Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary time ‘c’

MT 13:10-17

We live in an era of great technological advance. Almost each one of us owns a smartphone that can take beautiful pictures and videos, play music, browse the internet, and do many other things, you name it. Smartphones can be extremally helpful especially if you want to share something with your friend or family member that lives far away. Let’s say that you just bought a new home, or a car, or a new purse -- what would you do? You would just take a picture or video and send it to show it to your friend. As simple as that. For example, my niece who lives in Poland, when she born a son, she sent hundreds of pictures of him to me and other family members. She didn’t call me describing how her son looks, blue eyes, dark hair, etc. She didn’t send long texts describing a baby; she just sent pictures, that simple. You would also take pictures of a new baby born to your family, of a new pet, house to share with others -- much easier and faster than describing. During Jesus’ time, this technology wasn’t available. Jesus didn’t have a smartphone, computer, videoconferences or power-point presentations. However, He wanted to make sure that His listeners understand what He is talking about, what He was describing. So instead of showing pictures, He used parables. “The disciples approached Jesus and said, ‘Why do you speak to the crowd in parables?’” Jesus’ parables are like beautiful images that He wants to share with each one of us in order to better understand the will of our Father.