July 12th
15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
“THE Parable”
Here is an interesting factoid: I teach deacon candidates in the art and craft of preaching.
Interestingly today’s scripture speaks to exactly what I teach our future deacon preachers
The three “actions” of Jesus’ Sower parable capture three preaching fundamentals I want the deacon candidates to learn: sowing, growing, and listening for knowing.
1. The Sowing speaks to the preachers’ expectations for success: The seed is thrown around generously with seemingly wild abandon… yet only 1 in 4 become fruitful! Set realistic expectations for your preaching’s effectiveness!
2. The Growing speaks to the target of a preacher’s efforts: It’s about effecting change for a good environment to yield the best possible healthy growth verses a bad environment that poisons one’s growth.
3. The Listening for Knowing speaks to the spirituality of a preacher: Remembering that true listening means the listener is open to being changed by what he hears, the preacher is trained to listen so as to know the Assembly, know himself, know God’s Word, and know the Church’s liturgy within which that Word is shared. Preaching is primarily a LISTENING activity; first the preacher listens, then he names what he hears identifying God’s fingerprints in the lives of his flock.
Sowing, growing, and listening for knowing… these are fundamentals of the preaching ministry.
Providentially our scripture today also names a bedrock truth from which all our preaching flows. It provides an indispensable understanding of who Jesus is that unlocks what otherwise can sound like gobbly gook…
God the Father’s “Word” (capital W) is not just a sound produced and projected forth from the divine “mouth” like these words I am forming and speaking right now to you. God the Father’s “Word” (capital W) is the perfect, complete embodiment of Truth itself… Jesus Christ… the Second of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity! We know this because we live on the resurrection side of Jesus’ cross, Isaiah the prophet did not.
Isaiah didn’t see just how completely God the Father was going to fulfill His promise. “So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth… my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.” Isaiah didn’t know what we know… that God’s Word is Jesus Christ.
And we experience Jesus Christ (God’s Word) like we experience a parable for Jesus Christ IS God’s parable. People in Jesus’ day (and to this very day through the Church’s preaching) encounter Jesus and “look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.” As Isaiah foretold, “Gross is the heart of this people. They will hardly hear with their ears, they have closed their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and be converted, and I heal them.”
Good preachers remember that Jesus Christ IS God’s parable Word, and their preaching is to deliver their flock an encounter with this Word. Then, just like a parable welcomes you into a new perspective out of which you embark on a new path (a “converted” path), so too this preacher-created encounter with God’s Word (Jesus Christ) invites you to a deeper place of faith. It is the preaching encounter with God’s Word, Jesus Christ, that births faith… the faith we Catholics then nourish with our Eucharistic meal together from our altar.
And this gets to the essence of all good preaching: It is not primarily delivering a speech or teaching a lesson or recounting some past event. Good preaching is creating an encounter between God’s living Word, Jesus Christ, and the listener… and encounter that by the inner working of the Holy Spirit that abides in us, converts and heals.
Whoever has ears ought to hear!