HOMILY WEEK 16 05 – Year I
Hearing and Living the Word:
Optional Memorial of St. Bridget of Sweden
(Ex 20:1-17; Ps 19; Mt 13:18-23)
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Years ago, Fr. Richard Rohr founded the Centre for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
That prophetic move can be seen as a living out of the message of today’s readings – hearing the Word of God and keeping it – contemplation and action.
In the gospel Jesus explains the parable of the sower that two thousand years later, still describes so accurately our world today. Many people are the path, not that interested in things spiritual or religious. They may happen to hear a homily or read a passage of scripture, but pay little attention to it. Many others are rocky ground – they may attend a faith event, get enthusiastic for a while but sink no roots and eventually go back to the same old, same old.
Still others are among thorns – genuinely interested with good intentions, but just have too many things on their plate, like sports, hobbies, games or perhaps some addiction like gambling, and things religious drop off their priority list. Finally, there are those who are good soil – who hunger for the Word of God, listen to the readings on Sunday attentively, read the scriptures during the week, are attentive to how God may be speaking to them through others or life’s events, and try their best to apply what they hear or read to their lives, seeking to change whatever they may need to change to follow Jesus more closely.
The last group reminds me of my composting practice that I finally have down to an art: adding green (food scraps), brown (last year’s leaves and peat moss), and black (topsoil from the garden), plus a sprinkling of fertilizer to kick start the decomposing process. Recently when I moved the compost from one bin to another, putting what was on top on the bottom, I was struck by how light and malleable the material was, and now am looking forward to really good soil for what I plant next year. That should be our goal – to be that kind of soil for the Word of God to take root in us.
As both readings point out, there is a great difference between hearing the Word and really listening to it. Listening to it means pondering it, trying to understand it, and finally acting on that word, putting it into practice in our lives.
In the end, we are being asked to both truly listen to the word (contemplation) and live it out (action).
May I suggest the ancient practice of Lectio Divina as a way to truly do both? Here are the stages: “Lectio” (reading) involves reading a passage prayerfully. “Meditatio” (meditation) involves thinking about it, trying to understand it, and asking one’s self what God is saying to us through that Word, “Oratio” (prayer) involves using those words to pray for your needs and the needs of the world, “Contemplatio” (contemplation) involves setting aside all thoughts and emotions and just being present to the Word, trusting that God is doing whatever God wants to do within us to draw us closer to God’s self, and finally “Operatio” (action) – deciding on a way that we can live out the Word that we have been praying with and contemplating. Then we will be bearing that fruit that Jesus is looking for in our lives.
The first reading offers us a great way to act on God’s word – keep the commandments, live them out. I like to summarize the Old Testament commandments as Jesus does: love God with our whole being, love others as we love ourselves, love others as Jesus loved us, and above all, love our enemies by forgiving them from the heart (Mt 5:44). On these hang all the law and the prophets (the whole Old Testament) Jesus teaches us. St. Paul goes even further in Rm 13:9 (The commandments … are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself”). It is all so simple, yet so true. St. Mother Theresa of Calcutta grasped the implications of this in her saying, “What you would like to do to Jesus, whom you cannot see, do it to the person next to you, whom you can see, and you will be doing it to Jesus.”
St Bridget of Sweden
Today the Church honors St Bridget, an example of good, rich soil. She was born in Sweden in 1303. Throughout her life, Bridget received visions and dreams and possessed gifts of prophecy and healing. She married at 13, bore eight children and lived happily until her husband’s death in 1344. After his death, Bridget moved near a Cistercian monastery, where she lived a penitential life. Seeking papal approval to create a new religious community, she moved to Rome and lived a life of prayer and penitence there for nearly 20 years. She founded the Bridgettine Order in 1370. Originally it included both men and women, but today is for women only. Bridget died in 1373, while returning to Rome from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. She is patron of Sweden and co-patron of Europe, with St Benedict, St Catherine of Sienna and St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.
The Eucharist involves first of all hearing and listening to the Word of God (contemplation) then it mandates us and sends us out to act on that word, to keep it by living out especially the commandments that both the Old Testament and Jesus gave to us.
Then we will truly be that good soil that Jesus asks us to be, bearing abundant fruit of loving actions that build up the reign of God in the world.
