A LETTER FROM THE PASTOR

Dear Friends, In two weeks, we’ll begin the celebration of the 144th Annual Novena to Saint Anne. This will be the 26th time I’ve conducted the Novena, and I can personally attest that it’s a very powerful time of prayer and spiritual renewal.

It’s serendipitous that in today’s gospel reading Jesus personally invites us to begin a spiritual journey. “Come to me all you who labor and are burdened and I will give your rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.”

Hopefully, you can take part in the Novena this year. It begins on July 17th and concludes on St. Anne’s Feast Day, July 26th. We celebrate two Novena Masses every weekday for your convenience, 7:30 am and Noon. We also celebrate a special Blessing of Children and Grandparents on Sunday, July 19th and a Communal Anointing of the Sick on Saturday on July 25th.

Contemplative prayer has an important role during the Novena. At Saint Jean’s, we afford the opportunity to adore Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament every day from 9:00am until 5:30pm. On St. Anne’s feast day, July 26th we celebrate with a Procession of the Blessed Sacrament at the 7:30pm Mass. It’s during this procession that we’re invited to commit ourselves to continue our spiritual journey, walking with Jesus the Risen Lord.

If you can’t join us, you’re invited to send us your intentions. We’ll place them at the Shrine of St. Anne and encourage everyone in attendance to keep them in their prayers. During the novena we pray for healing not only for ourselves, friends, and relatives, but also for the world. So we reach out and pray for global healing and universal peace and prosperity for all people.

St. Anne has interceded for us for many years, bringing healing and blessings to us. Join us for all or part of the Novena to St. Anne. God bless you, your families and your friends.

Rev. John A. Kamas, SSS Pastor

We consider three more parables this week. We’ll follow the same principles of interpretation we did when we reflected on last week’s parable of the sower. In these three parables Jesus announces the theme. “The kingdom of God may be likened to…”

So we’re thinking about the kingdom, Jesus’ primary teaching. In the one and only prayer that he taught his disciples Jesus prayed, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The kingdom he speaks of isn’t a place; it’s a state of being that’s in perfect harmony with the will of God. The kingdom that Jesus speaks of is already present in the world, but it’s a work in progress. Keep this in mind as we focus the three images of the kingdom Jesus used in the Gospel passage today.

“The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat.” Here we have the image of the incomplete kingdom. The parable introduces a hostile element into this kingdom scenario. The householder’s enemy has made an attempt to destroy the wheat crop; he secretly sowed weeds among the wheat.

This image of treachery suggests that the kingdom will not bring the world into harmony with God’s will all that easily. Because the household was asleep, the enemy was able to do his destructive work. Peter, in his second letter, cautioned his flock about this. “Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to

devour.” (2 Peter 5:8) The wheat field has been compromised by the presence of the weeds. The servants suggest going out and pulling up all the weeds so that the wheat can grow uninhibited. But the householder is wise. Pulling up the weeds will also uproot the wheat. “Let them grow together until harvest; then I will tell the harvesters, ‘First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barns.’”

Once again, this week, the Gospel passage ends with a commentary on the parable. It’s an interpretation that found its way into the Gospel. It’s not the only interpretation possible. Take the time to sit with the images for a while. Come up with your own interpretation. Who is the householder? Who are the slaves? Who is the enemy? What does the wheat mean for you? What do the weeds mean for you? Why are the weeds allowed to grow along with the wheat? In light of this parable, what is your personal understanding of the “kingdom of heaven?”

The second parable we all know by heart. “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and planted in a field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when it is full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.”

Don’t let the simplicity of this parable tempt you to brush over its interpretation. Spend time with this image of the “smallest of all the seeds.” Hiding in this little seed is “the largest of all the plants.” The plant becomes so large that the birds will build their nests among its branches. I again invite you to personalize the parable. What does it mean for you, very personally? Try to open your heart to the parable. Don’t think about it too much. Try to feel its message. What is the message it’s speaking to your heart?

The third parable is also a familiar one. “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat until the whole batch was leavened.” Could a teaching be any more simple? How could this short sentence contain Jesus’ central teaching, the kingdom of God? I’ll leave that for you to discover. I just want to note two things that might be useful to know.

Wheat is common for us. However, in Jesus’ day it was quite special. It was difficult to grow in the arid climate, and so was expensive. Barley, on the other hand, was hardy and easy to grow. It could withstand very dry weather. The poor would bake with barley flour because it was inexpensive.

Yeast is a product we buy at the supermarket. It comes dried in packets or in organic cubes. In Jesus’ day yeast was made by mixing water and flour. The mixture was kept in a dark place for several days until it began to spoil. Then some of the mixture was removed and more water added to the original liquid. After a period of time it would begin to bubble. This would be used to leaven flour. Leaven was considered a product of death because the mixture had to spoil. For this reason unleavened bread was used for the Passover. There was to be no element of death present is that celebration of renewed life.

Think about wheat. Think about leaven. Go back and ponder the parable. Remember to move the process from your head to your heart.

