Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost; Octoechos Tone 4; The Holy Martyrs Acindynus, Pegasius, Aphtonius, Elpidephorus, and Anempodistus.
Galatians 2:16-20; Luke 8:5-15.
Read Luke 8:5-15
What came first, the chicken or the egg? Today’s gospel raises the spiritual chicken-and-egg question: what came first, the ear or the heart? Jesus says that those who have “ears to hear” are those who can hold his words fast in the “good soil” of “an honest and good heart”. Farmers know that good soil doesn’t just appear out of nowhere. Good soil is the product of long natural processes operating in favorable conditions, carefully and intelligently cultivated by people with inherited and personally acquired understanding.
It is the same with human hearts. We are all unique people. Though we share a common humanity, we have wildly diverse characteristics and temperaments that contribute to our personalities. And we are formed in a great variety of physical, emotional, psychological, and cultural conditions, some of which are conducive to cultivating who we uniquely are, some of which are not. We are caught between a rock and a hard place. We need God to cultivate the soil of our hearts, but we need cultivated hearts to hear and hold onto the word of God. What are we to do?
We need the grace of God; everything flows from the mystery of His work preceding what we do. Our work is to cultivate the conditions under which our hearts will hear and receive the word of God – shun evil, deepen our responses to God beyond momentary emotions, do not be overtaken by the cares of life or give our loyalty to its riches and pleasures. Every day we can contribute to being even more receptive to God tomorrow.