THE WORD AWAITS...

To be Receptive, Perceptive and Productive

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time: 15th July, 2017
Is 55: 10-11; Rom 8: 18-23; Mt 13: 1-23

“The Word is active and alive” says the famous words from the letter the Hebrews (4:12). Isaiah today, presents the same theme drawing our attention to the Word that comes from the Lord and does not return until the Word has accomplished the purpose for which it came! There is no doubt that the Word is active and alive, effective and efficient, powerful and purpose filled… but an unforgettable fact is that producing fruits depends on more than one thing! First and above all, it depends on the receiver, clarifies the Liturgy today. It is not that the Word will be automatically powerful and change-causing, independent of the one who listens to it. Right at the origin when the Scriptures deal with the creation narration, there is a difference made about the way the Word acted in relation the human persons vis-à-vis the other creatures.

The Word awaits the response of the person in order to create in and through the person the desired effect. This is due to the Personal Freedom that the Lord empowers us with. The readings, the first and the Gospel, presents a beautiful analogy…the Word as Seed. The analogy is exceptional because it takes into account this crucial aspect of the readiness of the concerned person to respond, in order that the Word may bear fruit. The Word requires that the receiver is a Good Soil, so that the Word may have its way!

To be good soil, we have to be Receptive:

Unlike the pathway that gives the seed away so easily, and does not have any room for the seed to penetrate, we need to be receptive in order that the Word may have some effect in us. The receptivity consists in our readiness to listen, our love to understand and the willingness to retain.

To be good soil, we have to be Perceptive:

Receiving is not enough, states the parable. The rocky ground and the land covered with thorns did receive the seed, but were not deep enough or prepared enough to send down its roots. Being perceptive consists in spending time with the Word. Allowing the Word to sink into us, to spark insights within us and to challenge our present style of life… these are the qualities that a real listener of the Word will have. Otherwise we would be, as James warns us, fooling ourselves (cf James 1: 22-25).

To be good soil, we have to be Productive:

The yearning for the Reign of God, that St. Paul refers to in the second reading as the mark of being children of God: that is a longing for a change, the eagerness to grow, the energy with which the seed bores the soil to put its head out into the world. We have to moan with the pain of a woman in childbirth; we cannot be complacent with our ordinary, below average spiritual life, if we really want some change to happen within us. The Word challenges us towards this change. It is left to us, to our personal freedom and to our yearning for perfection, to make solid resolutions and follow it up with concrete actions.

The Word awaits such productive grounds, that it may accomplish the task for which it was sent by the Lord. A receptive, perceptive and productive person, is the good soil on which the Reign will germinate, grow and spread into a great tree where birds of all kind will come, reside and rest.