A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. When, the disciples came up to Jesus, they asked him, why do you speak to them? Meaning, the people. Why do you speak to them in parables? They're not always easy to understand, you know.
Our lord replied, to you has been given a knowledge of the mysteries of the reign of god, but it has not been given to the others. To the man who has, more will be given until he grows rich. The man who has not will lose even the little that he has. I use parables, our lord continued, when I speak to them because they look, but they do not see. They listen, but they do not hear or understand.
The prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled in them which says, listen as you will. This is very mysterious stuff, believe me. Listen as you will. You shall not understand. Notice that word shell there.
That's indeed that's the imperative. That's not me see, I don't know what the Greek is, but that expresses not mere futurity, but it expresses a command. You shall be saved. You shall eat. So our lord said, listen as you will, you won't understand.
Look and he's quoting, of course, Isaiah. Look intently as you will, and you won't see. Sluggish indeed. Sluggish indeed is this people's heart. This is Isaiah.
They have scarcely heard with their ears. They have firmly closed their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn back to me, and I should heal them. That's all from Isaiah. Our lord's quoting it.
Now our lord continues on his own. But blessed are your eyes because they see, and blessed are your ears because they hear. I assure you, many a prophet and many a saint long to see what you see but did not see it, to hear what you are hearing but did not hear it. And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen.
And it should be kept in the context of our reading of yesterday where we had that famous parable, which is far from being clear, that is in its main thrust about the sower who goes out to sow. And some of the seed falls on the pathway, some falls on rocks, some falls on shallow ground, and some even falls on good ground. And, of course, you get a a return only from the seed that fell on good ground, where it wasn't dried up real fast, where it wasn't smothered, and where it wasn't eaten up by the birds. So this follows yesterday's discourse. And it is so psychologically true.
You see, sometimes we don't know what we don't want to know the truth. For what it's worth, and it's not worth a lot, believe me. I haven't had much experience in the actual affairs of life. I've had the pleasure of living in an ivory tower. That's what some people think.
But just very recently, we had a Supreme Court decision where it was determined illegal for those with the knowledge to inform women who were contemplating an abortion to tell them the facts about abortion. The dangers of it, the misery of it, the psychological consequences of it. I've had some experience with that. Now, you see, there are plenty of instances in life where we we don't exactly deny anything, but we we refuse to hear, we refuse to see, we refuse to believe with our hearts, for all kinds of reasons. And sometimes, and you know in many instances, the reasons we give are not bad reasons.
The only trouble with the reasons is that they are not overriding. We give these relatively good reasons and importance which they don't have. Their only importance is relative. Like all the things of this in life, everything which is a thing is god's making, and it's good. And it is good if it's a thing.
If it's a nothing, there's no problem because it's a nothing. And so it's in it's not a matter of a warfare of evil against good, that's pure manicheism. What it's it's a problem of selecting prior goods over secondary goods. There's the problem. When in so many instances, the secondary, tertiary goods seem so attractive.
Because they're immediate, as Newman says, because they're concrete, because they appeal to our senses, to our imagination, because they inflame us. How many people, how many of you sitting out there on this humid morning have ever been emotionally moved when you say I believe in the holy trinity? And yet it's one of the basic doctrines of our faith. People have died for that, remember. But it's not emotionally moving, you know.
And I was just reading Chesterton yesterday about how about martyrs and how and how a true honest to God martyr differs from a lot of the stuff we see going on. People putting themselves in jail and locking themselves offenses and going on hunger strikes and things like that. Chesterton points out the big difference is this, that what comes out clearly, clearly, is the object of the martyrdom being dominant. Being dominant. Saint Ignatius on his way to Rome, he he wanted to be a martyr, and he begged his friends not to do anything to keep him from being eaten by the lions.
He knew that was going to be his punishment. He could have gotten out of it, but he wanted to die for Christ. And yet this very same man who begs his friends not to do anything to save him from meeting his lord and master real soon, thanks to the lines. That very same man begs his friends to pray for him that he will be given the grace and the strength not to run away, not to be a coward. Because you see what's coming out is, I'm not I don't have the strength to do this.
The strength is coming from the Lord to whom I'm giving my life. I don't know whether I'm making this clear or not. Chesterton, you know, only way you can use Chesterton is to read him, believe me. I mean, you cannot paraphrase Chesterton. But the point is that Chesterton is making, he was arguing against the suffragettes anchoring and chaining themselves to Buckingham Palace fences, is that the the object of Ignatius' martyrdom, Jesus Christ, it's Jesus Christ and the strength of Christ that is giving the weakling, the coward, that Peter called Ignatius the strength to go to his martyr willingly.
There's the point. There is the point. And we we we come back to this all the time, that Jesus is our lord and his teachings, but we have got to do our part. That thought that came to me yesterday, I came right in this book about God gives us the check of faith. He gives us almost a blank check.
But what do you do with the check? What do you do with the money? Do you even cash the check? Or do you take the check and say, oh, look. Let me give you a practical instance just this in the tablet for last week, the Brooklyn tablet.
A parish in the Middle West was given $3,000,000 by two parishioners who died within two brothers who died close together. He gave these two men gave their estate to the parish, $3,000,000. This parish was almost bankrupt. As the parish has said, I was beginning to study chapter 11 of the bankruptcy laws. And they were at wits' ends.
It had run down, people had left, you know, the real story of the inner city parish. It's happening all over in the cities. And the the parishioners and the pastor, they were all deeply concerned about what to do, and there was controversy about what to do. Now they get $3,000,000. All their problems are solved, says you.
Because now they're arguing, now they're debating how will we spend the $3,000,000. So we still have argue and debate and controversy. One case, how will we stay alive? In the other case, how will we spend the $3,000,000? You see, we can turn our backs on a gift.
We can ignore a gift. We can take the check and put it in a book and forget we ever received the check. We can do all of these things. Because sometimes we're getting into trouble by cashing the check. What do you do with the money?
Think of our Lord's parable. He gave some money to he gave money to four different people. Some did nothing with it because they wanted to save it. They didn't want to get it they didn't want to get into trouble. They didn't want to take the chance of losing their master's money.
So they went and hid it, buried it. The other three went out and and invested it. And when their master came, they all gave him back double what he had given them, and he praised them. And the guy who took the money did nothing with it except to bury it. What happens?
Christ takes says, we take from him what he has, and we give to those who have, and take that guy and throw him out into utter darkness. He was not willing to take the chance. Because when you say, Lord and my God, as Saint Thomas did, when you say that and mean it, you're taking a big chance. You are gambling. Only, however, from the point of view of the world, you're not gambling when you put your hand in the hand of Christ, and when you take the cross of Christ, that is no gamble.
In the name of the father, and of the son, and of holy spirit. Amen.