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Jesus gave the message of the Kingdom to the crowds only in parables, as they were able to hear. This fulfilled the prophecy which said “I will open my mouth in parables; I will declare things kept hidden from the beginning of the world.” However, he privately explained what he had said to his disciples.
MT 13:34-35, MK 4:33-34
“The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman mixed into 50 pounds of flour until the yeast spread through all of it, making it all leavened.”
MT 13:33, LK 13:20-21
“How can I explain what the kingdom of God is like? What can I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed sown in the ground. It is smaller than any other seed, but when grown, it is a huge tree, taller than any vegetable. It becomes a tree big enough for birds to make nests in its large branches.”
MT 13:31-32, MK 4:30-32, LK 13:18-19
Jesus offered his listeners another parable. “The kingdom of heaven may be thought of as being like a farmer who sowed good wheat seed in his field. One night while he slept his enemy came and planted weeds in amongst the good wheat seed. Later the plants sprouted. The wheat and weeds had grown up together.
The man’s servants asked him ‘Didn’t you only sow wheat here? Then why are there weeds?’
‘This was done by an enemy!’ he said.
His servants asked him ‘Do you want us to pull out the weeds?’
‘No’ he said. ‘You might accidentally uproot the good wheat at the same time. Let them both grow together until harvest time. Then I will tell the reapers to sort out the weeds, tie them in bundles, and burn them, but put the wheat in the barn.'”
MT 13:24-30
Consider
the cross of Saint Damiano,
the cross that St. Francis was praying under
when he got the commission
from God
to rebuild the Church.
The cross is now guarded by the Poor Clares
and a copy
hangs in the chapel.
Consider
the bodhi tree
Buddha sat under
and achieved enlightenment.
Sad looking monks sit under
that same tree
now.
Nothing happens.
I once found
a temple to Mithras
in a sheepfield somewhere in England,
the foundation is there,
but the altar is at Newcastle
in a museum.
Why do we idolize the thing?
Why do we think the thing
is the thing?
The cross isn’t special,
the tree isn’t special,
the altar isn’t special.
What happened was special,
is special.
Are the guards
of the cross and the altar
trying to prevent others
from having that same awakening,
that same experience,
not knowing that
lightning never strikes
in the same place
twice?
God is everywhere,
awakening is everywhere.
Are the monks hoping that
by sitting there
they will awaken
too?
If only Buddha were here
to say,
go find your own tree.
Perhaps he just did.
Jesus said “Do you not understand this parable? Then how are you going to be able to understand any of them? The seed is the word of God. The sower is the one who shares it with others. The people along the path are those who have heard the message about the kingdom and don’t understand it. Satan has snatched away the words that were sown in their hearts so they would not believe and be saved.”
“As for the seed sown on rocky ground, this represents the people who hear the word and immediately receive it joyfully. However, because they are not rooted in their faith, they believe for a little while but stumble when troubles come because of the word.”
“Regarding the seed sown among thorns, these are the people who hear the word but are distracted and paralyzed by worry and greed, and the word is not able to take root in them and produce any fruit.”
“But the seed sown on good ground represents the people who hear the word with honest and open hearts. They understand it, welcome it, and through endurance are able to bear much fruit, even up to 100 times what was sown.”
MT 13:18-24, MK 4:13-20, LK 8:11-15
When Jesus was alone with his disciples, they came up and said to him “Why do you speak to people in parables? What does the parable of the sower mean?”
Jesus answered them “The mystery of the kingdom of God has been revealed to you but not to everyone. For them the information is transmitted in parables so that Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled. It says ‘They may listen but never understand, and they may look and never see. For people’s hearts have grown hard and their ears have grown deaf, and they have closed their eyes, otherwise they might see, hear, and understand and turn back, and I would heal them.'”
MT 13:10-15, MK 4:10-12, LK 8:9-10.
Everything was dark.
The winds and rain told her it was stormy.
This promised to be a long and restless night.
Suddenly she heard a shot.
Like a bell it rang,
loud and clear, out.
She didn’t want to go out
into the dark
but then again it rang
in the gloom, stormy
with dread. The shot
only made it worse, this wretched night.
Why did she choose to work at night?
Was it for the money, or because she needed out
of a bad choice, a bad life, one that was shot
to the curb, trashed, leftover, dark
with misery and leftovers, stormy
mistakes and memories? Again it rang.
She’d lost track of how many times she heard it. Yet again it rang
deep in the summer night,
wrenched and wretched, stormy
and sullen. Now the lights went out
and all was dark.
Her hopes of seeing the gunman were shot.
Tonight reminded her of when her father was shot,
so long ago, a thousand miles away. Then too the sound rang
deep into the murky dark
on a wet night
drenched with fear. He too didn’t want to go out
into the dreaded yard, so stormy.
She had to go, stormy
or not, lights or not, fear or not. There was a shot
and she was paid to check it out.
Suddenly her phone rang.
It was the manager that night.
She could stay in. It was just the transformer going dark.
She was grateful in that stormy mess that her phone rang.
What sounded like a shot was only an accident of the night.
A transformer going out makes noises, and then all is dark.
————
This sestina is based on the famous opening lines from Snoopy. “It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly a shot rang out.” I chose six words that I felt I could work with, and inserted them into the form. Then I wrote the poem. Writing a sestina is a little backwards, because you know what is at the end of the lines instead of at the beginning. It is like having a destination but not knowing how you are going to get there.
Sestinas have a very exacting form. I encourage you to write one. They are always 39 lines, with six stanzas of six lines each, followed by a three line stanza. The final words of each line in each stanza are in this order – 123456. 615243. 364125. 532614. 451362. 246531. In this poem I used 1)dark, 2)stormy, 3)night 4)shot 5)rang 6)out.
The order of the three line stanza is 2_5, 4_3, and 6_1. The first of the two words can be anywhere in the line, but second word must be at the end.
Try to pick words that can be used multiple ways – as nouns or verbs, or adjectives.
Have fun!
Jesus was again teaching beside the sea. He decided to teach while sitting in a boat in the water because a large crowd had gathered around him. The crowd stood on the shore to listen to him. They had come to hear him from every town.
He taught them many things using parables, including this one: “Think about the person who went out to sow his field. While he was sowing, some seeds fell along the path and birds came and ate it. Other seeds fell where there were more rocks then soil. The seed sprang up quickly, but then withered just as quickly in the sun because it didn’t have deep roots to gather moisture. Other seeds fell among the thornbushes and the thorns made it impossible for them to produce a crop. Yet other seeds fell on good ground and were able to produce 30, 60, even 100 times what was sown. Anyone who has ears should listen to this!”
MT 13:1-9, MK 4:1-9, LK 8:4-8
His mother and siblings came to him while he was speaking with a large crowd, but they couldn’t reach him. They sent word that they wanted to speak with him. Someone in the crowd told him “Look, your mother and siblings are standing outside waiting to speak with you.”
Instead of going out, he replied “Who is my family?” Indicating his followers who were seated in a circle around him, he said “Here they are! Whoever hears and does the will of my Father in heaven is my mother and brother and sister.”
MT 12:46-50, MK 3:31-35, LK 8:19-21
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