Below is transcript of the homily delivered on July 12 by Fr. Bob Weighner at St. Anne Catholic Church in Pleasant Prairie:

Chapter 13 of St. Matthew is called the Parables Discourse. It's a very long chapter, which we will have this weekend, next weekend and the following weekend, and contains seven parables. The parables obviously were important to the way Jesus taught the disciples asked him today, why do you always speak to them in parables? And so they wonder why he uses this form of speech with them. The word parable comes from the Greek para bowley in which means to throw two things together, kind of a comparison. Let's throw these two things together and see how they stack up against each other. It's like the word hyperbole, which means to throw beyond, you know, hyper bulleen. So if you say something which is beyond the pale. He would say, well that's just hyperbole because obviously you're saying something to draw attention or or to maybe say something striking so that people will pay attention to it. And the word parable has a similar connotation. So the word parable actually is a translation from the Hebrew word Mashaal, which has many meanings that can mean a kind of a proverb or an allegory as similarly, which is used as a pithy way of getting people's attention. But it also has the notion of a riddle. And this is what we understand in the parable today, because Jesus has to explain to the disciples what the meaning is. So a riddle always has a turn or a twist that you need as a key to unlock the meaning. And our Lord then goes on to explain the meaning of the parable based on what this is. And of course, we've already heard his explanation. We're very familiar with these with these parables. And so we think we already know. But to the mind, in the year of a first century Jew, the the parable itself is pretty striking. There are certain turns and twists in the parable that we need to be aware of in order to understand that it really was not shocking, but at least it made people stop and pause in order to try to figure out. So our Lord Jesus, then, in speaking about this parable is a riddle, says that most people in hearing the parables and this is why he uses the parables to teach them. They hear. But they they don't understand. And they see. But they don't perceive. And so he quotes Isaiah 60 and he says, you know, gross or obtuse or dull is the heart of this people, because they do hear what I'm saying, but they have no idea and they don't understand it and they see what's being presented, but they don't perceive what's there. And he said for this reason, I speak to them in parables so that perhaps that they will take into account that they don't know everything and maybe I'm saying something new that they need to take into account. So Isaiah says most of the people most of the time are like this, a little bit obtuse. And either they don't want to or they're incapable of understanding what our lord is saying. And of course, that's us, too. You know, we're like that. Sometimes we understand and we want to understand. But oftentimes we don't. I remember when I was studying in Rome, we had a few seminarians, brothers who were from Eastern Europe, and one of them told me a funny story. He said, you know, we have great devotion to St. Martin of tours. St. Martin was an early Roman convert to the faith, and he was going along one day he was a soldier and he saw a beggar by this side of the road. And he had such compassion that he took off his cloak and with his sword, he cut the cloak in half and gave half of it to the beggar. And that night, Jesus appeared to Martin before the Angels and the Saints and said, Here is Martin, who is only aquatic human. And see how well he understood. And he clothed me with his cloak. And as our Lord appeared to him, he was wearing the cloak that Martin had given to him. So Martin is a great saint in Hungary and Slovakia, Moravia, Czech Republic, all these areas they celebrate November the 11th, his feast day, they say site St. Martin comes in on a white horse, which means if it snows that day, it's going to be a long winter. In any event, he said that there were two beggars that were sitting along the side of the road in Budapest and the crowd was shouting and acclaiming. And the two beggars said, well, what are you all shouting about? And they said, well, the the relics of Saint Martin are being brought. And you know how he heals everybody. And the two beggars were there and they were somewhat impaired. But, you know, they probably could have gotten along a lot better than they actually did. But they were kind of comfortable begging and having people feel sorry for them and so on. And the Eastern Europeans are kind of dark in their humor. So they said these two just looked at each other and said, let's get out of here, because, you know, they did not want to be healed. You know, it's interesting. Our Lord uses his language. He says less they understand and are converted so that I can heal them. And these two beggars understood something, which I think we also understand one reason why we don't really want to be converted and we don't really want to hear the word of God, because that means that life is going to be a lot more challenging as we grow older, our responsibilities and our duties increase. And so it's much easier in a sense to, you know, to play the victim or to pretend I didn't really hear or understand. 

You know, wives complained to me all the time. My husband doesn't hear anything I say. Well, he probably hears you. He just doesn't really want to pay attention. And your children, of course, play the same game. 

