24 July 2024 -- Wednesday of the 16th week "B
Homily
This morning we have the same Gospel that we had a few weeks ago, on the 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time. The most important thing for Jesus in this parable is not the thorns that can choke the seed received; it is not the rocky soil that doesn't allow the seed to take deep root; it is not the birds of the air that come to eat the grain that has fallen on the path; it is not even the good soil that receives this seed. The most important thing for Jesus is the seed itself. And the seed of which he speaks is his Word, which is also the Word of his Father.
We are always preoccupied with ourselves and our behaviour. We worry about how we receive the Word of God; and it is good, of course, that we do so. But we must never forget that the Word is immensely more important than anything we may or may not do with it. A great Protestant theologian, Karl Barth, even said that the simple fact that God has spoken to us is infinitely more important than anything He has said to us!
And so it happens that today, in the Mass lectionary, we begin the first reading with the Book of the prophet Jeremiah. This whole long Book of Jeremiah (comprising 52 chapters) is the pathetic, exciting and often painful story of the Word of God addressed to the people through Jeremiah.
Jeremiah could do without this Word. When it is addressed to him for the first time, he tries to avoid it on the pretext that he is too young. Jeremiah is a very sensitive and fragile man, who needs to be accepted, loved and comforted. In any case, if he had to speak to the people, he would like to say pleasant and agreeable things. And yet God constantly puts demanding messages in his mouth, reproaches, harsh words that the People do not want to hear. God even asked him to remain single, because he had to exist only for the Word, which took hold of him completely. The day he no longer has a Word to pass on, he simply disappears into the flood of refugees.
For us, monks and nuns, Jeremiah is a model and a proto-type. We too are called, in our own way, to allow ourselves to be completely seized by the Word of God, to nourish ourselves on this Word and to exist only for it. May it suffice us as companion and nourishment. May we have the courage to be the channel through which it passes if and when God wills, and also the humility to disappear behind it.
Armand Veilleux