Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 16, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071623.cfm

---

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we have three iconic readings from the rich store of Scripture. Any one of them, taken in itself, offers depths for study and prayer. As on all Sundays in the Liturgical Year, there is a theme that ties the readings together and helps us find entrance into their infinite wisdom.

Isaiah, in rich imagery, describes the generative power of God’s Word planted in us and in all Creation:

Thus says the LORD:
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;

Isaiah 55:10-11

---

For our second reading, Paul inspires us with one of his most magnificent passages – Romans 8:

All commentators agree that Romans 8 is something special. If Romans is a breathtaking landscape, this chapter is a majestic peak towering above its surroundings. …
… Paul’s focus in this chapter is threefold: the divine work of the Spirit, the divine gift of sonship, and the divine purpose of suffering, each in relation to the practical realities of Christian living.

Scott W. Hahn – Romans (Catholic commentary on Sacred Scripture

---

In today’s verses, Paul describes Creation being transformed by the omnipotent Word foretold in Isaiah. As we read this passage, we must be mindful that we, our experiences, and our material world are the “creation” to which Paul refers:

For creation awaits with eager expectation
the revelation of the children of God;
for creation was made subject to futility,
not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it,
in hope that creation itself
would be set free from slavery to corruption
and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. 

Romans 8:9-21

---

Indeed, we experience that worldly “futility” every day in our own bodies and in the body of the universe. Life, both within and around us, may sometimes feel like an barren field longing for tillage and rain. We yearn for the healing, wholeness, and fulfillment that Paul calls “the glorious freedom of the children of God”.

---

In our Gospel, Jesus tells us that this fulfillment will come only through a spiritual patience and discipline like that of the sower sowing his seed. In this detailed parable, Jesus clearly equates effective “seeding” to receptive hearing of the Word.

For God’s harvest to be accomplished in us, we must hear the Word as described in Isaiah, and act in hope as described in Paul. We can do this in two ways:

• by our prayerful, informed study of the Scriptures
• our merciful action for the healing of suffering Creation.

But the seed sown on rich soil
is the one who hears the word and understands it,
who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.

Matthew 13:9

---

Poetry: God Speaks to Each of Us – Rainer Maria Rilke

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.

Flare up like a flame
and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

---

Music: Spirit of the Living God – Daniel Iverson

---