Homily For Saturday Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time Year A, 23rd September, 2023. The Memorial of St. Pio of Pietrelcina

Readings: 1 Tm 6:13-16; Ps. 100; Luke 8:4-15

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.

 

MAKE YOUR HEART A FERTILE PLACE FOR GOD'S WORDS TO BEAR FRUITS

 

Our disposition towards whatever we do in life determines how successful we can be. And experience has shown that people’s disposition varies depending on their interests. So to be fruitful in whatever we do we must have to develop a right disposition towards it. Knowing how important this is needed in understanding his mission, Jesus in our Gospel reading today, used the parable of the sower to describe different kinds of human disposition and response towards the Word of God.

 

He said; a sower went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell on the edge of the path and was trampled on; and the birds of the air ate it up. Some seed fell on rock, and when it came up it withered away, having no moisture. Some seed fell amongst thorns and the thorns grew with it and choked it. And some seed fell into rich soil and grew and produced its crop a hundredfold.’ Saying this he cried, ‘Listen, anyone who has ears to hear!’

 

In this parable Jesus categorized our different disposition towards the Word of God in relation to our interior life. Thereby giving us the guidelines that will help us to examine our attitudes towards the seed of God’s Word,  whether our soul is like dry rocky ground, whether our soul is full of the thorns of the things of this passage world or do we regularly seek to nourish our soul and prepare it to receive the Holy Word of God? So we are called to create a fertile disposition within our heart in order to do the will of God.

 

This is important because today and even in the scriptures, there are many who hear the words of Jesus and do not understand it because of wrong disposition. For instance, in the scriptures we have the religious leaders who are against the teachings of Jesus, the crowds that responded positively to Jesus, especially to his miracles of healing, yet turned against him at the end and demanded his crucifixion.

 

Also, some disciples such as Judas might also be included among those who fell away when trouble or persecution came on account of the Word. While the rich young man who was unable to part with his possessions, provides a clear example of one who hears the word, but the love for the passing things of this world and the lure of wealth choked the word, and it yielded nothing.

 

But what about the good soil? These are those who hear the Word, understand and internalize it, who indeed bear fruit and yield an abundant harvest. Our mother Mary and the apostles excluding Judas are good example of such people. Therefore, the different kinds of ground on which the seed falls represent different ways by which we receive the Word of God. And St. Paul in our first readings today says: I charge you to keep the commandment unstained with no faults or failures, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

 

Here, St Paul reminds us of our basic Christian faith which teaches that, in order for us to rise with Christ we must first die to ourselves. That is, those things which leads us to the ways of this world must die and we must be reborn to the life of faith. Then we will rise with Christ and share his glory, just as we read in the parable of the Sower. For the Sower being Christ himself, teaches us how to manage the challenges of life in order to yield a rich harvest of faith and attain eternal joy of heaven.

 

Dear friends, today, our hearts are the fields in which the Word of God is scattered, to which do our hearts belong? the path way, the rocky ground, the thorns or the good soil? Whichever one, we are called to pay attention and take some time to appreciate God’s Word in our lives by allowing it to bear solid root in us and germinate to bear great fruit. This is what we see in the life of St. Pio whose memorial we celebrate today.

 

For he made his heart a fertile place for the Word of God to dwell and bear great fruits as he embraced the sacrificial nature of the mission of Christ and lived by it. He remained faithful to Christ’s mission and committed himself wholeheartedly to what God has called him to do. Being a pious and devoted disciple, he never ceased ministering to the people and in being an exemplary person in faith. Many came to believe in God through him and many were strengthened in their faith through his works and piety. Though St. Pio experienced great difficulties in the cause of his mission, this was so serious that they almost have his faculty of hearing confessions taken from him because of his spiritual experiences and grace.

 

LET US PRAY: Heavenly Father, we are often distracted from hearing and assimilating your Word we hear everyday, give us grace to remain open to receiving your Word, so as to bear fruit abundantly. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Do have a blessed and peaceful weekend.