Roman Rite
XV Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year A - July 12, 2026
Is 55: 10-11; Ps 65; Rm 8.18-23; Mt 13.1-23
Ambrosian Rite
Ex 33.18-34.10; Ps 76 (77); 1 Cor 3, 5-11; Lk 6, 20-31
VI Sunday after Pentecost
1) Listeners of the Word.
In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus tells the parable of the sower, who continues to sow in the hearts of men because he has trust in us. He knows that sooner or later men will open their eyes, ears and heart to the listening and will begin a life in perennial sharing with Him, the Word that tells effective words of eternal life.
However, it should be noted that the effectiveness of this word is so only when man listens to him, understands it and acts accordingly. In order to have our whole being open to the listening of the word of Jesus and to become docile and available listeners of the saving Word, let us pray: "Make me, Lord, listen carefully, remember constantly and put into practice your teaching with force and courage despising the riches and bypassing all the concerns of the worldly life ... Make me fortify myself everywhere and meditate on your words by putting deep roots and purifying me from all worldly attacks "(St. John Chrysostom, Commentary on the Second Gospel of Saint Matthew 44: 3-4).
If, as listeners of the Word today we go to Christ, we will hear him speak to us from a boat. Today, in the Gospel, the Lord speaks to us from a boat. His chair is a Wood that navigates the waters, image of the Cross from which, since the day of his passion, he is the master of all nations and attracts every person to him.
If we are going to navigate the sea of life attached to the wood of the Cross, today's Gospel will resound in us with great effectiveness, and the Cross will make us understand the deepest sense of what Christ says to us sinners, saved from the waters of evil.
If we are true listeners of the Word, we must not listen in naive ways like those who expect from Christ something that resolves contingent problems, or reorders life according to the little human desires and not according to the heart that desires infinity. Those who are not mature welcome with joy the Word but, in the haste of settling their life, do not realize that it is crucified and crucifies in Christ those who welcome it. The words of the Redeemer are words of life because, through the Cross, they purify from every dead work and unite to the Lord Jesus, the crucified Christ, Word of Love and Truth. This Word needs a place (our heart), it needs to go down and to die there, like a seed, to root, to grow and to sprout, and to resist the storms and the weather like a house built on a Rock.
In the house built on the rock, the Word is not stifled by worries, and can grow because it has space and air. In it, the heart is not dissipated in the things of the world and becomes great, magnanimous and hospitable. Mature and sincere listening prevents the adultery of the heart that it just what made the history of the people of Israel so difficult because it prevented the Word of the Alliance to be fulfilled. The flesh and the corruption of this world has made impossible the fulfillment of the Law.
The Word of the Cross is foolishness and scandal for the clever and the wise of this world. They do not understand it, they hear but it is as if they do not listen. The criteria are others, their own justice, and their own works. They are the scribes and the Pharisees who "cannot" listen to the Word of Jesus, taken as they are by themselves, their prejudices, and by the presumption of having understood well how to live and to have identified the right attitudes to live well. They think that it is a matter of common sense and good heart. Instead it is a matter of heart and sense of life, understood as the direction and meaning of life according to Christ's mind and heart
This is the reality and the truth. If we are not converted, we are all the lands of which today’s Gospel talks about. These lands make the relationship between the Word and our life difficult if not impossible. However, today's Gospel is really a Happy News. The Lord tells us that we are blessed, because we see and hear what the prophets have not seen or heard. We are blessed because the mystery of the Kingdom of God, merciful and provocative Love, has been revealed.
2) Virginity and the concept of the Word.
The word that Christ sows in us often clashes with the aridity of our heart and, even when it is accepted, it is likely to remain sterile. Consequently, we must ask God the grace that liberates the ground of our heart, frees it from laziness, from uncertainties and from all the fears that can curb it. In this way, the Word of the Lord will be put into practice in an authentic and joyful way.
The heart of each of us is the field of faith, and the Redeemer asks to enter with his Word and his presence in our daily life.
The thing to do and the real danger in life, are not realizing reality. Coming into it with humility makes us recognize that we are street, rocks and thorns. Our flesh- without help- is incapable to have a life that lasts. For this reason, God sent His only Son, with a flesh similar to ours, to make us a fertile land capable of accepting the Word of Salvation, and to germinate it in the world.
