September 20, 2025 – Saturday of the 24th week in Ordinary Time
Homily
Farming or gardening can be a good lesson in patience, trust, and letting go. Once you have worked the soil, planted the seeds, and watered them, all you can do is wait patiently. At first, there is no way to know for sure whether the seeds will grow or not. Then you cannot know to what extent they will grow. You can influence the conditions that promote growth in various ways, but you cannot intervene in the growth process itself. With all this in mind, let us now return to today's Gospel reading.
The prophets of Israel, as well as Jesus, spoke to a people composed mostly of farmers and fishermen. That is why, when they wanted to talk about the Kingdom of God, they used images and parables related to life and growth. And in the Gospel we have just read, Jesus compares this Word to a seed.
One remarkable thing about this Gospel is that it contains not only a parable, but also its interpretation. This is very unusual, since the classic use of parables involved a technique whereby the rabbi or teacher led each listener to draw their own conclusions from the parable. This is why exegetes and commentators are fairly unanimous in thinking that the second part of today's Gospel—that is, the interpretation—is not from Jesus himself but represents the interpretation of the early Church.
In Matthew's text, this parable immediately follows the story in which Jesus' family members wanted to seize him and take him home because they thought he had lost his mind. This parable is actually Jesus' reflection on his ministry. His Word—the Word of God—is received in various ways. In some people, it finds a heart of stone and does not grow at all; in others, it grows with difficulty, but it grows nonetheless. And when it has reached its full growth, it will be the End. In short, it is a message of hope.
When this parable was told in the early church, an interpretation was added to it, which was then attributed to Jesus. And, surprisingly, there was a shift in emphasis from the seed to the soil. All of Jesus' attention—and concern—was focused on the seed itself, that is, on the Kingdom of God.
For the early Christians, the concern gradually became that of being as good a soil as possible to receive this seed. Such a concern was obviously legitimate and found some basis in the parable itself, as told by Jesus.
But this shift nevertheless shows quite clearly our human tendency to be more concerned with ourselves and how we receive the Word of God than with the Word itself. Jesus was concerned with the Word! And his message is precisely that even despite our hardness of heart and our lack of cooperation, the seed of the Kingdom will grow to its full measure.
The reason for this shift in the object of our concern is probably our innate fear of suffering. Yet Paul, in his Letter to the Romans, reminds us that all the suffering we may experience is only part of the process of growing toward the fullness of God's Kingdom within us. These are the normal pains of childbirth.
It is curious how easily we find all kinds of good reasons and excuses to protect ourselves from the painful reality of growth and take refuge in the more secure activity of preparing the soil. We feel safer when we are busy plowing the soil, pulling weeds, turning the earth in various ways. We are “doing” something and we expect a reward for what we are doing. All of this is good and necessary. But the Gospel reminds us of another dimension: it reminds us of the need to wait patiently while the seed takes time to grow; the need to experience the death of the seed without being sure that it will really take root, without knowing how much it will grow. We do not control growth. And that is painful for us. Both the process of growth and the fact that we cannot control it are painful.
While remaining aware of the need for ascetic practices, of the need to weed the garden of our hearts and water the plants, let us not forget to return to what was most important to Jesus: the Word of God, the seed planted by the Father in humanity; and let us wait with confidence for its growth in each of us and in all humanity. Let us also accept to go through the sufferings that are part of such birth and growth.
*** We celebrate today the Memorial of the Martyrs of Korea.
Armand Veilleux