Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

A few weeks ago I mentioned the error of universalism, the idea that, apart

from one or two very serious exceptions, everyone gets to heaven, no matter

how they have lived their lives. In the first reading today, God says that the

word that goes out from His mouth will not return to Him empty, but shall

succeed in the things for which He sent it. Does this mean, then, that I am

wrong and in fact God always succeeds all the time with everyone?

Sometimes, we can look back at certain eras of the past through rosy-tinted

spectacles, or consider a certain time to be a golden age. In this country,

between 1900 and 1950, the number of Catholics increased by fifty percent,

and I’m told that at the time of Vatican II, whilst it was known that the

Protestants were declining, we were on the up, and after Vatican II it was

thought that we would skyrocket. I’m told that in the sixties, each time you

opened the diocesan newspaper, there was a photo of the Archbishop blessing a

new church or school. But by the seventies, it could be seen that the skyrocket

hadn’t happened, and that decline seemed to be what was happening instead.

We have gotten used to this phenomenon over the past fifty years or so, and

now it seems that things may be beginning to change again, or so we hope.

But all things considered, you would have thought that whatever the causes of

rise and decline and rise again in the Church, at the time of Our Lord, He

would have been a brilliant preacher. He knew exactly where to hit the mark,

He knew people’s hearts, so one-to-one He would have been excellent, and

everyone would have followed Him. But even for Him, it was not the case.

And in the parable He gives us today, there are at least two things to note.

Firstly, not everyone is good soil, and secondly, in this passage, He doesn’t

actually give the people the explanation. That comes later on, to the disciples

alone. Our Lord was sifting the wheat from the chaff. Who were the ones who

would come back again, to hear more? Who would just shrug his or her

shoulders and walk away? Who was just there in the hope of seeing a miracle,

but not really interested in the message? And who was there, standing with

folded arms, and definitely not impressed?

Our Lord was also trying to teach the same thing in a different way, to help

engage those who had heard the message over and over again, and had become

so used to it that it completely passed them by. So imagine the following

version of the same parable: after sowing seed in the ground, a man decided to

water it. Some of the earth was so dry that the water ran off, and the water

never reached the seeds, so they never grew. Some of the earth absorbed the

water at once, but it was so porous that the water ran deep into the earth and the

seed got little benefit, and hardly sprouted at all. Some patches of earth

became waterlogged – after the seed started to grow, it then was attacked by

mould and perished. And some of the earth had just the right drainage that the

seed grew and flourished.

The meaning? The sower of seed is a priest baptising. For some people, the

seed of baptism is sown, but it is never given the chance to grow, and remains

dormant. For others, their exposure to the Gospel and the Church is so short

and fleeting that, whilst to begin with they show signs of a growing faith, after

a while it just peters out. With some, the Gospel gets drowned out by the

message of the world, and the Gospel seed is allowed to go rotten. And for

others, the seed of baptism is able to grow and flourish into a healthy plant.

With His parables, Our Lord has been trying to entice the people to take Him

seriously and to take His message seriously. Not to listen and then file it away,

or to put conditions and limits to the message. You’re all in, or you’re all out.

You cannot serve both God and money. He who is not for us is against us.

Whoever turns his hand to the plough and then turns back is not worthy of me.

But turning this back to salvation, the message isn’t that only the saint will get

into heaven. Maybe only the saint will go straight to heaven, but as Catholics

we do also believe in Purgatory, to help so many of us get through as well.

So how many do get to heaven, then? I can’t give you a figure on that. But

what we do know is that we need to respond, because not all the seed yielded

its fruit.

Curious about exploring things further?  If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk