Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus does not begin to teach in parables until the 13th chapter. This Parable of the Sower is the first one he tells, hence the explanation about parables that follows. In that explanation, Jesus seems to suggest that it is a good thing if some people do not understand his teachings. That strikes us as odd. Why would Jesus want to be obscure? Doesn’t this risk that they would miss receiving the Gospel?
Were this Jesus’ first sermon, then we might rightly be confused by those questions. It isn’t his first sermon though. Jesus has already given the long Sermon on the Mount, famous in its simplicity and clarity. These parables come in the middle of his ministry, after everyone around has heard of his reputation and maybe even seen his miracles. Why at this point does Jesus begin to speak in parables?
Pope Benedict XVI observed that “by their very nature parables demand the effort of interpretation,” and it is that very effort which Jesus wants his followers to exert. Whenever I hear something that strikes me as true, I believe it easily, but when I hear something that strikes me as false or hard to understand, I would only believe it if I trusted the one who spoke it. Jesus tells parables because the foundation of the Christian faith is belief in him, not independent agreement with his teachings. Let us, then, examine ourselves, being sure that our faith in Christ embraces even his harder sayings or his more obscure stories, for it is more often these words we don’t understand that draw us closest to him.