HOMILY WEEK 24 06 – Week II
On Being Rich Soil for the Word of God:
Optional Memorial of St. Januarius
(1 Cor 15:35-50; Ps 56; Lk 8:4-15)
*******************************************
“Regnum Dei Intra Vos” is Latin for “the kingdom of heaven is among you.” That is my episcopal motto as an archbishop, taken from Luke 17:21, and the only place in the new Testament where Jesus not only indicates the kingdom is near, or one is not far from that kingdom, but the kingdom is within us and among us.
This phrase also captures the message of today’s liturgy: the powerful Word of God is intended to transform us and lead us into experiencing the kingdom of heaven right here and now.
The Psalm could not be clearer along that line – we are to walk in the presence of God “with the light of the living,” or as it is sometimes put, “in the land of the living.” Heaven is not just a future reality – it is meant to be a reality lived in the present. According to St. Catherine of Sienna, “It’s heaven all the way to heaven because Jesus said he was the Way.”
In the first reading, St. Paul, probably responding to questions presented to him by his Corinthians about the after-life, struggles to reason with them and explain, using rather confusing categories of what is spiritual and what is not spiritual. To my mind, this is not St. Paul at his best.
Jesus does much better dealing with this mystery in the gospel, relying on the right-brain approach of sharing a parable, rather than on Paul’s attempt to explain such a mystery rationally. So, Jesus twigs our imagination with the parable of the sower.
What comes to my mind immediately is the “power to live” present in a seed that spent the winter in our compost bin enduring minus 40 degree weather. In the spring, it suddenly came to life, sprouted and when planted, grew into a twenty-foot long pumpkin plant that produced huge pumpkins. Now that is an image of the kingdom of heaven that speaks to my gardener’s heart!
Jesus describes four different kinds of soil. Some people are like a hard path – they might hear the Word being read or spoken, but it has no impact on them at all. It is just as if they never heard it. Others are like rocky soil – they hear the word and might think about it for a moment, but like a seed sprouting in water with no roots, it also makes no impact upon them.
Others are like seed that falls among thorns. They actually pay attention to it at first, perhaps have some kind of a spiritual experience like a Cursillo weekend, but then get busy with their usual activities and the Word that was so promising just fades away and has no long-lasting impact on them either.
I would like to add one more category – no soil or garden at all. These are the people who might even call themselves Catholic, but are non-practicing, never attend Church, and at home don’t even have a bible, so they actually never even get to hear the Word of God. There isn’t even a path upon with the seed can fall, and how unfortunate that is.
Finally, Jesus speaks of the ideal – rich, moist, damp, warm soil in which the seed can fall, sprout, take root, grow and produce in great quantities. I think of the crabapple tree in our backyard that every two years has us going to the food bank three times a week taking along large white plastic pails filled to the brim with crabapples.
These are the persons who listen carefully to the Word of God when it is proclaimed, who explore its meaning in bible study groups, who ponder the Word like Mary and meditate upon its meaning, who try to apply it to their lives. I especially feel like that rich soil when I enter into contemplative prayer, relying only on a simple mantra and trying to be still, receptive, dark, damp, warm rich soil for the Word of God to unleash its transformative power within me.
For that is the goal of our life in Christ – theosis, divinization, transformation, becoming Christ-like and entering into an ever more intimate communion with the Trinity. David Hassell S.J. in his book Dark Intimacy uses the term com-penetration with the three divine persons of the Trinity. For him, what is important is the centrality of the divine Word through all of history as the dynamic pattern for the evolving universe. Christ’s central presence as the Word turns the world into a home rather than an exile.
Novalis chose a fresh green shoot pushing its way up out of the ground – very colorful, striking, appropriate and very fitting for the readings today, for the cover of my latest book Still Green and Growing. The book is about personal growth, inner healing and human development from a second half of life perspective. Today’s liturgy seems to confirm my intuition in writing the book.
St. Januarius’ blood
Today the Church invites us to honour St. Januarius. Little is known about his life and martyrdom. His fame is centered on a relic, said to contain his blood, that is kept in the cathedral at Naples. Early devotion to the saint was based on the belief that Januarius, an Italian bishop, lived in the 4th century and was martyred during the Diocletian persecution, but the records are unreliable. Since the 5th century, the flask containing the blood has attracted attention. Eighteen times a year, the solid mass in the vial becomes liquefied, sometimes seeming to bubble and froth. The relic is an object of devotion and the activity is said to be miraculous. No natural explanation has been found for this phenomenon.
The Eucharist nourishes us first at the Table of the Word, and then with an intimate communion with the Word made flesh. May our celebration help us be rich soil in which the Word of God can take root, transform us into greater Christlikeness, and empower us to produce the fruit of loving others as Christ has loved us.
