Jesus: The Parables

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Jesus The Parables
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• A heavenly truth clothed in earthly language
• Parable Greek Parabolis
• a symbol, type, figure or illustration
• Websters
• a comparison specifically a usually short story
  that illustrates a moral or a religious principle

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• Parables, a characteristic feature of the
  teaching of Jesus, are simple images or
  comparisons which confront the hearer or reader
  with a radical choice about his invitation to
  enter the Kingdom of God
• People in his day were familiar with the
  illustrations
• With many such parables he spoke the word to
  them,
• as they were able to hear it
• he did not speak to them without a parable, but
  privately to his own disciples he explained
  everything.
• (Mark 433 34)

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• Through his parablesgtgt
• He invites people to the feast of the kingdom (Mt
  221-15 Lk 1415-24)

ltltHe also asks for a radical choice To gain the
kingdom, one must give everything. Words are not
enough deeds are required.
Illustration of the Parable of the Pearl of Great
Price (Mt 1345-46), by John Everett Millais,
from Parables of our lord (1864)
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• The parables are like mirrors for man

Will he be hard soil or good earth for the word?
(Lk 84-15 Mk 41-20 Mt 131023))
What use has he made of the talents he has
received? (Mt 2514-29)
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• Jesus and the presence of the kingdom in this
  world are secretly at the heart of the parables.

The kingdom which grows from the work of one man,
Jesus, to become shelter for all who possess
faith in Him (Mt 1331-32 Mk 430-32)
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• in order to
• "know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven.
• For those who stay
• "outside,
• everything remains enigmatic.
• (Mathew 251-13 Lk 147-11)

One must enter the kingdom, that is, become a
disciple of Christ,
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• The kingdom which Jesus inaugurates is the
• Kingdom of God.
• Jesus himself reveals who this God is,
• the One whom he addresses by the intimate term
  Abba, Father
• (cf. Mk 1436).
• God, as revealed above all in the parables,
• is sensitive to the needs and sufferings of every
  human being
• he is a Father filled with love and compassion,
• who grants forgiveness and freely bestows the
  favors asked of him.
• (cf. Lk 1511 - 32)

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• Prayer in the events of each day and each moment
  is one of the secrets of the kingdom revealed to
• "little children,"
• to the servants of Christ, to the poor of the
  Beatitudes.
• It is right and good to pray so that the coming
  of the kingdom of justice and peace may influence
  the march of history,
• but it is just as important to bring the help of
  prayer into humble, everyday situations
• all forms of prayer can be the leaven to which
  the Lord compares the kingdom.
• (Mt 1333)

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• Jesus teaches us how to pray
• His prayer to his Father is the theological path
• (the path of faith, hope, and charity)
• of our prayer to God.
• But the Gospel also gives us Jesus' explicit
  teaching on prayer.
• Like a wise teacher he takes hold of us where we
  are and leads us progressively toward the Father.
  
• Addressing the crowds following him, Jesus builds
  on what they already know of prayer from the Old
  Covenant and opens to them the newness of the
  coming Kingdom.
• Then he reveals this newness to them in parables.
  
• Finally, he will speak openly of the Father and
  the Holy Spirit to his disciples who will be the
  teachers of prayer in his Church.
• Three principal parables on prayer are
  transmitted to us by St. Luke

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• The first,
• "the persistent friend,
• invites us to urgent prayer
• "Knock, and it will be opened to you."
• To the one who prays like this,
• the heavenly Father will
• "give whatever he needs,"
• and above all the Holy Spirit who contains all
  gifts.
• (Luke 115-13)

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• The second,
• "the persistent widow,"
• is centered on one of the qualities of prayer
• it is necessary to pray always without ceasing
  and with the patience of faith.
• "And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find
  faith on earth?
• (Luke 181-8)

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• The third parable,
• "the Pharisee and the tax collector,"
• concerns the humility of the heart that prays.
• "God, be merciful to me a sinner!"
• The Church continues to make this prayer its own
  
• Kyrie eleison!
• (Luke 189-14)
• Thus, mercy becomes an indispensable element for
  shaping mutual relationships between people, in a
  spirit of deepest respect for what is human, and
  in a spirit of mutual brotherhood.

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• Furthermore, merciful love means the cordial
  tenderness and sensitivity so eloquently spoken
  of in the parable of the prodigal son, and also
  in the parables of the lost sheep and the lost
  coin
• (Lk 151-7 Lk 158-10).
• Consequently, merciful love is supremely
  indispensable between those who are closest to
  one another
• between husbands and wives, between parents and
  children, between friends
• and it is indispensable in education and in
  pastoral work.

