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15th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2008It always seems to me that those who are painters have a most marvellous ability, just by a simple stroke of paint from their paint brush they can do the most amazing things: a table, a roof, a nose, an ear, an eye can just simple appear. If you have ever seen those French painters you can see that even more, close up it looks like lines, dots, random strokes of the paint take a step back and it becomes for instance a pool of lilies, a roof of a house, a tree. It is the most amazing thing. I think something of that happens when Our Lord teaches the parables. His touch is light. The most simple of examples, a dot, stroke, a line takes on the greatest truth, the most amazing picture appears before your eyes. Here we have it in this parable today. What could be simpler, a sower going out to cast his seed and we know that it falls all over the place, on rock, on shallow soil, on deep earth. But it is as if from this simple scene we get a greater truth, the way God’s message is received. People who receive it generously but who can’t sustain it, people, who never really receive it, people in whom it has taken root. He predicted it and so it is. One of the things about the parables is that they are really simple questions. Where do you fit in? What are you going to do? We can see that in the story of the prodigal son or n the parable of the Good Samaritan. We can also see it in the parable of the sower, where do you fit in the story, how have your received the message ? What is our response. We don’t want to have stony hearts or stony lives, that are unable to hear or understand or put the message into practice in our lives. We don’t want to be faitweather friends, who are eager one minute and cold the next. We don’t want to people who are easily put off when some difficulty comes along. We want the Gospel to find in our lives rich soil, so that it can take root in our hearts, in our action and in our lives. Prayers of the Faithful 15 OTPriestThe parable of the sower asks us how we have received God’s message in our lives – we pray that the Good News may take root in the hearts of people who hear the Gospel. IntercessorFor Pope Benedict who goes to Australia in these days, that his proclamation of the Gospel may continue to find rich soil in that land. Lord hear usFor young people throughout the world, that the Gospel may take root in their hearts and that they may become witnesses who are strong in their faith. Lord hear usFor those who find themselves weak in their faith, eager at first but who fall away because there is no depth of soil, or who are put off when there is some hardship – that they will have greater resolve to persevere Lord hear usFor those who are on holiday at this time of year, for safety in travel and rest when they are away. Lord hear usFor all those who have died especially John Kelly and Patsy Ferris and all those whose anniversaries occur at this time. Lord hear usPriestStrengthen in our hearts a resolve to respond to you invitation, your calls to us. May your word take root in our heart and yield a rich harvest of good work Top Comment on this Homily |