In the gospel readings chosen for liturgy this past week were a number of parables. The thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew is a collection of some of Jesus’ well-known teaching stories. Before looking at one of these parables, it helps to remember how the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures came into being, and what is their main purpose. The First and Second Testaments are theological documents, grounded in the faith of their authors, editors, and communities, meant to help us to learn something about who God is and how God does. The Scriptures invite us to grow in understanding of, and in living out, what God desires of us, in the way God desires us to live – with God’s help, of course.
The Bible (the word in Greek means a library), an amazing collection of books, is not meant to be taken literally. The individual books were written, rewritten and compiled across decades, and in some cases, across centuries.These writings are not primarily history, science, biography, geography, even though they have elements of all these in them. They are God-inspired documents composed by human beings at particular moments in time. Our Scriptures come with all the gifts and limitations of insight, knowledge, experience available to the era, or eras, in which they came to be in the form we have them today.
Jesus used parables as a teaching tool. They are open-ended bits of wisdom drawn from nature and from human experience. Because they are open-ended, they can seem to end very abruptly, leaving us to reflect on and to wonder about God and our life. The impact or lesson of a parable is meant to reach, to touch, to move each individual just where they are at the time they hear the story. Unlike fables, parables don’t come with a moral, or stated conclusion. Unlike allegories, parables don’t give symbolic meaning to every aspect or detail of the story. Any moralizing, allegorizing or conclusions were added at a later time in the process.
Back to the Gospel of Matthew’s “Parabolic Discourse.” The kingdom of heaven is like a net cast into the sea. It took in fish of every size and kind. When it was full they dragged the net ashore, sat down, put the good fish into buckets, but threw the less than good fish away” (Matthew 13:47-48). This is a story taken from the lives of those who worked in the fishing industry on the Sea of Galilee. It’s about recognizing and sorting. Because of the apocalyptic ending added later (Matthew 13:49-50), the focus of this parable has been turned toward judgement at the end of days. The annexed conclusion draws us away from Jesus’ original meaning.
The original parable directs our attention to how important it is to sift through, to see, to recognize, and to choose what is truly good. Jesus trusts that we, if we are paying attention and with practice, like those Galilean fisherfolk, can sort out what is good from what is unloving, hurtful, dishonest, self-serving… This is what discernment is about. Yes, we can fool ourselves into believing that what is good is bad, or what is bad is really good. Usually we do this when we are feeling rushed or afraid. That’s why we need to “sit down” and focus on the choice at hand in order to recognize and to choose the good before us and discard all that is not from God.
MAUREEN O REILLY says:
Earlier this week, I picked up the new pair of prescription glasses for which I’d been tested a week ago. Now my vison is really so much better! And reading this explanation of what Jesus was trying to help us “see”, the importance of discernment, is like looking at this parable with a brand new set of glasses! Thanks indeed, Tim!
Jana Buckley says:
It is great to have the intentional meaning of the parable brought to light. This, as most of the parables, has such a daily application.