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• When he celebrates the sacrament of Penance,
• the priest is fulfilling the ministry
• of the Good Shepherd who seeks the lost sheep (Lk
  151-7),
• of the Good Samaritan who binds up wounds (Lk
  1025-37),
• of the Father who awaits the prodigal son and
  welcomes him on his return (Lk 1511-32)
• of the just and impartial judge whose judgment is
  both just and merciful
• (Lk 181-8).
• The priest is the sign and the instrument of
  God's merciful love for the sinner.
• The confessor is not the master of God's
  forgiveness, but its servant.

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• At the end of the parable of the lost sheep Jesus
  recalled that God's love excludes no one
• "So it is not the will of your Father who is in
  heaven that one of these little ones should
  perish."
• He affirms that he came
• "to give his life as a ransom for many"
• this last term is not restrictive, but contrasts
  the whole of humanity with the unique person of
  the redeemer who hands himself over to save us.
• The Church, following the apostles,
• teaches that Christ died for all men without
  exception
• "There is not, never has been, and never will be
  a single human being for whom Christ did not
  suffer."

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• Thus the Lord's words on forgiveness,
• the love that loves to the end,
• become a living reality.
• The parable of the merciless servant, which
  crowns the Lord's teaching on ecclesial
  communion,
• ends with these words
• "So also my heavenly Father will do to every one
  of you, if you do not forgive your brother from
  your heart."
• (Mt 1821-35)

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• It is there, in fact,
• "in the depths of the heart,"
• that everything is bound and loosed.
• It is not in our power not to feel or to forget
  an offense
• but the heart that offers itself to the Holy
  Spirit turns injury into compassion and purifies
  the memory in transforming the hurt into
  intercession.
• (Lk 741-50)

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• With bold confidence,
• we began praying to our Father.
• In begging him that his name be hallowed, we were
  in fact asking him that we ourselves might be
  always made more holy.
• But though we are clothed with the baptismal
  garment, we do not cease to sin, to turn away
  from God.
• Now, in this new petition, we return to him like
  the prodigal son
• (Luke 1511-32)
• and, like the tax collector,
• recognize that we are sinners before him.
• Our petition begins with a "confession of our
  wretchedness and his mercy.
• Our hope is firm because, in his Son,
• "we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."
• We find the efficacious and undoubted sign of his
  forgiveness in the sacraments of his Church.

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• In the Lords Prayer
• The presence of those who hunger because they
  lack bread opens up profound meaning.
• The drama of hunger in the world calls Christians
  who pray sincerely to exercise responsibility
  toward their brethren, both in their personal
  behavior and in their solidarity with the human
  family.
• This petition of the Lord's Prayer cannot be
  isolated from the parables of the poor man
  Lazarus
• (Lk 1614-21)
• and of the barren fig tree
• (Lk 136-9)

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• The resurrection of all the dead,
• "of both the just and the unjust,"
• will precede the Last Judgment.
• This will be "the hour when all who are in the
  tombs will hear the Son of man's voice and come
  forth, those who have done good, to the
  resurrection of life, and those who have done
  evil, to the resurrection of judgment."
• Then Christ will come "in his glory, and all the
  angels with him. Before him will be gathered all
  the nations, and he will separate them one from
  another as a shepherd separates the sheep from
  the goats, and he will place the sheep at his
  right hand, but the goats at the left.
• And they will go away into eternal punishment,
  but the righteous into eternal life.
• (Mt 25)

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• Everyone is called to enter the kingdom.
• First announced to the children of Israel, this
  messianic kingdom is intended to accept men of
  all nations.
• To enter it, one must first accept Jesus word
• The word of the Lord is compared to a seed which
  is sown in a field
• those who hear it with faith and are numbered
  among the little flock of Christ have truly
  received the kingdom.
• Then, by its own power, the seed sprouts and
  grows until the harvest.
• (Mk 426-29)

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• The kingdom belongs to the poor and lowly, which
  means those who have accepted it with humble
  hearts
• not those who foolishly store the riches of the
  world away into barns.
• (Lk 1216-21)
• Jesus is sent to
• "preach good news to the poor"
• he declares them blessed, for
• "theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

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• To them
• the "little ones"
• the Father is pleased to reveal what remains
  hidden from the wise and the learned
• (Mt 1344, 45-46).
• Jesus shares the life of the poor, from the
  cradle to the cross
• he experiences hunger, thirst, and privation.
• Jesus identifies himself with the poor of every
  kind and makes active love toward them the
  condition for entering his kingdom.

