Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear

Heb 10,11-18; Ps 109; Mk 4,1-20
30 JANUARY
Jesus knows that by nature every man has ears to listen and understand his every word. He can because his Father has not only made him a different creature than every other creature. He also gave him every faculty necessary so that he could live like a real man. He is missing in nothing. He was given everything. He can understand, decide and choose.

The Lord from the earth created man, and in his own image he made him. Limited days of life he gives him and makes him return to earth again. He endows man with a strength of his own, and with power over all things else on earth. He puts the fear of him in all flesh, and gives him rule over beasts and birds. He forms men’s tongues and eyes and ears, and imparts to them an understanding heart. With wisdom and knowledge he fills them; good and evil he shows them. He looks with favour upon their hearts, and shows them his glorious works, That they may describe the wonders of his deeds and praise his holy name. He has set before them knowledge, a law of life as their inheritance; An everlasting covenant he has made with them, his commandments he has revealed to them. His majestic glory their eyes beheld, his glorious voice their ears heard. He says to them, “Avoid all evil”; each of them he gives precepts about his fellow men. Their ways are ever known to him, they cannot be hidden from his eyes. (Sir 17,1-14).

With sin, man takes away wisdom from the heart and lets foolishness take over, is deprived of the light and proceeds in darkness, strips of goodness and dresses of wickedness and malice. With sin, he lacks ears to listen and will to welcome.

On another occasion he began to teach by the sea. A very large crowd gathered around him so that he got into a boat on the sea and sat down. And the whole crowd was beside the sea on land. And he taught them at length in parables, and in the course of his instruction he said to them, “Hear this! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep. And when the sun rose, it was scorched and it withered for lack of roots. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it and it produced no grain. And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit. It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” He added, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.” And when he was alone, those present along with the Twelve questioned him about the parables. He answered them, “The mystery of the kingdom of God has been granted to you. But to those outside everything comes in parables, so that ‘they may look and see but not perceive, and hear and listen but not understand, in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven.'” Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables? The sower sows the word. These are the ones on the path where the word is sown. As soon as they hear, Satan comes at once and takes away the word sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground who, when they hear the word, receive it at once with joy. But they have no root; they last only for a time. Then when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Those sown among thorns are another sort. They are the people who hear the word, but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word, and it bears no fruit. But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”

Speaking in parables, Jesus offers those who are simple and pure at heart every possibility of understanding the mystery of the kingdom. But to those who are led by an evil and wicked will that wants his death, the parable removes any possibility of understanding. Not understanding, we cannot hurl at Jesus. The announcement of the mysteries of the kingdom of God can be brought to completion. Everything is revealed of it. Today, Jesus reveals that the kingdom is born from the sowing of the Word of God in every heart. But not every heart produces fruit. For it to produce, it must be made good ground. Who is the road, full of rocks and brambles, never might he produce.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, help us so that we become good ground for the kingdom of God.