“…As far as they were capable of understanding.”
In the Gospel for today, the eleventh Sunday in ordinary time, St. Mark tells us that Jesus, using many parables spoke to his hearers, “…as far as they were capable of understanding.” Notice that he spoke to them in parables. Parables are earthly stories with heavenly meanings. Jesus used this form of communication so that those who heard him will be familiar with what they were hearing and so gather challenging and useful messages for their daily lives.
Mark tells us farther that the parables were pitched to the peoples’ level of understanding. In other words Jesus was teaching them and is teaching us to gather messages from their and our own story. We all have our story which tells us who we are. The real challenge is that we hardly listen to Jesus as he uses our story our every day experiences to tell us parables of our lives in so far as we are prepared to listen and understand. As a result we miss out on many messages coming from the parables in our own lives.
Today I invite us to take some time and ask Jesus to speak to us about ourselves and pray that we will be willing to pay attention because he will speak to us “… as far as we are capable of understanding.” What is your story?
Fr. Clement Paul
Parish Priest
In the Gospel for today, the eleventh Sunday in ordinary time, St. Mark tells us that Jesus, using many parables spoke to his hearers, “…as far as they were capable of understanding.” Notice that he spoke to them in parables. Parables are earthly stories with heavenly meanings. Jesus used this form of communication so that those who heard him will be familiar with what they were hearing and so gather challenging and useful messages for their daily lives.
Mark tells us farther that the parables were pitched to the peoples’ level of understanding. In other words Jesus was teaching them and is teaching us to gather messages from their and our own story. We all have our story which tells us who we are. The real challenge is that we hardly listen to Jesus as he uses our story our every day experiences to tell us parables of our lives in so far as we are prepared to listen and understand. As a result we miss out on many messages coming from the parables in our own lives.
Today I invite us to take some time and ask Jesus to speak to us about ourselves and pray that we will be willing to pay attention because he will speak to us “… as far as we are capable of understanding.” What is your story?
Fr. Clement Paul
Parish Priest
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