Friday, 28 July 2017 16th Week in Ordinary Time Reading: Ex 20:1-17
Gospel: Matthew 13:18-23
Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time.
When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
Today’s Gospel reading likens the different conditions of the heart as it receives the Word of God to four kinds of grounds. The Word of God that falls on the hearts of people who receive it without understanding it is like seeds sown along the footpath. The devil can easily snatch it away, for nobody values anything that he doesn’t understand. What is not of value is not worth defending.
That Word of God that falls on the hearts of people who understand and receive it with joy but with low adversity quotient is like seed sown on rocky ground. When trouble and persecution come they quickly fall away. Adversity quotient measures the ability of a person to deal with adversity. Those with high adversity quotient are brought closer to God by adversities. But there are people who resent when they are in trouble and blame God for being remiss. These are those with low adversity quotient.
The Word of God that falls on hearts of people who are materialistic is like seeds sown on thorny ground. The Word will never bear fruit in them because their attention will be siphoned by the desire to accumulate wealth. Wealth is precisely called possessions because people possess it for a good purpose. The materialistic person, however, is the one possessed by wealth. In this arrangement the Word of God cannot bear fruit because “no one can serve both God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24).
The Word of God that falls on hearts of people who are receptive of the Word and who put it into practice and who make the Word of God bear fruits in their lives is like the seed sown on good soil. All hearts are unworthy of the seed of God’s Word. But to those who strive, grace is never wanting. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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