The Lord’s Building a Temple for David and for Us, 3rd Wednesday (II), January 29, 2020

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Visitation Mission of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Wednesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
January 29, 2020
2 Sam 7:4-17, Ps 89, Mk 4:1-20

To listen to an audio recording of today’s Mass please click here: 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• Today in the first reading we encounter not only something important in the history of the people of Israel but also a spiritual truth with consequences for our prayer and entire life. Yesterday we saw David dancing before the Ark of the Covenant, a sign of God’s presence, as it was brought into Jerusalem. David wanted to build a worthy temple to house the ark, something far better that where David himself was dwelling. He asked Nathan’s opinion and Nathan basically replied “Go for it.” But later God comes to him to Nathan and sends him back to David saying that he would not build a house for God, but that God wants to build a house for him — something that would be fulfilled, obviously, in the Temple Jesus himself was, which according to his humanity came from David’s line. God essentially wants to do the same thing for us. He wants to build a house for us, to make us a tabernacle for him to dwell with us and for us to abide in him. This building project begins in baptism, when we first become God’s temple. As you prepare to celebrate on February 1, the 100th anniversary of the baptism of your founder, Cardinal John O’Connor, we can ponder that it was in that temple, that existential dialogue between God and the future Archbishop of New York, that you were born.
• But God continues that building project through his word. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that the one who hears his words and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on rock. Three days after celebrating the inaugural Sunday of the Word of God, Jesus today teaches us about how his word is supposed to help us grow. Jesus describes himself as a sower who seeks to sow himself as the fruitful fallen grain of wheat (Jn 12:24) into the soil of our lives and the measure of our life is our fiat, our “let it be done,” rather than our faciam, or “I will do.” He does that sowing through his words, which are like the wood and the nails and the hammer of his building project. He wants us to receive the seed of his word on good soil and bear great fruit. He describes four types of soil or receptivity to his building project.
• The first type of soil is the hardened soil by the way side. The seed of Jesus’ teaching can’t penetrate because one  has a closed heart, either because one thinks he already has all the answers he needs, or because she’s too stubbornly set in her ways and refuses to put in the effort to change. We find this soil regularly with inveterate sinners who resist any call to conversion. But you also find it regularly in daily communicants who have heard the word of God so many times that they know the end of the story and they cease to listen in a way so as to change. Sometimes you also find this soil in the elderly, those who say, “You can’t teach old dogs new tricks.” I always say that if this is the case, then we’re going to find a lot of old dogs in hell! Jesus is always calling us to change, to deepen, to follow him the Master more closely. He’s going to be teaching us and calling us to change for as long as we have life. And we have to be open to that process. Otherwise, we will bear no fruit from his teaching.
• The second type of soil is superficial or rocky soil. In many parts of the Holy Land, there is a thick layer of limestone 3-5 inches under the soil. That means that when a seed hits there, the roots can establish very quickly in the warm soil that retains all the water in five inches, but eventually when the hot Middle Eastern sun arises, it scorches because the roots aren’t deep, it can’t continue to get nourishment from the soil, and the water that would be safe several inches under the soil ends up evaporating. These are people, Jesus tells us, who respond with joy to the word, who “like” it, but who don’t allow the world to drill deep down in their life to change them. There are many people who approach the word of God to be entertained rather than to be changed. They would much rather listen to a good storyteller who keeps them laughing and smiling than to someone who calls them to examine their consciences, their actions, their aspirations, their lives in the light of God’s word. This is the second type of soil. Jesus’ teaching bears no fruit in this type of student.
• The third type of soil he describes is thorny. The soil would otherwise be good but thorns choke the growth of the seed. Jesus defines the thorns “as worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things.” We know this is true. If we come here to listen to Jesus with anxious hearts — for example, because a loved one is in the hospital with a terrible diagnosis, or because we don’t know how we’re going to pay this month’s rent — it’s going to be very hard to hear God’s word, even if it’s about trusting in God’s providential care. Likewise, if someone comes to Jesus’ class craving money and material possessions, or vanity, or power, or pleasure, or a big breakfast, it’s going to choke their receptivity and responsiveness to his Word, because their hearts will be elsewhere. Our hearts are where our treasure is. This is something every student of Jesus needs to ponder deeply. One of the reasons why we don’t bear nearly as much fruit as we could is because our heart isn’t in bearing fruit for the Lord. Rather our hearts are set on earthly concerns. It’s kind of like a high school student whose biggest goal in life is becoming an NBA basketball player. Such a student is in English and Physics thinking about basketball, and rather than studying as much as he should, he’s out practicing his free throws. We can do the same thing spiritually when we’re seeking an earthly hall of faith rather than the eternal hall of fame.
