Ordinary Time - Sundays 9 to 17 - Scripture Soundings
When the community of Matthew assembled this second and longest Gospel, they had already accumulated many experiences living as a relatively poor and powerless Christian minority in a largely indifferent if not mocking world. This state of affairs engendered some mature reflection and a good measure of stabilizing wisdom, which serves us well to this day.
The readings are strikingly appropriate for summer's mix of irritating heat, mosquitoes, oil, and toil, as well as a fair (we hope) share of leisure and cooling breezes. The Gospel readings on these Sundays speak of hospitality as simple as a glass of cold water. They speak of planting on good ground, of tending growth, of putting up with weeds, of the mix of good and bad that comes with all seasons.
As the year turns and the world turns, we revisit old truths and recognize the wisdom hidden there. We can be good ground where God's life springs and flourishes. The reign of God is in the mix of wheat and tares. We learn this and we relearn it. We want the life of God to grow deeply into us as a good, long taproot.
These Sundays end with another image, a more active one, one that gets us off the deck chair, slides us out of the hammock. We must be searching for the reign of God as we search for seashells, for ripe beans, as we angle and search for any hidden treasure. We must value it as a thing of great beauty--a real find, a lustrous pearl beyond price. The reign of God is all this: tended field, mixed seeds (planted and thriving), pearl, treasure. Turn these images over as you go along from week to week. They yield a rich harvest.
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Ordinary Time - Scripture Soundings - Cycle A
Nineth Sunday
Founded on Rock
Tenth Sunday
Mercy, Not Sacrifice
Eleventh Sunday
Reconciled and Reconciling
Twelfth Sunday
Have No Fear
Thirteenth Sunday
Newness of Life
Fourteenth Sunday
Come to Me
Fifteenth Sunday
Bearing Fruit
Sixteenth Sunday
Parables of Growth
Seventeenth Sunday
Hidden Treasure
Updated: May 11, 2008
