Readings: 1 Corinthians 15:35-37, 42-49; Psalm 55; Luke 8:4-15
The disciples were wondering and worrying why things weren’t developing quickly enough – would the Kingdom of God come in time for them to receive the reward they expected for their hanging in and holding on while others walked away from Jesus and his mission. They were expecting some equivalent reward for their efforts and endurance. Instead Jesus answers with a parable expressing that growth takes time and that such growth depends also on the condition of the ground.
In the first reading Paul proposes the image of the seed – ‘Whatever you sow in the ground has to die before it is given new life’. This picks up on the saying of Jesus : ‘Amen, Amen I say to you, unless a wheat grain falls into the earth and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies it bears much fruit’. (John 12: 24) This saying is found only in the Gospel of John and is the closest statement in it to the nature parables in the other Gospels, as we have in today’s reading from Luke. The context for this saying is important, as a response to a group of Greek visitors to the festival in Jerusalem. To his disciples, who were probably impressed by their presence, Jesus did not give a philosophical argument – what Paul earlier in this Letter labelled ‘human wisdom… to the gentiles foolishness’ (see 1 Corinthians 1: 20-25).
Indeed following on from the image of the seed, Jesus indicates and insists on ‘Anyone who loves life loses it; anyone who hates life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me, must follow me, and my servant will be with me wherever I am’. (John : 12:25-26). Christian discipleship demands a dying to self, the discernment of which is dealt with in conscience and within the context of a person’s life considered in the round.
Kevin O’Gorman SMA