The Cross plowed the Lord's flesh, and nails, thorns, spear and vinegar have perfectly dissipated the "earth" of Christ. For this, our redeemed life is in our everyday Cross.
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The physical or spiritual wounds we face every day, if placed on the Cross, become the doors through which the Word of God can enter us. When we share the crucified love of Jesus, his Word descends into us, penetrates to the depth, puts roots and gives abundant fruits in each in every situation. The Crucified Word gives the fruits of the Cross: love and mercy, and the glorious sorrows of the Lord, blood and water, give eternal life.
One example of this crucified love is given by the consecrated virgins, whose dedication becomes fruitful from listening. These women testify to us how wise it is to live a life devoted to seeking God in the listening, and fruitful in the announcement of his Word. "Faciem tuam, Domine, requiram: your face, Lord, I seek (Sal 26: 8) ... Consecrated life, called to make the characteristic traits of the virginal, poor and obedient Jesus visible,1 flourishes in the ambience of this search for the face of the Lord and the ways that lead to him (cf. Jn 14:4-6)... . The consecrated person, therefore, gives witness to the task, at once joyful and laborious, of the diligent search for the divine will, “(cf. Congress for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life, Instruction: The service of authority and obedience. Faciem tum, Domine, requiaram, May 11, 2008, no.1).
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Being listeners of the Word of God, they acquire wisdom, because every wisdom of life is born from the Word of the Lord. The papal teaching invites them to be enquirers of the Word, through the frequent reading of the Bible, the lectio divina, since consecrated life “is born from hearing the word of God and embracing the Gospel as its rule of life”. A life devoted to following Christ in his chastity, poverty and obedience thus becomes “a living ‘exegesis’ of God’s word”. The Holy Spirit, in whom the Bible was written, is the same Spirit who illumines “the word of God with new light for the founders and foundresses. Every charism and every rule springs from it and seeks to be an expression of it”, [277] thus opening up new pathways of Christian living marked by the radicalism of the Gospel ". Post-synodal apostolic exhortation Verbum Domini, 83),
Patristic Reading
Saint Augustin of Hippo
Sermon XXIII On the words of the gospel, Mt 13, 19 etc.
Where the Lord Jesus explaineth the parables of the sower. 1). Both yesterday and to-day ye have heard the parables of the sower, in the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do ye who were present yesterday, recollect to-day. Yesterday we read of that sower, who when he scattered seed, “some fell by the way side,”1 which the birds picked up; “some in stony places,” which dried up from the heat; “some among thorns, which were choked,” and could not bring forth fruit; and “other some into good ground, and it brought forth fruit, a hundred, sixty, thirty fold.” But to-day the Lord hath again spoken another parable of the sower, “who sowed good seed in his field. While men slept the enemy came, and sowed tares upon it.”2 As long as it was only in the blade, it did not appear; but when the fruit of the good seed began to appear, “then appeared the tares also.” The servants of the householder were offended, when they saw a quantity of tares among the good wheat, and wished to root them out, but they were notsuffered to do so; but it was said to them, “Letboth grow together until the harvest.”3 Now the Lord Jesus Christ explained this parable also; and said that He was the sower of the good seed, and He showed how that the enemy who sowed the tares was the devil; the time of harvest, the end of the world; His field the whole world. And what saith He? “In the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, to burn them, but gather the wheat into My barn.” Why are ye so hasty, He says, ye servants full of zeal? Ye see tares among the wheat, ye see evil Christians among the good; and ye wish to root up the evil ones; be quiet, it is not the time of harvest. That time will come, may it only find you wheat! Why do ye vex yourselves? Why bear impatiently the mixture of the evil with the good? In the field they may be with you, but they will not be so in the barn. 2. Now ye know that those three places mentioned yesterday where the seed did not grow, “the way side,” “the stony ground,” and “the thorny places,” are the same as these “tares.” They received only a different name under a different similitude. For when similitudes are used, or the literal meaning of a term is not expressed, not the truth but a similitude of the truth is conveyed by them. I see that but few have understood my meaning; yet it is for the benefit of all that I speak. In things visible, a way side is a way side, stony ground is stony ground, thorny places are thorny places; they are simply