But we all do the same thing with our Lord. So the parable of the sower has these few twists, you know. The first is that the sower is so, you know. Careless in the way that he sews. If you are a farmer who broadcast the seed everywhere, you're going to be pretty careful because even if you have a good harvest, you're barely going to have enough to feed your family, your livestock and to set aside seed for the following year. And here is this farmer who is just throwing the seed everywhere on the cement. He's throwing it among the weeds. He's throwing it in poor soil. It seems he doesn't really care where it goes. And this is the teaching of Jesus who says this that God is so good and so generous that he makes the sun to shine on the good and the evil. And the rain falls on the just and the unjust. So from the point of view of God, everything is given, everything is offered. 

But our Lord says the problem is with us because the disposition of our heart obviously is either good soil or rocky ground. And but this is kind of an amazing thing, you know, for first century years to hear this, that, you know, that God is simply so generous with the word that he gives. So we really have no reason to complain against God that he has not made all things available to us. So sometimes we're like those two beggars from Budapest. You know, the soil is a little bit hard. It's like the seed hits the ground once and bounces and the bird snatches it away because I, I've hardened my heart or my ear against wanting to be converted. Sometimes the soil is shallow. I remember after 9/11, you know, all the churches were full because people had kind of been shocked. And so the churches were full. But I was amazed how a very short time later, all the churches were empty. Oftentimes I'll have men, usually men, not so much women, but men come up to me and say, you know, Father Bob, you know, this happened. I lost a close friend or something, really shook me up. And I'll be there at Mass, you know, every Sunday. And then next Sunday, I look for them and they're nowhere to be seen. And I wonder why they had a moment of conversion even though the soil was deep enough to sprout. But then after that, it very quickly withered away or like confirmation. We had confirmation yesterday and I reminded the conformations. I said, you know, when I spoke with you in the interview that I had with each of you, I asked you, are you going to be at Sunday Mass every Sunday till the day that you die? And we had a great class. And I'm actually mostly very impressed with young people today. They seemed to be at least those that are following the Lord. And they all said, yes, I will be there. And I see at least half a dozen, seven, eight of you here today. So God bless you. You know, congratulations. But many of them I won't see. You know, this is the way it goes with a cone for months. You know, they receive the sacrament and they're there for a time, but then they get busy or other things come up or life is hard or coronavirus comes up. I'm not commenting on that now. But, you know, just simply things come up and things happen. Right. And so it's easier in a sense to step away. It's easy to be fervent for a moment. But then, you know, we all have other things to do. And then our Lord says sometimes the seed falls among the weeds and he lists two things. One is, I want to be wealthy and pursue wealth rather than the things of God. And the other thing he says is worldly cares kind of weigh me down. And that's all of us. We have so many cares and concerns and these things draw our attention away from God. So we don't pray and we don't practice the faith as we should. And so it's in a certain sense, there are so many things that threaten. And the final twist comes when we look at the great yield. You know, if you're doing that kind of farming, even if you hit all the good soil. If you have an eightfold yield, it's a good harvest. If you had a 10 fold yield, it would be an amazing harvest. And he begins at 30 thirtyfold and they're all looking him like you're crazy. And that's that doesn't happen. But what Jesus is saying is this is the way the kingdom of God works. 

You know, as we heard in the first reading from Isaiah, my word will not return to me, boy. And when the word of God reaches that good soil, the the the harvest is so abundant that it's beyond all telling. And this is the reason we're all sitting here today. You know, in the history of the church, every now and then you have a saint who hears the word of God. Like yesterday, we celebrated the feast of Saint Benedict. One man, Saint Benedict. How many hearts says he converted? How many souls has he brought to heaven? How abundant is the harvest of that one heart? That the word of God hit. And this is our Lord says. This is the way the Kingdom of God works. We don't know what the measure will be and we're not in control of it. But when that seed hits the good ground and it's not snatched away by the birds, you know, by the devil or by our own. Preoccupations. Then that's that soil is so fruitful that it just produces an amazing harvest. This year I planted tomatoes and peppers, I put some garden boxes in. And one of the pressure said, let me bring you some of the compost from I don't force Kenosha or Pleasant. Friday was Kenosha Compost. They're very different. What is really good and the other is really bad. 

But anyway, so I planted these tomato plants. Another parishioner gave me like 23 tomato plants and they are taller than me right now, which is not saying a lot, but they are big. They're like little trees, you know, and they're throwing off tomatoes and peppers like crazy. And I thought, there's some good soil. I don't even have to weed it because it's like self weeding. I said, what is this compost? This is pretty amazing stuff. Our Lord says, well, this is like the kingdom of heaven works. 

You don't need to work. You just have to open your heart and through your suffering and Sacramento life and prayer, all of these things that we do who follow Christ, the harvest is so amazingly abundant. So we just asked the Lord to help us to grow in faith and to prepare the soil of our hearts that we can truly hear and understand and truly see and perceive all that he is giving to us and all that he teaches us.