Friday, 16th week in Ordinary time
July 27, 2018: Jer 3: 14-17; Mt 13: 18-23
The discourse of Sunday is still running through - that of the Shepherd. The Lord is our Shepherd and has given us all that we need to live our life to the full, yet we falter at times and the reason is because we are "disloyal children" of God, as Jeremiah reminds us today. The Shepherd is faithful and diligent, but on our part we are childish and distracted. The good news is that the Lord never gets discouraged! The Shepherd never abandons.
Let's pause here to look at another important dimension of the discourse - that is what the readings in liaison with each other wish to call our attention to. The Shepherd is faithful and the Shepherd is perfect but what about us? It can be too convenient for us to imagine ourselves as sheep, and take advantage of the helplessness that characterises a sheep. But the readings today introduce another imagery: the crops and the need to bear fruit.
The Lord has given us all that we need to live, to be nourished and to bear fruit, in our own way and capacity! The Lord has not given all of us the same goal and does not wait at the finish ready to rank us in succession. No. We are each given a goal that is unique, a call that is personal and a commission that is specific. All that we need to do is give our hundred percent. In comparison that hundred could be 30 or 60 or 100, but that does not matter as long as I have given my hundred percent and borne the fruit that I got to.
Grow up and Bear Fruit, the Lord invites. It is fine to take shelter under the Lord as a timid little sheep but that is not all that you are! Grow up and bear fruit and you shall be called truly Children of God.