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Gospel: Matthew 13: 10-17
The disciples approached Jesus and said,
“Why do you speak to the crowd in parables?”
He said to them in reply,
“Because knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven
has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted.
To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich;
from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
This is why I speak to them in parables, because
they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.
Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:
You shall indeed hear but not understand,
you shall indeed look but never see.
Gross is the heart of this people,
they will hardly hear with their ears,
they have closed their eyes,
lest they see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their hearts and be converted
and I heal them.
“But blessed are your eyes, because they see,
and your ears, because they hear.
Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people
longed to see what you see but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Pope Benedict once said that, “Christianity is like a stained-glass window.”
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From the outside, stained-glass windows look dark and dusty. They’re impossible to understand.
You must enter inside, where the light shines through the windows, in order to see their beauty.
In churches, stained glass windows often tell a story – something that happened in the bible like the birth of Jesus or the resurrection.
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Christianity can be understood in a similar way; it’s like a stained-glass window. To outsiders, different truths of our faith don’t seem to make sense.
How could Jesus suffer, die, and rise from the dead? How can the Eucharist be the Promised Presence of Christ? How can God be One in Three Persons?
But once we enter into the faith, we begin to understand.
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This is essentially what Jesus is saying in today’s Gospel. He refers to different tenets of our faith as “mysteries.”
We have to believe all things are possible before our eyes are opened, allowing us to understand them.
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I’m sure many of us still have questions. Why did this happen? Or how could that happen?
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The best way to understand, Jesus says, is to treat your question like a stained-glass window. If you stand outside skeptically, then you’ll never understand.
But if you enter into the wisdom of the Church, read what the Saints have written about it, spend time in prayer, and open your heart to receive the Truth.
Then the light of understanding will come.
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Image credits: (1) Chartres Cathedral (2) Dreamstime.com (3) Sainte-Chapelle, Paris