Jesus ended this series of parables with an invitation. “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”

In the first reading in this Sunday’s liturgy, one sentence taken from the prophet Isaiah, has been chosen as an introduction to the Gospel passage, the parable of the sower. Isaiah’s teaching is about God’s communication with the human family. He uses the image of God’s greatest gift, and our most essential commodity, water. It comes from heaven in the snow and rain that water the earth “making it fertile and fruitful.” It’s the source of all life. Without water nothing can live or grow. Without water there can be no food, no “bread to the one who eats.” In a similar way the word of God is essential to our lives. It makes our lives fruitful and fertile – truly alive.

Jesus’ parable of the sower also looks at the dynamic of God’s communication with us, but he has a different take from Isaiah. God is presented as a sower who is lavishly tossing seeds across a varied landscape. Some seeds fall on a footpath, some on rocky ground, some among thorns and some on fertile soil.

The first thing we need to note in interpreting this parable is the caprice of the sower. A typical farmer would be cautious with the seeds he sows. Seeds are costly; they’re the farmer’s investment for a fruitful harvest. He needs to get as much bang from his buck as possible. A farmer would avoid casting seeds on the footpath or rocky soil or among the thorn bushes. He would make sure that they fell on fertile ground. Jesus’ sower isn’t the typical farmer, however. He scatters the seeds everywhere. It’s almost as if he’s consecrating the entire earth with the seeds he casts. It makes no difference to him where they might fall.

The second thing we need to note is that most of the seeds that the sower casts take root. Those that fall on rocky soil only live a short while because they can’t take root fast enough, and so the sun scorches the seedlings. The seeds that fall among the thorn bushes can’t get a start because the thorns choke them. They don’t have much of a chance to take root. They try, but have only a short life. Others fall on a footpath, but have no chance to take root because the birds immediately swoop down and eat them up. But some seeds fall on fertile soil and “produce fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”

Let’s get into Jesus’ mind as we continue interpreting this parable. I don’t think it’s all that useful to read the ending of this passage that gives an interpretation to each set of seeds. Biblical scholars tend to agree that this interpretation is a commentary added later to the Gospel. The interpretation isn’t bad, but it’s just one person’s interpretation. Each of us needs to read the parable, and allow it to speak directly to our hearts.

I suggest that as you read the parable you keep in mind Jesus’ image of a sower who sows with capricious abandon. The seeds go everywhere, like God’s word represented by the snow and rain in today’s passage from the prophet Isaiah. Keep in mind, also, that most of these seeds experience life, if only a short one. Even the seeds that are eaten by the birds have a purpose; they’re food for the birds.

Please don’t be frustrated because I didn’t tell you what the parable means. A parable is meant to be interpreted very personally. We have one interpretation at the end of the Gospel passage. That’s enough. And don’t be thrown off by it. It’s only one person’s interpretation. Rabbis used the medium of the parable to teach. They would simply present the parable leaving it for the disciple to interpret – to discover its deeper, very personal, meaning.

Instead of giving you my personal interpretation, I want to invite you to journey into the parable by yourself. In this Sunday’s liturgy we have two excellent passages that can be used to set us on a good track for a personal interpretation. Reread that one, wonderful, sentence of Isaiah and reflect for a while on its message. Here it is.

“Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11)

Now, read the Responsorial Psalm. After you’ve given some time to reflect on both passages return to the parable. Then, give yourself time to listen – listen to God’s word for you. Here’s Responsorial Psalm.

Psalm 65

“You have visited the land and watered it; greatly have you enriched. God’s watercourses are filled; you have prepared the grain. Thus have you prepared the land: drenching its furrows, breaking up it’s clods, softening it with showers, blessing it’s yield. You have crowned the year with your bounty, and your paths overflow with a rich harvest; the untilled meadows overflow with it, and rejoicing clothes the hills. The fields are garmented with flocks and the valleys blanketed with grain. They shout and sing for joy.”

What is God’s message to you today.

A LETTER FROM THE PASTOR

Dear Friends, In two weeks, we’ll begin the celebration of the 144th Annual Novena to Saint Anne. This will be the 26th time I’ve conducted the Novena, and I can personally attest that it’s a very powerful time of prayer and spiritual renewal.

It’s serendipitous that in today’s gospel reading Jesus personally invites us to begin a spiritual journey. “Come to me all you who labor and are burdened and I will give your rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.”

Hopefully, you can take part in the Novena this year. It begins on July 17th and concludes on St. Anne’s Feast Day, July 26th. We celebrate two Novena Masses every weekday for your convenience, 7:30 am and Noon. We also celebrate a special Blessing of Children and Grandparents on Sunday, July 19th and a Communal Anointing of the Sick on Saturday on July 25th.

Contemplative prayer has an important role during the Novena. At Saint Jean’s, we afford the opportunity to adore Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament every day from 9:00am until 5:30pm. On St. Anne’s feast day, July 26th we celebrate with a Procession of the Blessed Sacrament at the 7:30pm Mass. It’s during this procession that we’re invited to commit ourselves to continue our spiritual journey, walking with Jesus the Risen Lord.

If you can’t join us, you’re invited to send us your intentions. We’ll place them at the Shrine

of St. Anne and encourage everyone in attendance to keep them in their prayers. During the novena we pray for healing not only for ourselves, friends, and relatives, but also for the world. So we reach out and pray for global healing and universal peace and prosperity for all people.

St. Anne has interceded for us for many years, bringing healing and blessings to us. Join us for all or part of the Novena to St. Anne. God bless you, your families and your friends.

Rev. John A. Kamas, SSS Pastor