PARABLES are as old as time. Healing and holiness come to those with listening ears. When tongues are silent the voice of God is heard. Each parable conveys to us deep wisdom. It claims kinship with Anglo Saxon rune and riddle, with metaphor and ancient proverb, with age old Celtic warning and time tested wisdom of the Saints, and the much loved shaping our our so brief lives in every "Once upon a time" story. Each leads us from destructive friction and from senseless folly towards health and holiness of heart, (St Mark 4. 26-34).
We listen. We reflect. We learn. We repent. We resolve. By God's mercy we amend. Christ our divine teacher asks simply for good will: ". . . Those who have ears to hear. . .let them hear. . ." Even though each parable calls for generosity and points to the heights, we need not despair: "I have come to call - not the just - but the sinners to repentance!" St Benedict reflects for us the gentleness of Christ when he reminds us that health giving rules will never make the weak to be afraid nor cause the courage filled to lack summits still to climb. Our failures and our follies need never banish hope.
The Master is close to lake and river, to tree and to field, to budding trees and to ripening fruit. The sheep and lambs, the foxes and the birds, the gentle donkey and the unmuzzled ox are never far away. In the open air mind and eye are alert. The mystery of sprouting growth is never far from view. And yet, after many summers we gaze in wonder still.
We scatter seed. We sleep by night. We go our daily round. And all the time the Giver of every good gift is working with us. If we desist from our destructive ways, He will work within us. First of all comes tender stalk, then the green ears so promise filled, and finally the sun blessed, ripened corn. We know the old, old story. The deep mystery summons us onward still. Even as we gaze upon the fields of promise, Christ speaks to the deep places of the heart. He does not cry or shout aloud. He calls to us in summer field, in Scripture word, and in healing Sacrament.
To encourage us in our littleness and to take away our fear He tells us another story, that stays in the mind to inspire us all life long. He steps aside from the grandiose, cosmic tree of Daniel and the majestic cedar in the imagemaking of Ezechiel. He seeks out a lowly shrub in the landscape of his listeners, and points to the non kosher, lowly mustard bush. We meet the tiniest seed ever planted in the soil. Before our awakening eyes it grows. It surpasses many neighbouring shrubs and develops most of all. It spreads its branches. The birds of song now come and find a home. They build a nesting place, secure and safe and strong. Here the young come forth and grow. They too will sing their happy song. Amid such trees as these many a Francis, and many a Clare will stop to pray, to wonder and be still, while the birds will join their wonder and unite to sing their own sweet songs of praise.
Could we be among those who having eyes still cannot see?
Those who have ears to hear let them hear!. . Lord, that I may see
"...Speak Lord, your servant is listening!"