Gospel: January 29, 2025
January 29, 2025 (Wednesday)
3rd Week in Ordinary Time
Psalter: Week 3 / (Green)
Ps 110:1, 2, 3, 4
You are a priest forever, in the line of Melchizedek.
1st Reading: Hebrews 10:11-18
So, whereas every priest stands, daily, by the altar, offering, repeatedly, the same sacrifices, that can never take away sins, Christ has offered, for all times, a single sacrifice for sins, and has taken his seat at the right hand of God, waiting, until God puts his enemies as a footstool under his feet. By a single sacrifice he has brought those who are sanctified to what is perfect forever.
This also was testified by the Holy Spirit. For after having declared: This is the Covenant that I will make with them in the days to come says the Lord I will put my laws in their hearts and write them on their minds. He says: Their sins and evil deeds I will remember no more. So, if sins are forgiven, there is no longer need of any sacrifice for sin.
Gospel: Mark 4:1-20
Again, Jesus began to teach by the lake; but such a large crowd gathered about him, that he got into a boat and sat in it on the lake, while the crowd stood on the shore. He taught them many things through parables. In his teaching he said, “Listen! The sower went out to sow. As he sowed, some of the seed fell along a path; and the birds came and ate it up. Some of the seed fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil; it sprang up immediately, because it had no depth; but when the sun rose and burned it, it withered, because it had no roots. Other seed fell among thorn bushes; and the thorns grew and choked it; so, it didn’t produce any grain. But some seed fell on good soil, grew and increased and yielded grain; some seed produced thirty times as much, some sixty, and some 100 times as much.”
And Jesus added, “Listen then, if you have ears.” When the crowd went away, some who were around him with the Twelve asked about the parables. He answered them, “The mystery of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But for those outside, everything comes in parables, so, that, the more they see, they don’t perceive; the more they hear, they don’t understand; otherwise they would be converted and pardoned.”
Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How, then, will you understand any of the parables? What the sower is sowing is the word. Those along the path, where the seed fell, are people who hear the word, but as soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Other people receive the word like rocky ground. As soon as they hear the word, they accept it with joy. But they have no roots, so it lasts only a little while. No sooner does trouble or persecution come because of the word, then they fall. Others receive the seed, as seed among thorns. After they hear the word, they are caught up in the worries of this life, false hopes of riches and other desires. All these come in and choke the word, so that finally it produces nothing. And there are others who receive the word as good soil. They hear the word, take it to heart and produce: some 30, some 60, and some 100 times as much.”
Reflection:
“Be open to his life-giving Word.”
Today we are presented with the Parable of the Sower, a parable that makes us think about how receptive we are to the Word of God. Just like a field or a garden, we need to till the soil of our hearts and prepare the ground of our souls so that the seed of God’s Word can sprout, take root and thrive. Our lives can be choked with the weeds of needless worry and selfishness or cluttered with the rocks of materialism and information overload from our tablet or mobile phone. Or we can forget to include solitude and silence in our lives, and we end up being scorched by the constant exposure to social media and binge-watching of shows. So, Jesus is telling us to look at the garden of our hearts to see what needs to be done. Which distractions need to be cleared away? What needs to be watered with prayer, so that we are receptive to Christ’s Good News? Christ the Sower stands ready to sow the Word, but he also helps us to clear the ground first. Let’s ask his help. Let’s be open to his life-giving Word.
