European Day of Memory of the Shoah. Liberation of the concentration camp of Auschwitz.

Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Mark 4,1-20

Again he began to teach them by the lakeside, but such a huge crowd gathered round him that he got into a boat on the water and sat there. The whole crowd were at the lakeside on land. He taught them many things in parables, and in the course of his teaching he said to them, 'Listen! Imagine a sower going out to sow. Now it happened that, as he sowed, some of the seed fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some seed fell on rocky ground where it found little soil and at once sprang up, because there was no depth of earth; and when the sun came up it was scorched and, not having any roots, it withered away. Some seed fell into thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it produced no crop. And some seeds fell into rich soil, grew tall and strong, and produced a good crop; the yield was thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold.' And he said, 'Anyone who has ears for listening should listen!' When he was alone, the Twelve, together with the others who formed his company, asked what the parables meant. He told them, 'To you is granted the secret of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside everything comes in parables, so that they may look and look, but never perceive; listen and listen, but never understand; to avoid changing their ways and being healed.' He said to them, 'Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables? What the sower is sowing is the word. Those on the edge of the path where the word is sown are people who have no sooner heard it than Satan at once comes and carries away the word that was sown in them. Similarly, those who are sown on patches of rock are people who, when first they hear the word, welcome it at once with joy. But they have no root deep down and do not last; should some trial come, or some persecution on account of the word, at once they fall away. Then there are others who are sown in thorns. These have heard the word, but the worries of the world, the lure of riches and all the other passions come in to choke the word, and so it produces nothing. And there are those who have been sown in rich soil; they hear the word and accept it and yield a harvest, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.'

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Jesus is again on the shores of the lake of Galilee. There "a large crowd", writes Mark, gathers around him. Chapter 4 of the Gospel of Mark recounts various parables. The first parable Jesus says is that of the sower. It is one of the most famous and important of the Gospel. And Jesus makes this clear from the very first word he utters, "Listen!" Yes, listening is crucial when you are in front of Jesus. Jesus considers the parable of the sower so important to say to his disciples that if they do not understand it, they cannot even understand the others. In fact, this time, he explains it directly. He starts with the following incisive sentence: "A sower went out to sow." Then he describes the action of sowing. What is striking, first of all, in this narrative is the generosity of the sower who sows the seed everywhere and in large quantities, although he has hard soils and not very welcoming soils in front of him. There is a clear contrast between the generosity of the sower and the non-reception of the various soils: they go from the road to the rocky soil to the good one. But we need to be careful. The different fields do not represent different categories of people, but each of us represents the different fields. Sometimes our heart is like the road, really hard and impenetrable. They are the moments in which we are exasperatedly and impenetrably individualistic. The Word of God is preached relentlessly, but we do not let it scratch our hearts. And everything goes on as usual for us. Fortunately the sower goes out to sow always. And he may find a more available heart. At other times, our heart is totally full of concerns for ourselves that the Gospel is submerged by thorns and the seed that was received cannot spring. Other times we are more careful to welcome the Word of God. In this way, come the fruits of love, goodness, mercy, and solidarity even if not all with the same intensity. Even then, the grace is in the shower who continues to sow the Word of God. The Gospel should be listened to with an open heart, available, and with care. In this way, it is similar to a ploughed ground ready to welcome the seed. The seed is always a small thing, just as the Gospel, and it needs to be welcomed, mediated and put into practice. Jesus continues to sow it today with generosity. Happy are we if we welcome it and make it grow. The fruits are valuable for us and for the world.