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A good Sunday to all.

Let's stop and think a little about what we hear from our brothers of faith when they talk about this delicate moment that our Church is going through. These are discourses of discouraged people; they say that religion is less interesting, many brothers and sisters leave the community, and young people, especially when they can decide for themselves, no longer step foot in the church. We also know what's happening in many European countries where churches are transformed into museums, gymnasiums, warehouses, or deconsecrated and closed, and convents are left empty.

I remember, as a child, my grandmother would begin to tell me about Jesus of Nazareth, from the awakening to say my prayers; then, if I went with her to the field to pick the grass, everything she did was to tell me the parables, the facts of the sacred history, she would quote me the teachings of Jesus, and she would apply them to my life as a child because I had to grow up according to the Gospel. If today I entrust this experience of mine to the grandparents, I see them shaking their heads and saying, 'Our grandchildren today are interested in something else; if we talk about these things, they won't listen to us.' It's true, they are interested in other things, maybe because we were the first to be interested in something else and lose contact with them. with the Gospel.

And so we have come to find ourselves in a society where the proposals of life and moral choices make less and less reference to the Gospel. A society in which, as Nietzsche said, 'God is dead,' not in the sense that he no longer believed. in the existence of God, but in the sense that the God-religion problem no longer arouses any interest. Until a few decades ago, if you didn't accept God and the moral values proposed by Christianity, you did not understand our society.

Today, we understand how society moves, even without reference to God; you don't understand society if you don't refer to money, technology, or artificial intelligence. What to do? In the faces of priests, catechists, and Christian parents who would like to inculcate in their children the values in which they have believed; in those faces, one reads discouragement; they do not say it, but they think it is better to resign themselves; why talk about the Gospel to those interested in other things?' I made this introduction because it is precisely to these sisters and these discouraged brothers, who are tempted to give up, that Jesus has something to say to them today. Jesus narrates two parables. Let's listen to how he introduces the first one:

 

"Jesus said, ‘This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land.’”

 

Jesus began his public life by saying that the kingdom of God was coming into the world with him. This expression, 'kingdom of God,' 'kingdom of heaven,’ is so important that it is repeated more than 100 times in the New Testament. It is the synthesis of all the work that Jesus came to accomplish in the world. A radical change in history, the beginning of a new world. We know the old world well; it is governed by the logic of competition, where the objective is to dominate, impose, and subdue the weakest to make its interest; from this logic inevitably arise wars, violence, and injustices. Jesus came to end this world and initiate a new, truly alternative, truly human society.

In the parable, Jesus says that this kingdom begins with a seed that a man sows in the ground. The man who sows is he, who came to sow the new logic of unconditional love and gratuitous service to the needy brother. Let us dwell now on the image of the seed. because it has many messages for us to receive.

First, the kingdom of God is not a ripe fruit that prodigiously descends from heaven; it is a seed. And what happens to the seed? It takes time to develop; it needs time; it is the same with the seed of the Gospel that Jesus came to sow in the world. It penetrates the minds and hearts slowly, then germinates and produces an abundant harvest. The first message of this image is to know how to wait patiently for the Gospel to produce its fruits.

After the homily, I often repeat it to myself, in which I have tried to present the new values on which to center life. I return to the sacristy and hear people discussing trivialities, vacations, travel, beauty care, and the latest model car. Have I wasted my time preaching the Gospel? No, the Gospel does not grow there. The Gospel waits. The same recommendation I make to myself, I repeat it to the catechists who, with touching dedication, spend their Saturday afternoons at the parish. Then they tell me, 'The children of the catechesis, as soon as they leave, go back to play soccer and misbehave like before; they only talk about the latest cell phone model, and after confirmation, you don't see them anymore.

Be a little calm. If you have sown the Gospel in their hearts, you must know how to wait patiently; the fruits will come. I make the same recommendation to the mothers who have tried to instill in the hearts of their children evangelical values, and at a certain moment, they doubt that they have done useless work because they say, 'My son doesn't go to church anymore; he's gone to cohabit, and he doesn't even think about starting a family.' You have sown the Gospel; don't expect to see the results immediately; there are different times when the fruit of the Gospel will reach everyone.

