"You will listen, but you will not understand ..." (Matteo 13: 1-23)

Biblical reflections by Mauro Leonardi*, priest and writer

Hearing and not feeling, meeting and not knowing, reading but not knowing. This is the fate of those who live faith as a habit and not as a life to be received and to offer, as certainty that God sows everywhere his love pending that he would even expect where we would ever expect.

From the Gospel according to Matthew 13: 1-23

That day Jesus came out of the house and sat down by the sea. He gathered around him so much crowd that he climbed on a boat and sat down, while the whole crowd was on the beach.

He spoke to them of many things with parables. And he said, "Here, the sower came out to sow. While sowing, a part fell along the road; The birds came and ate it. Another part fell on the stony ground, where there was not much land; He sprouted immediately, because the ground was not profound, but when the sun sprouted it was burned and, having no roots, he wipe. Another part fell on the brambles, and the brambles grew and suffocated it. Another part fell on the good ground and gave fruit: the one hundred, the sixty, the thirty for one. Who has ears, listening ».

Then the disciples approached him and said: "Why do you speak to them with parables?". He replied: «Because you are given to you know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but it is not given to them. In fact, to the one who has, it will be given and will be in abundance; But to the one who does not have, what he has will also be removed. This is why I speak to them with parables: because looking at do not see, hearing they do not listen and do not understand.

Thus the prophecy of Isaìa is fulfilled for them, who says:

“You will hear, yes, but you will not understand,
You will look, yes, but you will not see.
Because the heart of this people has become insensitive,
they have become hard of hearing
and they closed their eyes,
because they don't see with the eyes,
do not listen with the ears
and do not understand with the heart
And they don't convert and I heal them! ".

Blessed is your eyes because they see and your ears because they listen. In truth I tell you: many prophets and many righteous have wanted to see what you look at, but they did not see it, and listen to what you listen to, but they did not listen to it!

So you listen to the parable of the sower. Whenever one listens to the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and steals what has been sown in his heart: this is the seed sown along the road. What has been sown on the stony ground is the one who listens to the word and welcomes it immediately with joy, but does not have roots in itself and is inconstant, so, as soon as a tribulation or persecution is coming because of the word, he immediately fails. The one sown among the brambles is the one who listens to the word, but the concern of the world and the seduction of wealth suffocate the word and it does not fruit. The one sown on the good ground is the one who listens to the word and understands it; These are the result and produces the one hundred, the sixty, the thirty for one ».

* Mauro Leonardi (Como 1959) has been a priest since 29 May 1988 and has been inhabited in Rome since then. He spends many hours of his day to make the priest and prefers to build bridges rather than raising walls. For years he has been writing stories, articles, essays and books that revolve around the relationship between man and God. Author ofblogLike Jesus. Abelis(Lindau) is his latest novel. The volunteers of theJonathan ProjectThey thank him for wanting to share these reflections with us on the word.