter 17. So the following Sunday before the priest gives his sermon, he asks his parishioners: “Have you all read the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 17? All those who have read, please put your hands up.”

So the whole congregation of that Parish put their hands up. And as the hands were going up, the priest started to laugh loudly. And when he was laughing, the people got annoyed: “What is this priest? Joker is it? Laughing at us.”

So one of them stood up and asked: “Father, why are you laughing? Something funny?”

And the priest said: “The Gospel of Mark only has 16 Chapters.”

Speaking of God’s word. If I may ask you this question today about listening and reading God’s word, how many of you read the Gospel before coming to this Mass today? Don’t put your hands up. God knows.

So brothers and sisters in the Lord, in today’s modern world, secular world, the word of God, Bible, scripture, has become a leisure, a leisure reading. Just another hobby, I would say. And I am afraid most of us here, not only here, I am not pinpointing anyone here, most of the Christian, Catholics only hear the word of God, only hear Gospel once in a week, on Sundays.

And even during that once in a week, on Sundays, they don’t really pay attention when the scripture readings are being read, whether it is First Reading, Second Reading or even the Gospel. Most of us don’t really pay attention to what has been read. And I suppose the easy way out is, the easy way out of this attitude of us is we blame the sound system. I hope my voice is loud and clear.

Usually people say: “I wanted to hear the word of God but the sound system, aiyoh…”. That is one.

Number two, they blame the lectors: “The lector did a horrible reading. That is why I am not aware of God’s word today.”

So brothers and sisters, if I may ask you a question today: “How many of us really read the word of God daily in our lives?”

From my experience as a seminarian, deacon, now as a priest, from my engagement with many people, I realise Catholics do not read the word of God. Do not read the scripture. And that is why in today’s Gospel, Jesus is saying to you and to me: “The seed that I am throwing, that I am generously throwing the seed, the word of God, doesn’t seem to take root in the lives of these people. No matter how much seed I throw, it doesn’t take root in their lives because the soil, the heart, is not interested to preserve what not to nourish the word of God daily. To become a plant or a tree, the soil is not interested at all.”

So today Jesus speaks of the four soils:-
The first one, the roadside soil. Tepi jalan.
The second one, the rocky soil.
The third one, the thorny soil.
And the last one, the good soil.

These four soil as I said earlier is a reference, is the category of our hearts with regards to God’s word. With regards to God’s word, the condition of our heart.

Brothers and sisters in the Lord, the first three soil, the roadside, rocky and thorny soil, reflects, it truly reflects a baptised Christian, whatever his age is now, a baptised Christian who has no love or no concern about God’s word in his or her life. It reflects that. The first three soil.

And I suppose these first three soil, those who belong to this category, they like to live their life based on the opinions and influence of others. They are easily distracted and seen as no more meaning in their life. Because they will claim, these people will claim, this group of people will claim after all God is loving and merciful. Relax, Father, relax. After all, God is loving. God is forgiving. God is merciful. You just relax. This is the first three groups.

So these first three categories, they find that there is no need to read, meditate or even pray the scripture every day in their life. Sad but true. Most of us belong to this first three categories, including the priests.

Brothers and sisters in the Lord, the last category of soil, the good soil, refers to baptised Christians who are properly formed from the beginning by their parents, by their god-parents, by their catechists and also by their parish priest. They are properly formed and these are the group of Christian, the good soil who are always in love with God. They are always in love with God regardless of sufferings, regardless of joys that come in their life. They are always in relationship with God through His word.

The pleasures and promises of the word will never disturb them because they have consciously put God as priority One in their life. And they are always on fire to speak about Jesus. They are always on fire to speak about God’s kingdom.

So my dear friends, today, all of us here are gathered not to label, not to label each other “You belong to this group”, “You thorny, you rocky”. No, we are here today not to label anyone or rather discriminate anyone here. However, we are here today to ask ourselves a fundamental question in our life: “Why have I become cold to God’s word?“

Why have I become cold to God’s word? What is blocking me to pick up the bible daily, to read, to meditate and to pray? What is blocking me? A question that I hope you will ask yourself today.

Brothers and sisters in the Lord, unless and until you and I read and meditate the word of God daily, all our actions, whatever activities that we plan are nothing but just an illusion to make us feel good about ourselves. Unless and until I surrender myself to God’s word.

So as baptised Christians, God is inviting us today to re-look at our hearts, to re-examine the state of our hearts. As I said earlier, God does not discriminate between good and bad soil because He throws the seed equally and generously. God does not discriminate. However, God believes: “One day my son and my daughter will return to me by reading my word everyday.“

So in today’s Mass, we ask God’s grace to return to the basics which is to read, to meditate God’s word daily in our life. And we ask God today to grant us a listening ear, more than a listening ear, a listening heart that is sensitive to every word of God.

And I leave you with a verse to reflect over the weekend:-

Intimacy with God is not experienced by bombastic prayers but rather intimacy with God can be experienced by reading and meditating the word of God daily in our life. Amen.

Click below to listen to homily and watch video:-

Click to live-stream Mass on 15 July 2023