What did Jesus see springing up in the hearts of his disciples? If he had expected to see the result immediately, Why should one wait with confidence? Why does the farmer wait for the seed to sprout? Because he believes that that seed has an irresistible life force, so must it be with him who sows the Gospel in the people's hearts. I often repeat this to parents and catechists: ' If you sowed the Gospel with your word and your testimony, now trust in it; it is not the human word; it has a divine power. Whoever has heard it will never be delivered from it. It may take 10 or 20 years, but that seed will eventually sprout. You may not live long enough to see the fruits of your labor, but surely, the fruits will come because there is an irresistible force in the Gospel.

In this parable of Jesus resounds the message of joy of hope, which is present in the famous text of the prophet Isaiah, which Jesus undoubtedly knew by heart: "Yet just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till 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; it shall not return to me empty, but shall do what pleases me, achieving the end for which I sent it” (Is 55:10-11). Therefore, sowing is an act of faith in the divine power present in the seed of the Gospel, but it is also an act of trust in the soil.

The imagery employed by Jesus was chosen with care because his listeners were familiar with the land of Israel, and those who have traveled there know it very well. It is a rocky land full of stones; the rabbis said that God created the world and it was a rocky land full of stones. God had four buckets of stones, three of which he used to make the land of Israel. In Israel, every field yard must be conquered, and the stones used to build fences must be removed to protect the field from wild boars and animals. Then there are bushes, thorns, and weeds, and the scorching sun is in Israel; rain is scarce.

To cast seed on these soils is an act of trust, not only in the strength of the seed but also in the soil. and some soils may even discourage us because we think the Gospel will never penetrate there. This is the mistake; the sowing of the Gospel is an act of faith in the goodness of the soil because, in every man, there is undoubtedly good soil that is receptive to the Gospel. After all, man is made good and has been precisely programmed to be good. to pick up this word of life and no other words.

There is a fourth message in this seed picture. The farmer knows that some of the seed is lost; it is inevitable and must be considered, and because of this, the farmer stops sowing. On the contrary, he must sow more precisely because some of the seed is lost. In fact, in the parable, Jesus does not use the verb 'sow,' which would be 'σπέρνω' - 'sperno' in Greek, but says: 'βάλῃ τὸν σπόρον' - 'Bale ton sporon,' i.e., 'cast seed,’ not sow. Neither does the Gospel always find a well-disposed ground; the obstacles standing in the way of the reception of the message of Jesus of Nazareth are always many. There are external obstacles to man; let us think of the hedonistic mentality that circulates worldwide and is spread by the media, the empathy diminishing increasingly in our society. Then, there are the internal obstacles to the reception of the evangelical message: idleness, debauchery, vices, and immorality.

What is the solution? Not discouragement but constancy in sowing. This is the first part of the parable in which Jesus told us what we are called to do: sow the seed. Having done this, our work is done; now it is the seed's turn to do its part. The seed has to take care of the soil; it is not our job to explain what it has to do to the seed. And, in fact, Jesus now invites us to contemplate what is going on under the ground, that is, in the hearts of the people where we have sown the Gospel. Let us listen to what is happening:

 

"And would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. The land yields the fruit of its own accord, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.”

 

When I conclude the homily on Sunday, I usually sit for a moment and reflect on whether the Gospel I have proclaimed has reached the ears of the people present and I have finished my work. I have sown the seed now; however, if this word remains there in the ears, it does not produce fruit; it must reach the heart; it is there that the decisions are made, the decision to adhere to this word which produces fruit when it is received. I am no longer involved in this passage from the ear to the heart.

Jesus, in the parable, says that the sower can sleep or watch; it has nothing to do with it; it's the seed of the word that has to deal now with the soil that is found. It is time to sleep, and I cannot even know what is going on in the hearts of the people who have heard the Gospel.

In fact, at this point in the parable, Jesus seems to indulge himself in the slow description of what is going on under the earth: the days will pass, the nights will pass, the seasons will follow, the winter will come with cold and snow, and you may even think that the seed is dead, but then spring comes, and first the stalk appears, then the ear, and then the full grain in the ear. It may even happen that the one who has sown the word of life will not experience the joy of beholding the word of life, the prodigious fruits of the Gospel he has proclaimed. But Jesus assures us that the wonder will happen. Let us now listen to the parable's conclusion:

 

“And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.”

