“A
Prophet’s Reward,” by Rev. Paul Berghout (@FatherPB)
Piety
Wash yourselves
clean! Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes;
cease doing evil;
learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s
plea, defend the widow. Isaiah 1:16-17
“Whoever receives you
receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. Whoever
receives a prophet because he is a prophet
will receive a
prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man
because he is
righteous will receive a righteous man’s reward.” Matthew 10:40-41
Study
To solve a parable, you must put it
on the back burner after mulling it over.
It is the intuitive mind alone that
can penetrate the essence and heart of a parable. Then it becomes a living
reality, thoroughly relevant to one’s own life.
“To throw alongside,” a story with
cryptic meaning is called a parable in Greek.
In Zen Buddhism, a parable is like a
“koan,” which is a spiritual inquiry using perplexing language intended to
rouse a student’s innate wisdom-mind to apply it to their own life.
As Rabbi Ibn Ezra said of parables,
“Wisdom is demanded by the soul as food is by the body.”
Both parables and Koans have gaps;
deliberate ambiguity.
The themes we encountered in our
Sunday Mass follow through all week. The Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time is
about God’s fidelity. The promises of Isaiah 55 and Parable of the Sower from
Matthew’s Gospel reminds us that no matter what obstacles we face as his
disciples, as sowers of the Good News, God will work effectively through us. “But the seed sown on fertile soil is the
one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a
hundred or sixty or thirty-fold.”
This week, the first readings are
from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. The preaching of the first part of Isaiah
contains powerful words about the infidelity of the people and the kings, God’s
sanctions to purify a people who would be faithful. The challenge of these
readings is that what we want in life must be put aside to be faithful to the
mission God has for us. We must not let “our”
rocks and the weeds of life get in the way of God’s mission.
To illustrate, Robert Hoist shares,
“Every fall, new students come to Concordia University. The admissions
department has carefully screened their applications. The college admits the
students because they can succeed. They all can learn and graduate. They are
good people and good students.
But I know from history that some
will be distracted.
Extraneous things will gobble up
their time and talents. Perhaps the path of their life has been hard, and they
lack self-confidence. Maybe anger at parents chews on them. They may carry a
self-destructive grudge against former friends. Anger at themselves may gnaw
away their ability to succeed. A variety of things, like vultures, gobble up
their capacity for educational growth. They soon drop out or flunk out.
Other students start well. They get
to class on time and even sit in the front row. They love to ask questions.
They engage in class discussions and are eager to share their own opinions. But
their discipline is rocky. They have a hard time with time management. They don’t
plan usage of their time to start writing their papers on time. They socialize
well but can’t seem to find time to read assignments. When the pressures get
hot, they begin to wilt. When it’s time for an oral presentation or a midterm
test or a final test, the heat is too much. They drop out or flunk out.
Some students make bad decisions
about relationships. They get in with a seedy, weedy crowd. There are lots of
places to have fun in a big city. City life crowds with sports events,
theatres, museums, nightclubs, restaurants, bowling alleys, and arcades. It’s a
great learning environment if one makes good decisions about sound time
management. But some students’ academic life begins to choke with too much time
in too many places with too many non-academic activities. Even special academic
tools can stifle proper academic growth. Concordia University, St. Paul is a “laptop
campus,” which means as part of tuition, every student gets a laptop computer.
It’s a marvelous education tool when used properly, but it strangles academic
life if used it too much to play games, to send personal emails, or for random
searches on the internet. When distractions choke off academic demands, ability,
and interest, students will drop out or fail.
Most of the new students, however,
will grow and mature. They will study and learn. They will experience the goals
of our Concordia Mission Statement, which calls the faculty and staff to “prepare
students for thoughtful and informed living, for dedicated service to God and
humanity, and enlightened care of God’s creation, all in the context of the
Christian Gospel.” The new students’ faith in God and knowledge in life will
germinate and grow, and there will be a great harvest. When they graduate, some
serve in a variety of fruitful vocations in the United States of America. Some
will go overseas to serve the Lord. Wherever they live and serve, they will be productive
citizens in this world and as servant leaders in the Kingdom of God.[i]
(source)
Looking directly at the Sunday
parable of seeds and weeds, we can imagine that the field was still a decent
piece of land.
Unfortunately, it was probably near
two roads, and people would cut across it. For example, we can ask, “By some
traumatic or tough experiences, how does Satan exploit my emotional wounds?”
There was a part in the middle of
the field where there were some rocks so large that they could not be removed.
If my feeling of joy changes to sadness, am I aware that the sadness also will
change, maybe into excitement, then back to joy again or another feeling?
One part of the field was always
prone to thorny weeds. During the high school years, or college years, or our
working years, did the ground again change? Suffering equals pain times
resistance. Jesus is giving us a heads-up, an All-Points Bulletin, an advance
notice. Can I accept with serenity and calmness that tribulations and
persecutions can and do happen, knowing that they don’t have to derail my faith
and morals because even these things will pass?
Action
Nevertheless, with a smooth motion,
the sower threw the seed evenly over the land. The Harvest bore fruit in
staggering proportions. One hundred-fold or even sixty or thirty. It points to
the fulfillment that is coming, which will far exceed all that we know here and
now if we are awake now by seeking wisdom, who will accomplish her task in us.
Amen.
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