Thursday of the
Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
(Jeremiah 2:1-3.7-8.12-13; Matthew 13:10-17)
Flannery O’Connor has been called the greatest American
Catholic novelist. Yet her novels are
seldom about Catholics. Rather they
concern the working of grace in very peculiar Bible-belt Protestants. Once she was asked why she wrote about such
strange characters. She answered that
when people are near deaf, you have to shout.
Jesus responds similarly to the question, “Why do you speak
to the crowd in parables?” People need such
on-the-money stories to wake them up to God’s goodness. The parables proclaim that God is so generous
he will pay laborers who work but an hour a full day’s wage. They say that God’s kingdom is such a
treasure that it is worth making any sacrifice to attain. Unfortunately, in a world of diversions from home
entertainment systems and iPhones Jesus’ message does not always get through.
Some people see parables as make believe. They say that since the Kingdom does not bring
immediate gratification, it is not worth pondering, much less pursuing. But the parables have been validated by
Jesus’ own experience. His eating with sinners became the search of the shepherd
for the lost sheep. His crucifixion became the seed that dies in
order to produce abundant life. Because
of Jesus’ life witness the parables not only entertain us, they also move us to
follow him.
