Parables People and Purpose

 The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to examine the distractions that lead us away from the fullness of life that our relationship with Christ sustains.

Full Life Beyond Distractions

The Reading from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah portrays Israel as the wife of the Lord.

* [2:1–3:5] These chapters may contain some of Jeremiah’s early preaching. He portrays Israel as the wife of the Lord, faithful only in the beginning, when she walked behind him (2:2–3, 5; 3:1). Consistent with the marriage metaphor, he describes her present unfaithfulness as adultery (2:20; 3:2–3); now she walks behind the Baals.

* [2:2] Devotion: Heb. hesed; Israel’s gratitude, fidelity, and love for God.

* [2:3] First fruits: the first yield of a harvest offered as a sign of dependence on and gratitude toward the Lord of the land, thus divine property. Israel, then, is a gift made to God, set apart for his use; cf. Ex 23:19.

* [2:8] Experts in the law: the priests. The shepherds: the kings and nobles. (Jeremiah, CHAPTER 2 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 36 proclaims the rule of divine love and mercy over God’s friends,

* [Psalm 36] A Psalm with elements of wisdom (Ps 36:2–5), the hymn (Ps 36:6–10), and the lament (Ps 36:11–13). The rule of sin over the wicked (Ps 36:2–5) is contrasted with the rule of divine love and mercy over God’s friends (Ps 36:6–10). The Psalm ends with a prayer that God’s guidance never cease (Ps 36:11–12). (Psalms, PSALM 36 | USCCB, n.d.)

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus proclaims the Purpose of Parables and the Privilege of Discipleship.

* [13:1–53] The discourse in parables is the third great discourse of Jesus in Matthew and constitutes the second part of the third book of the gospel. Matthew follows the Marcan outline (Mk 4:1–35) but has only two of Mark’s parables, the five others being from Q and M. In addition to the seven parables, the discourse gives the reason why Jesus uses this type of speech (Mt 13:10–15), declares the blessedness of those who understand his teaching (Mt 13:16–17), explains the parable of the sower (Mt 13:18–23) and of the weeds (Mt 13:36–43), and ends with a concluding statement to the disciples (Mt 13:51–52).

* [13:11] Since a parable is figurative speech that demands reflection for understanding, only those who are prepared to explore its meaning can come to know it. To understand is a gift of God, granted to the disciples but not to the crowds. In Semitic fashion, both the disciples’ understanding and the crowd’s obtuseness are attributed to God. The question of human responsibility for the obtuseness is not dealt with, although it is asserted in Mt 13:13. The mysteries: as in Lk 8:10; Mk 4:11 has “the mystery.” The word is used in Dn 2:18, 19, 27 and in the Qumran literature (1QpHab 7:8; 1QS 3:23; 1QM 3:9) to designate a divine plan or decree affecting the course of history that can be known only when revealed. Knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven means recognition that the kingdom has become present in the ministry of Jesus.

* [13:12] In the New Testament use of this axiom of practical “wisdom” (see Mt 25:29; Mk 4:25; Lk 8:18; 19:26), the reference transcends the original level. God gives further understanding to one who accepts the revealed mystery; from the one who does not, he will take it away (note the “theological passive,” more will be given, what he has will be taken away).

* [13:13] Because ‘they look…or understand’: Matthew softens his Marcan source, which states that Jesus speaks in parables so that the crowds may not understand (Mk 4:12), and makes such speaking a punishment given because they have not accepted his previous clear teaching. However, his citation of Is 6:9–10 in Mt 13:14 supports the harsher Marcan view.

* [13:16–17] Unlike the unbelieving crowds, the disciples have seen that which the prophets and the righteous of the Old Testament longed to see without having their longing fulfilled. (Matthew, CHAPTER 13 | USCCB, n.d.)

Kimberly Grassmeyer comments that Jesus admits that he speaks in Parables to the people, as they are unable to “see or hear” the mysteries that the disciples have absorbed.  Much of the passage relies on Isaiah’s prophesy that the people can look but not truly see, and hear but not truly understand, and as such  have “gross” hearts.

Reading that passage, I wonder if anyone else shares my suspicion that I fall into this group?  There is so much that I don’t truly comprehend from Christ’s teaching, so much of God’s word that is difficult to absorb.  Am I the person who doesn’t truly see, understand, and love God with my whole heart?  Am I among those who will have everything taken away?  Jesus told the disciples that many prophets and faithful people had fallen short in their attempts to do so - who am I to hope that I’m better than they?

Ahhh, but I’m a New Testament Christian, eager to believe in God’s Grace.  So I’ll cling to the closing phrase from Isaiah’s prophesy:

“lest they see with their eyes

and hear with their ears

and understand with their hearts and be converted

and I heal them.”

