Message of Abbot Paul - Thursday 27th July 2023

There are many strange coincidences in the Mass Lectionary. The Gospel reading proper to the feast of Saints Joachim and Anne, that we celebrated yesterday are, in fact, the last two verses of today’s Gospel passage from Matthew, (Mt 13: 10-17), in which Jesus talks with his disciples about the use of parables. They ask him, “Why do you talk to them in parables?” Why does Jesus use parables when talking with the crowds? Jesus gives them the simple answer, but then goes on to explain. “Because the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are revealed to you, but they are not revealed to them.” He goes a step further, saying, “The reason I talk to them in parables is that they look without seeing and listen without hearing or understanding.” By using parables, perhaps the crowds will come to understand better than if he speaks in a way that loses their attention and leads them into confusion. The parables are vivid and interesting examples from everyday life that will draw their attention and cause them to work out what Jesus is teaching.

 

​Jesus then delves back into the Old Testament, to the prophet Isaiah to show that people have always been deaf to God’s word. Isaiah condemned the people of Israel with these words:

“You will listen and listen again, but not understand,

see and see again, but not perceive.

For the heart of this nation has grown coarse,

their ears are dull of hearing, and they have shut their eyes,

for fear they should see with their eyes,

hear with their ears,

understand with their heart,

and be converted

and be healed by me.”

Ultimately, the purpose and intention of God’s word is to is to be assimilated and understood in the hope of leading people to repentance, conversion, healing and union with God. In the New Testament this is brought about in Christ, who is the incarnate Word of God and Saviour of the world. What people are now experiencing in Jesus is what the prophets longed to see and hear, the Messiah’s invitation to be forgiven and saved in the Blood of the Lamb and the power of his Holy Spirit. “But happy are your eyes because they see, your ears because they hear! I tell you solemnly, many prophets and holy men longed to see what you see, and never saw it; to hear what you hear, and never heard it.” Yesterday these words were applied to Saints Joachim and Anne. Today we apply them to ourselves.