Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Entrance Antiphon Ps 54 (53): 6, 8 See, I have God for my help. The Lord sustains my soul. I will sacrifice to you with willing heart, and praise your name, O Lord, for it is good.

Collect Show favour O Lord, to your servants and mercifully increase the gifts of your grace, that, made fervent in hope, faith and charity, they may be ever watchful in keeping your commands. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Jeremiah 2:1-3.7-8.12-13; Psalm 35; Matthew 13:10-17

The disciples came to Jesus and asked, Why do you speak to the people in parables? He replied, The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.' But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. (Matthew 13:10-17)

Unwilling During the decade between 1844 and 1854 numerous Anglicans entered the Catholic Church in England. The most famous of them was John Henry Newman who had led the Oxford Movement, but there were many others of ability and considerable education. They injected a new life and culture into the Catholic body. One was John Moore Capes (1813-1889), an M.A. from Balliol College, Oxford; Anglican curate of Long Newnton, co. Wilts., then Anglican Rector of St John's, Eastover, Bridgwater, Somersetshire. He entered the Church not long before Newman, having sacrificed position, personal wealth and much else. As a Catholic his most notable activity was to begin The Rambler periodical. In an article of 1849 he asserted that his own conversion could be justified by the same reasoning which is employed in any human science: that "the balance of probabilities" was decidedly in favour of Rome, and that he had embraced "the most probable of two alternatives". In a private letter to Capes, a Catholic theologian criticized this "probabilistic" argument on the ground that it was a point of doctrine that the certainty with which a Catholic believes in the Church was an absolute, not merely a moral, certainty. The doctrines of the Catholic Church could not be held as merely highly probable. They were absolutely certain, and one who had the faith held them as such. Capes regarded it as an absurd position, holding that a conclusion can be no more certain than its premises. In the nature of the case, the premises of the faith were but probable, so therefore was the conclusion. He subsequently abandoned the Catholic Church and returned to Anglicanism. Many things can be said about his denial of the absolute certainty of faith and his reduction of it to high probability, but I introduce this only to draw out but one aspect of it. Capes seemed to look on faith as a purely intellectual or logical process — subject, therefore, to the laws simply of logic. As he spoke of it, faith seemed to be little more than a process of the reason.

Faith is a process of the reason, but it is not simply this. It involves the will, what a person secretly wants and chooses. It involves a moral dimension for which he will be held responsible. It involves a personal choice — the choice to believe, having perceived that there are excellent grounds for belief. This brings us to our Gospel passage today (Matthew 13:10-17). It seems that our Lord was especially conscious of this moral dimension in the act of belief, and it was guiding his method of discourse and preaching. He did not simply set out his case before the people along the lines of a full and logical system, expecting his hearers thereby to be led to faith. Rather, we see him telling them only so much, perhaps hoping that the moral disposition of various among them would lead them on to understanding. What do we see? He has told the parable of the sower going out to sow, and how the results of his sowing depended on the quality of the soil on which the seed fell. That is all he said to them, at the end of which he told them to listen! — to hear what he had said. Of course, our Lord did not always teach in this somewhat obscure fashion — in John chapter 6, in a very public setting he is remarkably explicit about the Eucharist, to the point of losing many of his disciples. But in our Gospel today he goes no further than present his parable. There is no public explanation of it — that is left to the time he will have with his disciples. So the disciples themselves ask our Lord why he spoke to the crowds only in parables. His answer is revealing, and it is a warning to us. The crowds are not disposed to see. “In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.' For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.” They have closed their eyes, so they cannot see. Why is this? It is because they fear to see: “Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.” In their heart of hearts they are unwilling to receive the word of Christ, because of what it will entail. Faith is not just logic.

It gets back to the parable our Lord has just told. It is the good soil which, once it has received the seed, produces the harvest. That harvest is holiness of life and a share in the mission of Jesus. But the seed has to be received, and in the multitude it seems that there was not the willingness to receive it — according to the explanation our Lord gives his disciples. The multitude, consciously or unconsciously, was unwilling to receive the word with a full and ready heart, lest they understand and turn — repent — and receive the grace of healing. Let us ask our Lord to give us a heart that truly welcomes his word, with the ready disposition to do all that it requires.

(E.J.Tyler)

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A Second Reflection: (Matthew 13:10-17)

Spiritual Sight “Why do you talk to the crowds in parables?" (Mt.13:10). In reply our Lord spoke of the mystery of the human heart. Through one's own fault it can become blind, with serious consequences following. In our Lord's description of the "crowds," “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." This will have serious consequences, "for anyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough; but from any one who has not, even what he has will be taken away." By contrast the disciples saw and heard, and how blessed they were! "But happy are your eyes because they see, your ears because they hear!" They were more blessed than the holy ones before them who had not laid eyes on Christ.

Let us think of the Gospel examples, such as St Mary Magdalene, of those who looked on Christ and heard his word with a willing heart. Let us then strive to hear and to see, whatever be the cost of its implications. We will only do this if we truly want it. Let us choose Christ, then!

(E.J.Tyler)