 

Jesus says the harvest must be done when the fruit is ripe, not before. We live in a fast-paced world in which we want to see the result immediately; the production rhythms are stressful, and the competition is pressing; you have to perform to the maximum, and this haste and impatience is understandable in those who run a company, but here we are not in the context of production but of the dynamics of love. We know that in love, first, there is an encounter, then the courtship, and then you get to know each other better, and only then comes the time of free and considered decisions that you have to take calmly.

The same happens when you listen to the word of the Gospel that asks you to adhere to Christ. It is he who, through his word, makes you the proposal of life. Do you want to unite your life with this world? It is a decision that you must make mature. The spark of love can even strike like a thunderbolt, but then you have to let it mature because certain enthusiastic adhesions to Christ, as we know, are quickly extinguished.

It happens what Hosea says of Israel, whose love for their God is like a morning cloud, like the dew that fades away with the first rays of the sun. Let us now listen to the second parable: “He said, ‘To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.’” The coming of the kingdom of God was the great expectation, the great hope of the Israelites of Jesus' time, and how they imagined this kingdom. As the prophets had presented it. Ezekiel had resorted to imagery of the cedar of Lebanon, the majestic and strong tree that resists all the inclemency of the weather that dominates over all other trees.

In chapter 17 of his book, he says, "One day the Lord will pluck up a small branch of the cedar tree, and he will plant it on a high, mighty mountain (he was referring to Zion on which Jerusalem rises), and this twig shall become a magnificent cedar, where the birds will rest under its shade, seek protection, and lay their nests" (Ezek 17:22-24). What does it mean? In his time, Israel was an insignificant person on the chessboard of the great international powers, counting for nothing. But Ezekiel says it will become great and mighty like a cedar tree. All the other peoples, represented by these birds seeking protection under this cedar, will come for help and protection, and Israel will become great.

This was the dream that the 12 apostles had in mind: they expected Jesus to realize this kingdom, and Jesus fulfilled the prophecy, but not as they had imagined. men because greatness according to men is not the same as greatness according to God. According to people, greatness is insubstantial appearance, swelling, and dropsy. The greatness of God does not appear in the cedar's image but in the mustard seed's smallness. Therefore, no cedar branch, but as this grain.

At that time, the mustard seed was proverbial for its smallness. If you see the ruler of this world, who imposes himself, crushes, humiliates, the one before whom all must bow down... in that greatness is present in the kingdom of Satan, even if men appreciate it, they appreciate this greatness; it is not the kingdom of God where, instead, you see the humble one who becomes a servant. When you see the intelligent one, prepared, who bows down to the needy and puts himself at his service, the kingdom of God is present in this littleness. Let us listen to what happens to this littleness not appreciated by men but which is true greatness in the eyes of God:

 

“‘The mustard seed' is like a mustard seed, which, when sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants, putting forth large branches so the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.’ With many such parables, he spoke the word to them as they could understand it. He did not speak to them without parables but explained everything privately to his disciples.”

 

The amazing thing about the mustard seed is the life force it contains. In a single season, that grain develops a bush that can grow up to two meters. You see it in bloom in the background. It's from that yellow flower that comes to the fruit that contains lots of little seeds from which we get the hot sauce. that we know. It's a common little plant; it grows among domestic vegetables; there's nothing remarkable about it; it doesn't attract the attention of passers-by; people don't stop to look at a mustard plant. Tourists go to the mountains of Lebanon to contemplate the large cedars.

Jesus is saying that the greatness of the kingdom of God is not the greatness of the stars of this world; men admire the one who is on high, who has amassed immense riches, who is in power, who gets that they continually talk about themselves. True greatness is another; it does not reside outside man but within his heart. The capacity to love is developed in the heart when accepted as the seed of the Gospel. That's where the kingdom of God begins to grow; something extraordinary and unexpected happens that leaves everyone astonished.

We have an example of this prodigious greatness of heart. In Jericho, Zacchaeus was great by the standards of this world; he must have been the most envied person for his wealth and also the most feared for his profession and his power, but he knew Jesus, and in his heart, the seed Another greatness was planted: love for the poor, to whom she destined half of her goods, and then love of justice. He returned four times what he had stolen. Let us ask ourselves how much he had left... little or nothing. He used to be a great man in Jericho; then he was nobody, one like so many who earned a living by his work, but in him, another greatness had begun, the true greatness, the greatness of the capacity to love.

I wish you all a good Sunday and a good week.