15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus is the word that goes forth from the mouth of God. In Jesus God’s plan, God’s will and God’s love is revealed and fulfilled. This is why we need to live in love with Jesus, to know Him and to be united with him through the sacraments.

The parable of the sower shows how, like the seed, we are affected by so many things. Our environment, our economic status, the type of company we keep, and even (and this has been a shock to many born since the second world war) even disease and pandemic. A tiny virus can change the way we live.

The only way we can escape being determined, being defined, being predestined, being under the control of our environment, our situation, our abilities, even death is by being united with Christ in his Church, by knowing him, loving him by being united with him through the sacraments.

United to Jesus, the Word of God, we are more than our abilities, we are more than our situation in life, we are more than our environment, we are more than death. There is no need to fear. United to Jesus in love, knowledge and the sacraments we are united to the one in whom God’s love, God’s will, God’s power is manifest, a love, will and power that will triumph in us.

Yes, we take precautions, earthly life, though passing and temporary, is a gift to be respected and cared for but we have a greater, eternal life in Christ.

Our ancestors here in this part of the country 450 years ago have been in my mind a lot recently. Going to Mass for them was very dangerous, the government had banned it because they thought Catholicism was a dangerous religion which might destroy the country. If you went to mass you risked fines, imprisonment, losing your children, torture and death. Our ancestors took precautions, they went in secret, very early in the morning or in the dead of night. But they went because they knew that nothing was more important than knowledge and love of Jesus and that the heart of that knowledge and love was the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.