what they are, because the names are used in their literal sense. But in parables and similitudes one thing may be called by many names; therefore there is nothing inconsistent in my telling you that that “way side,” that “stony ground,” those “thorny places,” are bad Christians, and that they too are the “tares.” Is not Christ called “the Lamb”? Is not Christ “the Lion” too? Among wild beasts, and cattle, a lamb is simply a lamb, and a lion, a lion: but Christ is both. The first are respectively what they are in propriety of expression;the Latter both together in a figurative sense.4 Nay much more; besides this it may happen that under a figure, things very different from one another may be called by one and the same name. For what is so different as Christ and the devil? yet both Christ and the devil are called “a lion.” Christ is called “a lion:” “The Lion hath prevailed of the tribe of Judah;”5 and the devil is called a lion: “Know ye not that your adversary the Devil walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour?”6 Both the one and the other then is a lion; the one a lion by reason of His strength; the other for his savageness; the one a lion for His “prevailing;” the other for his injuring. The devil again is a serpent, “that old serpent;”7 are we commanded then to imitate the devil, when our Shepherd told us, “Be ye wise as serpents, and simple as doves”?8 3. Accordingly I yesterday addressed “the way side,” I addressed the “stony ground,” I addressed the “thorny places;” and I said, Be ye changed whilst ye may: turn up with the plough the hard ground, cast the stones out of the field, pluck up the thorns out of it. Be loth to retain that hard heart, from which the word of God may quickly pass away and be lost. Be loth to have that lightness of soil, where the root of charity can take no deep hold. Be loth to choke the good seed which is sown in you by my labours, with the lusts and the cares of this world. For it is the Lord who sows; and we are only His labourers. But be ye the “good ground.” I said yesterday, and I say again today to all, Let one bring forth “a hundred, another sixty, another thirty fold.” In one the fruit is more, in another less; but all will have a place in the barn. Yesterday I said all this, to-day I am addressing the tares; but the sheep themselves are the tares. O evil Christians, O ye, who in filling only press the Church by your evil lives; amend yourselves before the harvest come. “Say not, I have sinned, and what hath befallen me?”9 God hath not lost His power; but He is requiring repentance from thee. I say this to the evil, who yet are Christians; I say this to the tares. For they are in the field; and it may so be, that they who to-day are tares, may to-morrow be wheat. And so I will address the wheat also. 4. O ye Christians, whose lives are good, ye sigh and groan as being few among many, few among very many. The winter will pass away, the summer will come; lo! the harvest will soon be here. The angels will come who can make the separation, and who cannot make mistakes. We in this time present are like those servants of whom it was said, “Wilt Thou that we go and gather them up?”10 for we were wishing, if itmight be so, that no evil ones should remain among the good. But it has been told us, “Let both grow together until the harvest.”11 Why? For ye are such as may be deceived. Hear finally; “Lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.”12 What good are ye doing? Will ye by your eagerness make a waste of My harvest? The reapers will come, and who the reapers are He hath explained, “And the reapers are the angels.”13 We are but men, the reapers are the angels. We too indeed, if we finish our course, shall be equal to the angels of God; but now when we chafe against the wicked, we are as yet but men. And we ought now to give ear to the words, “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.”14 For do ye think, my Brethren, that these tares we read of do not get up into this15 seat?16 Think ye that they are all below, and none above up here? God grant we may not be so. “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you.”17 I tell you of a truth, my Beloved, even in these high seats there is both wheat, and tares, and among the laity there is wheat, and tares. Let the good tolerate the bad; let the bad change themselves, and imitate the good. Let us all, if it may be so, attain to God; let us all through His mercy escape the evil of this world. Let us seek after good days, for we are now in evil days; but in the evil days let us not blaspheme, that so we may be able to arrive at the good days.
1 (Mt 13,3-8.
2 (Mt 13,24-25.
3 (Mt 13,30
4 Per similitudinem.
5 (Ap 5,5
6 (1P 5,8
7 (Ap 12,9
8 (Mt 10,16).
9 (Si 5,4
10 (Mt 13,28
11 (Mt 13,30
12 (Mt 13,29
13 (Mt 13,39
14 (1Co 10,12
15 Apsidas.
16 Apsis the higher semicircular or arched part of the chancel, where the bishop had his throne with the presbyters. See Bing). Antiq. B. 8,c. 6,§§ 9, 10. 17 (1Co 4,3
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