My prayer today is to ask that God continue, always, to open wide my heart, my eyes, and my ears, that I may be truly converted and healed.  That I may one day know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven.  And as importantly for this Christian, that I would live them out in my daily life on earth, sharing light and love with all people.  Amen. (Grassmeyer, 2026)

Don Schwager quotes “Ears that refuse to hear,” by Hilary of Poitiers (315-367 AD).

"Faith perceives the mysteries of the kingdom. A person will make progress in those things he has been immersed in and will abound with an increase in that progress. But in those things he has not been immersed in, even that which he has shall be taken away from him. In other words, he suffers the loss of the law from the loss of his faith. Lacking faith, the people of the law lost even the efficacy of the law. Therefore, gospel faith receives a perfect gift, because it enriches with new fruit those things that have been undertaken. But once it is rejected, even the help of one's former means of support is taken away. (excerpt from a commentary ON MATTHEW 13.2) (Schwager, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler reflects on Jeremiah who speaks about the Lord bringing the people from the desert and then they abandoned the Lord by being self-sufficient no longer dependent on the Lord for water and food. The Lord enacts a lawsuit to show the things they have chosen are not life giving. We choose food, acceptance, and these become central to our self satisfaction but Christ’s Love is the only Way to satisfy the deepest desires of our heart. Friar Jude notes Jesus quotes Isaiah today, typical in Matthew’s Gospel, written for a Jewish audience, to underline if the people reject his message in the simplest form they have rejected Him because they refuse to see. Jesus praises those who have opened eyes and ears to see and understand.

The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 13:10-17 comments that we can read this passage only as a condemnation of those whose hearts have become “gross,” but that would be too limiting. There is also an invitation here. 

So listen closely and look carefully when you are praying and reading Scripture. Welcome Jesus into your heart and ask him to let you sense his presence with you personally. Don’t let guilt or sin or boredom get in the way. Slow down and take your time; don’t rush through your prayer. Tell yourself that the words you are reading can speak to you and your situation. And trust that the God who loves you wants to speak to you!

“Lord, open my eyes and my ears to you!” (Meditation on Matthew 13:10-17, n.d.)

Father Richard Rohr, OFM, has long drawn comfort and wisdom from the writings of the young Jewish woman Etty Hillesum (1914–1943), believing her to be someone whose contemplative practice and mystical experience led to greater compassion and action in a hurting world. Shortly before her departure for internment at the Westerbork transit camp, Hillesum wrote in her journal. Hillesum fully accepted the brokenness of reality and chose to love ever more consciously.

Something has crystallised. I have looked our destruction, our miserable end which has already begun in so many small ways in our daily life, straight in the eye and accepted it into my life, and my love of life has not been diminished. I am not bitter or rebellious, or in any way discouraged. I continue to grow from day to day, even with the likelihood of destruction staring me in the face. I shall no longer flirt with words, for words merely evoke misunderstandings: I have come to terms with life.…

By “coming to terms with life” I mean: the reality of death has become a definite part of my life; my life has, so to speak, been extended by death, by my looking death in the eye and accepting it, by accepting destruction as part of life and no longer wasting my energies on fear of death or the refusal to acknowledge its inevitability. It sounds paradoxical: by excluding death from our life we cannot live a full life, and by admitting death into our life we enlarge and enrich [life]. [2] (Rohr, n.d.)

We implore the Spirit to reveal if our development of a sophisticated understanding and practice of our Christian faith is to serve our desire for moral and intellectual justification of our self aggrandizement rather than the faith, hope and love of Jesus Way. 

References

Grassmeyer, K. (2026, July 23). Daily Reflection July 23, 2026 | Creighton Online Ministries. Creighton Online Ministries. Retrieved July 23, 2026, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-july-23-2026 

Jeremiah, CHAPTER 2 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved July 23, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/jeremiah/2? 

Matthew, CHAPTER 13 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved July 23, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/13? 

Meditation on Matthew 13:10-17. (n.d.). Word Among Us. Retrieved July 23, 2026, from https://wau.org/meditations/2026/07/23/1629640/ 

Psalms, PSALM 36 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved July 23, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/36? 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Etty Hillesum: A Commitment to Life. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved July 23, 2026, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/etty-hillesum-a-commitment-to-life/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). Many Longed to Hear What You Hear. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved July 23, 2026, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/ 

Living Learning and Love

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today, Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene, invite us to contemplate the power of love to make visible in our material life the mystical Presence of Love Incarnate.

Love and Life

The Reading from the Song of Songs presents the deep emotional love connected to Loss and Discovery.

* [3:1–5] See the parallel in 5:2–8.

* [3:2] The motif of seeking/finding here and elsewhere is used by later Christian and Jewish mystics to speak of the soul’s search for the divine.

