Sts. Joachim & Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊ 

Exodus 32:15-24, 30-34*

(．．．．) Moses said to Aaron,

“What did these people do to you that you brought such a great sin on them?”  And Aaron said, “Don’t let your anger be roused. You know this people and how evil they are. They said to me: ‘Make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’  I then said to them that whoever had gold was to give it over to me. I threw it in the fire and out came this calf!”

 The next day Moses said to the peo­ple, “You have committed a very grave sin, but now I am going up to Yahweh; perhaps I will obtain pardon for your sin.”  So Moses went towards Yahweh and said, “Ah! This people has committed a very great sin; they made a god out of gold.  And now please forgive their sin… if not, blot me out of the book you have written.”

 Yahweh said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out from my book.  Go now! Lead the people where I told you. My Angel will walk before you and on the day of punishment I will punish them for their sin.”

 

Ps 106:19-20, 21-22, 23

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊      

Matthew 13:31-35

Jesus offered them another parable: “The kingdom of heav­en is like a mustard seed, that a man took and sowed in his field.  It is smaller than all other seeds, but once it has fully grown, it is bigger than any garden plant; like a tree, the birds come and rest in its branches.”

 He told them another parable, “The kingdom of heaven is like the yeast that a woman took and buried in three measures of flour until the whole mass of dough began to rise.”  Jesus taught all this to the crowds by means of parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable.   So what the Prophet had said was fulfilled: I will speak in parables. I will proclaim things kept secret since the beginning of the world.

 

Gospel Reflection：

Why is the parable the preferred method of many spiritual maters in their teaching? Because parables disclose as well as hide the meaning of the teaching. It discloses only that much to satisfy our need to understand. Yet, it hides a lot so that we will not stop at what we understand.

We are forced to continue meditating on it so that the truth progressively enlarges and we begin to grasp and understand little by little the mystery. In this process, patience helps us go deeper into the truth. For we cannot rush it. Thus, spiritual strength is required to hold on to a truth not fully grasped.

For the limits of our understanding requires that our faith is strong to supply what we do not understand for the moment. Thus, parables are more challenging to understand than a mere literal exposition of the truth of God.