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/ 

Broken and Belonging

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today declare the commitment of Christ to love those suffering from brokenness in society.

Welcome the Broken

In the Reading from the Book of Wisdom, the wicked deny survival after death.

* [2:1–20] In this speech the wicked deny survival after death and indeed invite death by their evil deeds.

* [2:12–5:23] From 2:12 to 5:23 the author draws heavily on Is 52–62, setting forth his teaching in a series of characters or types taken from Isaiah and embellished with additional details from other texts. The description of the “righteous one” in 2:12–20 seems to undergird the New Testament passion narrative.

* [2:12] Law: the law of Moses; “training” has the same meaning.

* [2:22] This verse announces the subject of the next section. (Wisdom, CHAPTER 2 |, n.d.)

Psalm 34 declares God gives protection to the poor.

* [Psalm 34] A thanksgiving in acrostic form, each line beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In this Psalm one letter is missing and two are in reverse order. The psalmist, fresh from the experience of being rescued (Ps 34:5, 7), can teach the “poor,” those who are defenseless, to trust in God alone (Ps 34:4, 12). God will make them powerful (Ps 34:5–11) and give them protection (Ps 34:12–22). (Psalms, PSALM 34 | USCCB, n.d.)

In the Gospel of John, Jesus attends The Feast of Tabernacles.

* [7:26] The authorities: the members of the Sanhedrin (same term as Jn 3:1). (John, CHAPTER 7 | USCCB, n.d.)

Amy Turbes comments that having a broken heart is a very real part of the human condition. We have all experienced heartbrokenness at some time... When we feel helpless to fix things or guilty when we have so much.

“Lord, I am brokenhearted.”

“Amy, I watch over you, take refuge in me.”

Sharing these feelings with God is not to ask for them to be taken away, but to accept them as a true part of my humanity and God’s presence in my life. Even with my own brokenness, I accept this pain and share it with God.

From one human (aka child of God) to another, I invite you, at this midpoint in Lent, to be open to a new way of encountering God. Perhaps use your favorite psalm as a conversation starter. Or spend time with a psalm or passage you find difficult and tell God how those words really make you feel. God wants to be a part of your life—all of it—and is simply waiting for the invitation.

In this Lenten season, may you discover new ways to communicate with God and savor the graces it gives. (Turbes, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes “Christ our physician,” by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.

"As Christians, our task is to make daily progress toward God. Our pilgrimage on earth is a school in which God is the only teacher, and it demands good students, not ones who play truant. In this school we learn something every day. We learn something from commandments, something from examples, and something from sacraments. These things are remedies for our wounds and materials for study." (excerpt from Sermon 218c,1) (Schwager, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler comments that in the passage from the Book of Wisdom the wicked will array themselves against the good people They will plot to defeat the good people. In the Gospel Jesus comes to Jerusalem where the leaders are trying to kill Him as He proclaims to be from God not Nazareth. They respond by trying Him for blasphemy but Friar Jude declares that it is where Jesus really is from.

The Word Among Us Meditation on Wisdom 2:1, 12-22 comments that without the help of a loving God, we risk coming to the conclusion that “nothing really matters, anyone can see,” as Freddie Mercury lamented in the song “Bohemian Rhapsody.” We may wonder, “Why bother pursuing goodness? What is to be gained by suffering or sacrifice?”

Jesus, the innocent victim, has revealed to the world “the hidden counsels of God” (Wisdom 2:22). He has shown that our highest calling is to imitate him by setting aside glory, by washing each other’s feet, and by enduring even betrayal and death for the sake of the gospel. Jesus has revealed the true answer to the question “Why bother?” And that answer is as simple as it is profound, as comforting as it is challenging: because Jesus has loved us, even to the point of his own death, and all who want to live in him must love as he did.

“Jesus, thank you for revealing to us the wisdom of God!” (Meditation on Wisdom 2:1, 12-22, n.d.)

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces psychotherapist James Finley who found himself retraumatized by an abusive priest as a young man, after living with a violent father. Finley shares how Jesus met him in his deep shame and suffering.

Then suddenly, looking this way and that, I saw Jesus sitting alone in the moonlight at the edge of a clearing. I walked across the clearing and knelt at his feet. I could feel his hand on my shoulder as I leaned in close to whisper in his ear, revealing the burdens of my shame-based weakness and fear. 

Having poured out all that my wounded and hurting heart was moved and able to say, Jesus drew me in close and whispered in my ear three words that set me free, words that still echo inside me to this day. I heard him whisper: “I love you!” 

Dazed and amazed in being so unexplainably loved, the spirit within me let me know what both Jesus and I were waiting to hear me say. So I leaned in close and whispered my secret “I love you” to Jesus. And there in that instant there was the realization between us that the matter was settled once and for all. The matter being that the good news of God’s love for us is never measured by our ability to be true to who we know in our heart God is calling us to be. For the sole measure of God’s love for us is the measureless expanse of God’s merciful love, permeating us and taking us to itself in the midst of our faltering and wayward ways. (Rohr, n.d.)

We contemplate the promise of Jesus to meet us in our brokenness and rejection by the forces that seek to control our world by coercion and corruption with an invitation to replace hate with love and aggression with cooperation.

References

John, CHAPTER 7 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved March 20, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/7? 

Meditation on Wisdom 2:1, 12-22. (n.d.). Word Among Us. Retrieved March 20, 2026, from https://wau.org/meditations/2026/03/20/1521806/ 

Psalms, PSALM 34 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved March 20, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/34?17 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Jesus Heals Our Shame. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved March 20, 2026, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/jesus-stills-heals-our-shame/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). His Hour Had Not yet Come. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved March 20, 2026, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/ 

Turbes, A. (n.d.). Daily Reflection. Creighton Online Ministries: Home. Retrieved March 20, 2026, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-march-20-2026 

Wisdom, CHAPTER 2 |. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved March 20, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/wisdom/2?1