Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- Seeing Parables

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus explains the purpose of the parables:
"Knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you;
but to the rest, they are made known through parables so
that they may look but not see, and hear but not understand."

The use of the word "para" in the New Testament signals the failures to see at various levels.
The great metaphor here is the blindness of the Jews,
a blindness which is identified with disobedience.

The parables of Christ are meant to highlight and point out this blindness,
this willful refusal to see.
They themselves, in their peculiar form,
are judgments on those who cannot see in them signs of salvation.

A parable does its work by turning our ordinary conception of the spiritual world upside-down. And we would be greatly remiss if we did not attend to the instruction that emerges from those startling, funny, off-putting, and strangely enlightening stories that Jesus loved to tell.

+++When a large crowd gathered,
with people from one town after another
journeying to Jesus, he spoke in a parable.
“A sower went out to sow his seed.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on
the path and was trampled,
and the birds of the sky ate it up.
Some seed fell on rocky ground,
and when it grew,
it withered for lack of moisture.
Some seed fell among thorns,
and the thorns grew with it
and choked it.
And some seed fell on good soil,
and when it grew,
it produced fruit a hundredfold.”
After saying this, he called out,
“Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”

Then his disciples asked him
what the meaning of this parable might be.
He answered,
“Knowledge of the mysteries of the
Kingdom of God
has been granted to you;
but to the rest, they are made known
through parables
so that they may look but not see,
and hear but not understand.

“This is the meaning of the parable.

The seed is the word of God.
Those on the path are the ones who have heard,
but the Devil comes and takes away
the word from their hearts
that they may not believe and be saved.
Those on rocky ground are the ones
who, when they hear,
receive the word with joy,
but they have no root;
they believe only for a time and
fall away in time of temptation.
As for the seed that fell among thorns,
they are the ones who have heard,
but as they go along,
they are choked by the anxieties and
riches and pleasures of life,
and they fail to produce mature fruit.
But as for the seed that fell on rich soil,
they are the ones who, when they
have heard the word,
embrace it with a generous and good heart,
and bear fruit through perseverance.”+++

Here's a little recent tidbit from Boobie. He seems enamored by non-Catholics, whether they're Bob Dylan or Queen Elizabeth. He's a universalist; just ask Ben Shapiro.

Queen Elizabeth II: Faithful Disciple

The most sacred moment of the coronation was the anointing, during which Elizabeth, stripped of royal insignia and wearing only a simple white dress, was anointed with chrism by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who prayed that the Holy Spirit would set her apart for service. Of course, by means of this sacred ceremony, Elizabeth became, not simply head of state, but also head of the Church of England."

...

But I am especially pleased to honor her as an evangelist, and a faithful and unpretentious disciple of her Lord.

Luke 8:8b:
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

When Jesus speaks those words, it means this is something REALLY important.
Outside of the book of Revelation, I believe this phrase is used by Jesus only 6 or 7 (or so) times in the NT?
This always made me pause.

Luke 8:4-15 is (to me) an abbreviated version of Matt 13.
("WHY" the Holy Spirit chose to do this is not for me to question, but I noticed it.)

I spent a LOT of time studying Matt 13...because I noticed that Jesus says, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear", TWICE in this very chapter.
Curious, huh?

So...this made me want to study this chapter closely.
...and I did for many months.

Part (and only 'part) of that study concentrated on Matt. 13:14-15.
I did a cross reference and noticed that these words spoken by Jesus are what was said by Isaiah in Isaiah 6:9-10...and I'm going, "Hmmm...this is interesting.

...so we are at Isaiah 6...where Isaiah is given his "commission" by God, right?

(PLEASE pay close attention to what he (Isaiah) was told to do?)

Isaiah 6:9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
Isaiah 6:10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

After I read that...I was going..."WOW!". I had never noticed this before.
Isaiah's job was NOT to make people understand, but to PREVENT them from understanding. (HIDE the truth.)

After reading this with understanding, I began to recognize the only conclusion:
God does NOT want to save everyone.
In fact, He openly prevents it.
Isaiah 6:10b says, "lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

God (apparently) decided there is a certain group of people who will never be saved.

Fast forward to Matt 13:14-15 (and Luke 8:10)...same thing:

God decided that He didn't want some people to EVER be saved.

There is no getting around this plain language: God said some people will never be saved.

AFTER I understood this...I understood the reason for the parables.
The parables are not meant to EXPLAIN the mysteries of heaven...but to HIDE them.

(I suppose I could go n for about another 45 paragraphs with other points...but if I've lost your attention by now it doesn't matter. Right?)

I believe I can explain each of the parables in Matt 13.
If you'd like to hear that, WONDERFUL!

Otherwise I say what Jesus said in Matt 13:52

Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.

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