* [3:4] Whom my soul loves: the fourfold repetition of this phrase in vv. 1–4 highlights the depth of the woman’s emotion and desire. Mother’s house: cf. 8:2; a place of safety and intimacy, one which implicitly signifies approval of the lovers’ relationship. (Song of Songs, CHAPTER 3 | USCCB, n.d.)

The Reading from the Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians presents our life as a new creation.

* [5:14–15] These verses echo 2 Cor 4:14 and resume the treatment of “life despite death” from 2 Cor 4:7–5:10.

* [5:16–17] Consequently: the death of Christ described in 2 Cor 5:14–15 produces a whole new order (2 Cor 5:17) and a new mode of perception (2 Cor 5:16). According to the flesh: the natural mode of perception, characterized as “fleshly,” is replaced by a mode of perception proper to the Spirit. Elsewhere Paul contrasts what Christ looks like according to the old criteria (weakness, powerlessness, folly, death) and according to the new (wisdom, power, life); cf. 2 Cor 5:15, 21; 1 Cor 1:17–3:3. Similarly, he describes the paradoxical nature of Christian existence, e.g., in 2 Cor 4:10–11, 14. A new creation: rabbis used this expression to describe the effect of the entrance of a proselyte or convert into Judaism or of the remission of sins on the Day of Atonement. The new order created in Christ is the new covenant (2 Cor 3:6). (2 Corinthians, CHAPTER 5 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 63 expresses the intimate relationship between God and the worshiper.

* [Psalm 63] A Psalm expressing the intimate relationship between God and the worshiper. Separated from God (Ps 63:2), the psalmist longs for the divine life given in the Temple (Ps 63:3–6), which is based on a close relationship with God (Ps 63:7–9). May all my enemies be destroyed and God’s true worshipers continue in giving praise (Ps 63:10–11)!

* [63:4] For your love is better than life: only here in the Old Testament is anything prized above life—in this case God’s love. (Psalm 63, PSALMS | USCCB, n.d.)

The Gospel of John presents The Empty Tomb and The Appearance to Mary of Magdala.

* [20:11–18] This appearance to Mary is found only in John, but cf. Mt 28:8–10 and Mk 16:9–11.

* [20:16] Rabbouni: Hebrew or Aramaic for “my master.”

* [20:17] Stop holding on to me: see Mt 28:9, where the women take hold of his feet. I have not yet ascended: for John and many of the New Testament writers, the ascension in the theological sense of going to the Father to be glorified took place with the resurrection as one action. This scene in John dramatizes such an understanding, for by Easter night Jesus is glorified and can give the Spirit. Therefore his ascension takes place immediately after he has talked to Mary. In such a view, the ascension after forty days described in Acts 1:1–11 would be simply a termination of earthly appearances or, perhaps better, an introduction to the conferral of the Spirit upon the early church, modeled on Elisha’s being able to have a (double) share in the spirit of Elijah if he saw him being taken up (same verb as ascending) into heaven (2 Kgs 2:9–12). To my Father and your Father, to my God and your God: this echoes Ru 1:16: “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” The Father of Jesus will now become the Father of the disciples because, once ascended, Jesus can give them the Spirit that comes from the Father and they can be reborn as God’s children (Jn 3:5). That is why he calls them my brothers. (John, CHAPTER 20 | USCCB, n.d.)

Kathy Kemler asks How does the resurrected Jesus call you?  What is the name (method/manner) that He speaks to you in that you immediately recognize it as the voice of God? And how do you remain open so that you may understand and respond with the awareness that he is “Teacher”. 

This part of today’s Gospel touched me because sometimes I too don’t recognize Jesus in the moment, or in a situation. And somehow as if in the gentle calling of my name he brings my awareness to, “that which is”.  Recently I was struggling with a situation that had occurred. I was “underwater” as I would call it, distressed about the situation, fumbling around and living in the muck, in the darkness.  One morning during this floundering, I was reading a devotional reflection and suddenly, it was as if Jesus called me by name and shined a bright light of awareness onto my situation, my internal disposition.  He was calling to my attention to, “what is”.  I had been focused on begrudging the situation rather than embracing and accepting the reality of the situation and what I could learn from it. It was if he called my name to bring to my attention the opportunity to learn, grow, and be transformed through the situation.  I too could have spoken in that moment, “Teacher” because I had a great sense of learning and understanding of myself. (Kemler, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes “The love of Christ enflamed her,” by Gregory the Great (540-604 AD)

