Jewish leaders opposed to Jesus and the discouragement of Christians in the face of the serious challenges of the mission in a world indifferent to the Word of God.

 

Matthew writes to the communities of Syria and northern Palestine, where there were two major problems: Jewish leaders opposed to Jesus and the discouragement of Christians in the face of the serious challenges of the mission in a world indifferent to the Word of God. Mt seeks to clarify and encourage them in the ministry, bringing them closer to the Christian vocation and first love, and to the responsibility of each one before the mystery of the cross, to achieve salvation from persecutors; and also highlights the presence of the kingdom of God in constant activity, acting as a simple seed, but which tends towards glory. Such a seed is sown in the heart of man, so that he can do his part, like fertilized soil, responding to the Lord's action in his life for his good and the good of all humanity.

In today's text, the emphasis falls on the seed, which is the Word of God. It must be sown all over the world, even if the land is of poor quality. An example of this is the land of Israel, a territory unsuitable for planting or even sowing. There, it is common to sow the seed while the land is still unprepared, that is, completely overgrown with weeds, but even so, the sower sows the seed, knowing all the risks, whether or not he may reap any fruit later. This is how the Christian community must proceed. Your concern should not focus on the harvest, on the immediate transformation of humanity, on a quick response to the announcement made. In many cases this is possible, but in many others, everything doesn't seem to work out. Then discouragement hits. The sower must have only one concern: to sow without fear and remain confident in the power of God. He who sows must, first of all, not choose the place where the seed will be sown nor want to force the seed to grow in hearts. The sower must be a person with a deep prayer life, knowledge of the Word of God and knowledge of human reality; someone simple, humble, patient, detached, available, obedient and decisive. He must be someone who truly believes, who understands his life as a gift and lives life as a gift from God, and has the truth as the foundation of his existence. In this way, he will be concerned with a more careful evangelizing mission, seeking to be more authentic and more effective in sowing the Word, detached from the fruits and attached to the worthy exercise of his mission, leaving to God the responsibility for the driving force of the blossoming and development of the plant, as well as harvesting the fruits. The sower must be faithful and true, love and live in the joy of responding to God, sowing in the hearts of all men, without exception, as his interest is the salvation of all, leaving them free to bear fruit or not, many or few fruits, but that each one is free in responding to God's salvific call. Knowledge of Jesus and his teachings comes from being open to Him, to His words and to His life. It is not enough to know the whole world and the science of men. It is not enough to know the Commandments and be a master in Israel or in the Greek world or in any university in the world. In rejecting Jesus, both Jewish and pagan leaders move further and further away from God and sink into tremendous blindness. The "masters" of the world get tangled up in their own ideas, rust at their intellectual limits and die choking on their own theses, unhappy with the fact that they have found the truth. On the other hand, as they truly prepare to listen to what Jesus has to say, they certainly begin not only to see more, but they also acquire the possibility of identifying with the Truth. The opposite also happens, because as they become insensitive to the teachings of Jesus, their ignorance of the mysteries of God increases absurdly and they come closer to their own dehumanization.