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Year A
Discover the deeper meaning and connections found in this week's readings, through these great commentaries written by our priests.
Explore this week's readings and hear what God is saying to us through His Word.
Find out more about how we can mark this special day in our liturgy.
See our music recommendations for the liturgy.
1st Reading: Isaiah comforts the People with words of reassurance that God’s Word will always triumph.
2nd Reading: St Paul gives a message of hope to those who suffer. He describes the longing in our hearts for fulfilment, which he likens to someone being unbound and set free – like Lazarus coming from the tomb. It is our worldly appetites and lack of trust in God, our failure to allow the Word of God to take root in our hearts, which keep us prisoner.
In the Gospel, Jesus contrasts the failure and success of his Word according to the disposition of those receiving that Word - that ‘word’ is the ‘word of the kingdom’.
The parable, which Jesus uses to teach the people, challenges each of us.
Do I look without seeing? Listen without hearing and striving to understand?
What trials cause me to stumble? What cares and worries blank out my receiving God’s Word?
That which is sown is the message of the kingdom of God – a message which is expressed in the words of the O.T. and the N.T. and in the very person of Jesus, who is the Word of God.
Jesus is the Sower as well as the Seed. The Word of God dwells with his People to form them into a new People, fit for the Kingdom of God – a People who will grow to be Christ-like – a People who are seeking God’s will, who trust God’s wisdom and strive to serve God in the building of his kingdom. Like Mary, we should bring the Word-made-flesh to the world, witnessing by the way we live our lives.
Finally, when the farmer harvests the wheat crop for the grain to be ground into flour to provide bread for the eating, some grain is retained and dried for sowing to provide next year’s harvest. Might we see in this a symbol of how the Church must reflect, year by year, age by age, on what has been revealed, so as to deepen our understanding of God’s Revelation and develop the Church’s Teaching, as St John Henry Newman suggests?
In the silence after the introduction to the opening confession allude to the parable of the sower. How much have we allowed the difficulties of modern life and its temptations so that we have followed selfish and worldly ways rather than following Jesus faithfully?
Introducing the reading from the prophet, link it to the Gospel reading. The prophet tells us how the Word of God has a purpose in our lives but we can prevent it attaining that purpose by resisting the call it addresses to us.
Before the second reading, which is difficult, allude to the message that Paul is trying to get across that from the beginning God is always at work bringing to birth the Kingdom, the Reign of justice and of love, but again, we can put obstacles in the way by our own selfishness and indifference.
The Gospel reading has been introduced already at the beginning of Mass so that before it is read it suffices to say that it challenges us as to how we hear the Word of God and allow it to take root in our lives.
In the silence after Communion a brief word to help reflection. What is the Lord saying to us today and what is he asking of us? Are our hearts open to listen and to accept his challenge?
These hymns have been picked and chosen from different sources.
Oh living water (CFE566, L931, LHON527)
Join the dance (CFE333, L759, LHON403)
Unless a grain of wheat (CFE754, L748, LHON697)
Open your ears, O Christian people (CFE582, L472, LHON546)
Key
CFE - Celebration Hymnal for Everyone
L – Laudate
LHON – Liturgical Hymns Old and New (Mayhew, 1999)
TCH – The Catholic Hymnbook (Gracewing)
Do you have questions about the liturgy and how we are called to participate in it? Explore how the Church councils, saints, and popes have answered this key question and many more.
Every movement of the Mass is rich in meaning but we can become over-familiar with it. Rediscover the Mass and explore how it relates to the Exodus story, where many of its rituals come from, and how it makes Jesus present to us today.