"Mary Magdalene, who had been a sinner in the city (Luke 7:37), loved the Truth and so washed away with her tears the stains of wickedness (Luke 7:47). Her sins had kept her cold, but afterward she burned with an irresistible love... We must consider this woman's state of mind whose great force of love inflamed her. When even the disciples departed from the sepulcher, she did not depart. She looked for him whom she had not found... But it is not enough for a lover to have looked once, because the force of love intensifies the effort of the search. She looked for him a first time and found nothing. She persevered in seeking, and that is why she found him. As her unfulfilled desires increased, they took possession of what they found (Song of Songs 3:1-4)... Holy desires, as I have told you before, increase by delay in their fulfillment. If delay causes them to fail, they were not desires... This was Mary's kind of love as she turned a second time to the sepulcher she had already looked into. Let us see the result of her search, which had been redoubled by the power of love." (excerpt from FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 25) (Schwager, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler reflects on some of the many connections in the Scriptures today that are not immediately obvious in the texts. The Second Letter to the Corinthians reminds us that we are not to judge according to the flesh. All people are to be treated as God’s children. Others are the new creation in love, too. In the Gospel of John Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb on the first day at about dawn when the disk of the sun is not yet visible. Friar Jude explains the connection of “the Morning Star, Venus, the Goddess of love. He notes the different number of people who go to the tomb in the Gospel accounts. Mary Magdalene represents the Church looking for her beloved. Hebrew Law required two to give witness and the requirement was met by the two angels. Mary Magdalene is “the apostle to the apostles” (apostle :one who gives witness to the resurrection). As in the Song of Songs, Mary Magdalene is searching compelled by love and Jesus is not recognized in His Resurrected Body but by His calling her name. Friar Jude notes that this is one of three episodes in the Gospel where He is not immediately recognized. Our resurrected body will not be the same but changed. When Jesus calls Mary’s name, we learn “the sheep recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd”. Friar Jude observes the instruction of Jesus not to embrace the Glorified Body and challenges us to ask ourselves when we try to cling, is it love or control?

The Word Among Us Meditation on the Song of Songs 3:1-4 comments that After Jesus’ death, when most of the other disciples hid in fear, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb as soon as she could. And while she may have been afraid, something compelled her to go find him. The love that had transformed her life propelled her to follow Jesus even into the most uncomfortable, dangerous places. As a result, she became the first witness to the risen Christ and the first one to proclaim, “I have seen the Lord” (John 20:18)!

You may not have experienced anything quite as dramatic as having seven demons cast out of you, but perhaps you can think of some sin that used to keep you bound that you no longer struggle with. Or perhaps your life was headed in one direction and took a very different turn after you met Jesus. Praise God for all those miracles! And if there’s a part of you that needs more of his love and power, invite him in. Let him keep transforming you.

“Jesus, you are the One whom my heart loves.” (Meditation on the Song of Songs 3:1-4, n.d.)

Father Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces Dr. Lerita Coleman Brown (1953–2025) who reflects on the legacy of Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman (1899–1981) and the wisdom he continues to offer us today. The interfaith minister and author Liza J. Rankow describes Thurman’s work and witness.

There is a stereotype of mystics seeking to escape the world, concerned only with the ecstasy of their own experience of union with the Divine; yet in that union is a doorway that opens out into everything and everyone. The experience of oneness brings us back into relationship with the allness. The oneness and the allness inter-be…. Thus we feel deeply the wounds of a battered world, and the suffering and the needs of the people—including, as Thurman puts it in Jesus and the Disinherited, those “with their backs against the wall”—the disenfranchised, the marginalized and the oppressed. Inaction is not an option. The mystic worldview creates an ethical mandate, and it offers a new way to enter the world of social transformation—from the position of oneness rather than dualism. It shifts the paradigm…. Thurman often quoted social union leader Eugene Debs: “While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.” [3]

Thurman spoke of spiritual disciplines as those practices by which we remove the barriers to our “inner altar”—our place of communion with God. And through this definition, he included activism as a spiritual discipline…. He affirmed the necessity to identify with, and work for the liberation and reconciliation of all parties in order to restore beloved community. [4] (Rohr, n.d.)

We contemplate the events in our lives when the Spirit reveals that we have been “called by name” to understand relationships in a new Way that reveals our growth through Love. 

References

John, CHAPTER 20 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved July 22, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/20? 

Kemler, K. (n.d.). Daily Reflections. Daily Reflections. Retrieved July 22, 2026, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-july-22-2026 

Meditation on the Song of Songs 3:1-4. (n.d.). Word Among Us. Retrieved July 22, 2026, from https://wau.org/meditations/2026/07/22/1628315/ 

Psalm 63, PSALMS | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved July 22, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/63?2 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Howard Thurman: A Worldview of Oneness. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved July 22, 2026, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/howard-thurman-a-worldview-of-oneness/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). I Have Seen the Lord! Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved July 22, 2026, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/ 

Song of Songs, CHAPTER 3 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved July 22, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/songofsongs/3? 

2 Corinthians, CHAPTER 5 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved July 22, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/2corinthians/5?14