Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- Confounding Parables

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 09.23.23 | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

Luke 8:4-15

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 failure 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.

The parables are often exercises whose purpose is
to confuse and confound the hearer,
overturning her expectations and upsetting her theological convictions.
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.

[MurphsLaw]

+++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."+++

[Ezekiel]

The parables are often exercises whose purpose is to confuse and confound the hearer, overturning her expectations and upsetting her theological convictions.

"In confusion there is profit."

(This post is relatively short.)

Meanwhile, parables are analogies that bring spiritual concepts down to earth because the teachings are *real-world*, regular-life parallels for regular people who need bread.

Matthew 13

33 Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.
34 All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:
35 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.

Simple meanings elude those who are not down to earth. (It's the simple meaning.)

Yet even the Dark Side is all worked up about trapped greenhouse gasses.

The reference in v.35 is in the beginning of Psalm 78, where "foundation of the world" corresponds to kedem [קדם].

On a related note,

"Kedem" is spelled out by the last letters of the three words "tzaddik yesod olam" [צדיק יסוד עולם] which is found in Proverbs 10:25.

It's translated as "the righteous is an everlasting foundation" but also as "the righteous is the foundation of the world"

And over in this place is righteous Sarah:

Genesis 18:6 And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.

It's all a parable, a mashal*.

Joseph is the subject of much commentary for being this righteous foundation -- Joseph, who became governor [4910] over all the land of Egypt.

*"מָשָׁל mâshâl, maw-shawl'; apparently from H4910 in some original sense of superiority in mental action.."

🤔 Dollars to doughnuts meaning he was busy dreaming of something. Of course that's why he was sold down the river so to speak. De Nile..

[MurphsLaw]

Thank you for adding that.
Can you see why we feel then,
as was said long ago;

" The New is concealed in the old,
and the Old is revealed in the new"?

That this parable teaching style revealed
what could not be seen then?

2 Cor 3
12 Since we have such a hope, we are very bold,
13 not like Moses,
who put a veil over his face
so that the Israelites might not see the end of the fading splendor.
14 But their minds were hardened;
for to this day, when they read the old covenant,
that same veil remains unlifted,
because only through Christ is it taken away.
15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read
a veil lies over their minds;
16 but when a man turns to the Lord the veil is removed.
?