You’re Going to Watch This One! So Many Seeds!

As we continue that Catechesis on the Mass, we come now to the Liturgy of the Word. What I love about the Liturgy of the Word is you can always rely that we’re going to have this at Mass.

You can’t always rely on music sometimes, or on the priest sometimes, or on the guest priest sometimes. You never know what the homily will be, but you will always hear the Word of God every time you come to Mass. 

God does speak to us and sometimes people say, “I come to Mass, and I don’t really get anything out of it. I don’t hear His voice.”

He’s speaking to us in all of the readings. He’s speaking throughout all the Mass. All of the liturgy is weaving together of scripture, but especially in the Sunday readings, He’s speaking to us, and it’s a lot. Sometimes it’s a lot of words and it’s too much for us to take it in. It’s like a fire hydrant. 

What I like to tell people is, “If you can, take one word. Take one word from the readings or the Gospel and take that word with you into your week; it will be so good.” But that word needs to take place in our soil, like the Parable of the seed. Some seeds fell on rocky grounds, some seeds on thorny ground, and some on rich soil. Our soil has to be ready to receive Him and in order to do that we have to be ready to grasp on and catch whatever word that we hear.

Now, in order for the maintenance men not to kill me this week, I need about a dozen volunteers to help me after Mass to clean up what I’m about to do. Are there 12 people that can just stay for 15 minutes after Mass? Would you raise your hands so I can be assured? OK then. This parish is so wonderful.

This seed is the word of God so when we hear the readings, at every reading His word is being thrown at us and all we have to do is try to catch it. So that’s what I want you to do right now. See if you can catch the Word of God that is being thrown at you.

The first reading starts. It’s the first opportunity to hear the Word of God. Are you ready for it? (Father throws seed over part of the congregation). See if you can catch the word of God. The whole First Reading, He is speaking to us. People in the back might not be able to hear it.

Then, what do we have after the First Reading? Before the Second Reading, we have the Responsorial Psalms. (Throwing more seeds). Even more seeds. God is just throwing His grace upon us, and all you have to do is reach out your hands and catch the seeds, Tina. Did I miss anyone over there?

Then we have the Second Reading. There’s more. We get to hear the word of God in the Second Reading. (Throwing more and more seeds). Catch the seeds. Don’t be afraid of it.

If you haven’t caught anything yet, there’s even more. There is the Gospel. We really hear the Word of God in the Gospel, so you get more seeds in the Gospel. (Continues throwing seeds). You get seeds in the music, too, right? But we’re going to skip them.

All you have to do is open your ears and open your heart and listen and you will hear the Word of God. Are you paying attention? (Dumps the rest of the seeds on one parishioner). (Lots of laughter).

Every time we come to Mass, God is speaking to us. In every scripture that we hear, all you have to do is catch a seed.

I invite you to grab a seed or two and hold it in your hand for the rest of Mass and especially as you hear the readings try to think about, what is that seed that He wants to speak to me. What is the word that I can hold on to as we now listen to the readings?