• The fourth type of soil, the one Jesus calls “good,” produces fruit thirty, sixty or one hundredfold. It produces not just a little fruit but abundant fruit. A good disciple of Jesus, hearing his word, is changed thirty, sixty or 100 ways or more. That’s the way we should ponder the word, to look not just for one application to our life, but one after another. That’s obviously the way Mary heard the word in her contemplative heart and sought to have her whole life develop in accordance with it. Jesus wants us to have this type of receptivity to his building project.
• Why does Jesus teach us this truth in a parable? Why does he often teach us in this way? St. Mark tells us, “Jesus began to teach by the sea … a very large crowd … and he taught them at length in parables.” St. Matthew would tell us, “He spoke to them only in parables,  to fulfill what had been said through the prophet: ‘I will open my mouth in parables, I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation [of the world].’” Why in parables? There are a couple of obvious reasons why Jesus teaches in parables. First is that any teacher begins from what people know to take them to what they don’t know and so Jesus used various images from daily life to teach about the spiritual life. They can make what might seem abstract concrete. Second, especially when someone is teaching at length, stories, images and other illustrations can help listeners both understand and retain the meaning. They’re interesting. But the reason Jesus gives for using parables is something totally else and quite challenging. Quoting Isaiah, he says that the reason he teaches in this way is that “they may look and see but not perceive, and hear and listen but not understand, in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven.” It also seems that he uses parables deliberately to confuse rather than to clarify, to prevent conversion rather than to facilitate it. But that’s clearly not why he’s doing it. Rather, it’s to engage the freedom of the hearer, to test the listener’s willingness to hear the word and ponder it, to examine his or her hunger for the truth and desire to know the deepest meanings of what God is teaching. If someone hears a parable with no desire to meditate on what is being indicated it shows how hard-hearted someone is. But if someone desires the truth, hearing the parable, it gives a prism for the examination of one’s life. Parables also can get through to people who would not be able to be reached with direct speech. We see that in the parable that the prophet Nathan gave to David later in 2 Samuel — which we’ll hear on Saturday — about the evil of stealing and slaughtering a neighbor’s single beloved ewe lamb for a feast when someone has a hold flock; that’s what allowed David to see how evil was his decision to take Bathsheba adulterously and have Uriah her husband killed. For people who might not initially be open to conversion, parables often will prove to be the most effective way to convict them. That’s Jesus’ style. Is it enough to move us today?
• The place where Jesus carries out this building project is at Mass, where he gives us word and sends the Holy Spirit to help us interiorize it and spread it. Then he sows himself into us as the Word-made-flesh in Holy Communion.

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

Gospel
MK 4:1-20

On another occasion, Jesus began to teach by the sea.
A very large crowd gathered around him
so that he got into a boat on the sea and sat down.
And the whole crowd was beside the sea on land.
And he taught them at length in parables,
and in the course of his instruction he said to them,
“Hear this! A sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,
and the birds came and ate it up.
Other seed 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
and it produced no grain.
And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit.
It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”
He added, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”And when he was alone,
those present along with the Twelve
questioned him about the parables.
He answered them,
“The mystery of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you.
But to those outside everything comes in parables, so that
they may look and see but not perceive,
and hear and listen but not understand,
in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven.”
Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable?
Then how will you understand any of the parables?
The sower sows the word.
These are the ones on the path where the word is sown.
As soon as they hear, Satan comes at once
and takes away the word sown in them.
And these are the ones sown on rocky ground who,
when they hear the word, receive it at once with joy.
But they have no roots; they last only for a time.
Then when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word,
they quickly fall away.
Those sown among thorns are another sort.
They are the people who hear the word,
but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches,
and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word,
and it bears no fruit.
But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it
and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”