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• There are as many and varied methods of
  meditation as there are spiritual masters.
• Christians owe it to themselves to develop the
  desire to meditate regularly,
• lest they come to resemble the three first kinds
  of soil in the parable of the sower.
• (Mt 131-23 Mk 41-20 Lk 84-15)
• But a method is only a guide
• the important thing is to advance, with the Holy
  Spirit, along the one way of prayer Christ Jesus.

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• A society is a group of persons bound together
  organically by a principle of unity that goes
  beyond each one of them.
• As an assembly that is at once visible and
  spiritual, a society endures through time
• it gathers up the past and prepares for the
  future.
• Jesus likens it to a net cast into the sea
• (Mt 1347-50)

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• By means of society, each man is established as
  an "heir" and receives certain "talents" that
  enrich his identity and whose fruits he must
  develop.
• He rightly owes loyalty to the communities of
  which he is part and respect to those in
  authority who have charge of the common good.
• These differences belong to God's plan, who wills
  that each receive what he needs from others,
• and that those endowed with particular "talents"
  share the benefits with those who need them.
• (Lk 1911-28)

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• Our talents are our cross to bear for the benefit
  of all
• (Lk 1425-35)
• Human obligations arise from the diversity of
  talents present in Gods kingdom.
• These differences encourage and often oblige
  persons to practice generosity, kindness, and
  sharing of goods they foster the mutual
  enrichment of cultures
• I distribute the virtues quite diversely I do
  not give all of them to each person, but some to
  one, some to others. . . .
• shall give principally charity to one justice to
  another humility to this one, a living faith to
  that one. . . .

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• And so I have given many gifts and graces, both
  spiritual and temporal, with such diversity that
  I have not given everything to one single person,
  so that you may be constrained to practice
  charity towards one another. . .

I have willed that one should need another and
that all should be my ministers in distributing
the graces and gifts they have received from
me. We must foster the attitude of a servant (Lk
171-10)
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Luke 1619-31

• The way of Christ
• "leads to life"
• a contrary way
• "leads to destruction."
• The Gospel parable of the two ways remains ever
  present in the catechesis of the Church
• it shows the importance of moral decisions for
  our salvation
• "There are two ways, the one of life, the other
  of death but between the two, there is a great
  difference."

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• On Judgment Day at the end of the world,
• Christ will come in glory to achieve the
  definitive triumph of good over evil which, like
  the wheat and the tares,
• have grown up together in the course of history.

Matthew 1324-30,36-43)
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• "Christ, 'holy, innocent, and undefiled,' knew
  nothing of sin, but came only to expiate the sins
  of the people.
• He is the Son sent to save us
• (Mt 2133-46 Mk 121-12 Lk 209-19)
• The Church, however, clasping sinners to her
  bosom, at once holy and always in need of
  purification, follows constantly the path of
  penance and renewal."
• All members of the Church, including her
  ministers, must acknowledge that they are
  sinners.
• In everyone, the weeds of sin will still be mixed
  with the good wheat of the Gospel until the end
  of time.

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• Hence the Church gathers sinners already caught
  up in Christ's salvation but still on the way to
  holiness
• The Church is therefore holy, though having
  sinners in her midst, because she herself has no
  other life but the life of grace.
• If they live her life, her members are
  sanctified if they move away from her life, they
  fall into sins and disorders that prevent the
  radiation of her sanctity.
• One cannot serve both God and mammon as in the
  parable of the unjust steward.
• (Lk 161-13).
• This is why she suffers and does penance for
  those offenses, of which she has the power to
  free her children through the blood of Christ and
  the gift of the Holy Spirit.

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• Teaching Through His Life as a Whole
• The majesty of Christ the Teacher and the unique
  consistency and persuasiveness of His teaching
  can only be explained by the fact that His words,
  His parables and His arguments are never
  separable from His life and His very being.
• Accordingly, the whole of Christ's life was a
  continual teaching
• His silences, His miracles, His gestures, His
  prayer, His love for people, His special
  affection for the little and the poor, His
  acceptance of the total sacrifice on the cross
  for the redemption of the world, and His
  resurrection are the actualization of His word
  and the fulfillment of revelation.
• Hence for Christians the crucifix is one of the
  most sublime and popular images of Christ the
  Teacher.

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• These considerations follow in the wake of the
  great traditions of the Church and they all
  strengthen our fervor with regard to Christ,
• the Teacher who reveals God to man and man to
  himself,
• the Teacher who saves, sanctifies and guides, who
  lives, who speaks, rouses, moves, redresses,
  judges, forgives, and goes with us day by day on
  the path of history,
• the Teacher who comes and will come in glory.