September 19, 2026
Saturday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 448
Reading 1
Brothers and sisters:
Someone may say, “How are the dead raised?
With what kind of body will they come back?”You fool!
What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies.
And what you sow is not the body that is to be
but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind.
So also is the resurrection of the dead.
It is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible.
It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious.
It is sown weak; it is raised powerful.
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one.
So, too, it is written,
“The first man, Adam, became a living being,”
the last Adam a life-giving spirit.
But the spiritual was not first;
rather the natural and then the spiritual.
The first man was from the earth, earthly;
the second man, from heaven.
As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly,
and as is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly.
Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one,
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (14) I will walk in the presence of God, in the light
of the living.
Now I know that God is with me.
In God, in whose promise I glory,
in God I trust without fear;
what can flesh do against me?
R. I will walk in the presence of God, in the light of the living.
I am bound, O God, by vows to you;
your thank offerings I will fulfill.
For you have rescued me from death,
my feet, too, from stumbling;
that I may walk before God in the light of the living.
R. I will walk in the presence of God, in the light of the living.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are they who have kept the word with a generous heart
and yield a harvest through perseverance.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
When a large crowd gathered, with people from one town after
another
journeying to Jesus, he spoke in a parable.
“A sower went out to sow his seed.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path and was trampled,
and the birds of the sky ate it up.
Some seed fell on rocky ground, and when it grew,
it withered for lack of moisture.
Some seed fell among thorns,
and the thorns grew with it and choked it.
And some seed fell on good soil, and when it grew,
it produced fruit a hundredfold.”
After saying this, he called out,
“Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”
Then his disciples asked him
what the meaning of this parable might be.
He answered,
“Knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God
has been granted to you;
but to the rest, they are made known through parables
so that they may look but not see, and hear but not understand.
“This is the meaning of the parable.
The seed is the word of God.
Those on the path are the ones who have heard,
but the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts
that they may not believe and be saved.
Those on rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear,
receive the word with joy, but they have no root;
they believe only for a time and fall away in time of temptation.
As for the seed that fell among thorns,
they are the ones who have heard, but as they go along,
they are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life,
and they fail to produce mature fruit.
But as for the seed that fell on rich soil,
they are the ones who, when they have heard the word,
embrace it with a generous and good heart,
and bear fruit through perseverance.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/091926.cfm
Commentary on 1
Corinthians 15:35-37,42-49
In previous passages, Paul has been affirming the centrality
of rising from the dead as part of our Christian faith. But then he puts the
question:
But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what
kind of body do they come?”
It is a question any Christian—or non-Christian for that
matter—could very well ask today.
In today’s final reading from the First Letter to the
Corinthians, Paul tries to explain, by the use of images, what the resurrection
of the body means. Paul at first says this is really a silly question in the
sense that it cannot be a question of a corpse’s sudden coming back to life and
somehow being transported into a heavenly world. (Any more than the
resurrection of Christ is to be understood as the simple resuscitation of his
dead body.)
He gives an example from plant life. You plant a seed in the
ground and something totally different emerges. The original seed “dies”, so to
speak, and gives birth to something altogether new. There is an extraordinary
transformation and yet both share the same identity. Another dramatic example
is the caterpillar which goes into a cocoon and emerges as something that looks
entirely different—yet it is the same individual.
It is similar with resurrection from the dead, says Paul:
So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown
is perishable; what is raised is imperishable.
He continues:
It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown
in weakness; it is raised in power.
This is like the tiny vulnerable acorn that is transformed
into a mighty oak.
Paul says of the dead:
It is sown a physical body; it is raised a spiritual
body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.
The “spiritual body” animates the “physical body”. The
person who is raised after death has a “spiritual body” filled with a new
animating force—the very Spirit of God. It is the same person, but that person
is radically changed.
The Jerusalem Bible explains Paul’s thinking in this
way:
“As it only gives natural life, psyche [soul] is less
important than pneuma [spirit] by which a human life is divinised by a
process that begins through the gift of the Spirit and is completed after
death. Greek philosophers thought of the higher soul (the nous) escaping
from ‘the body’ (soma) to survive immortally. Christians thought of
immortality more in terms of the restoration of the whole person, involving a
resurrection of the body effected by the Spirit or divine principle which God
withdrew from human beings because of sins, but restored to all who are united
to the risen Christ, who is the ‘heavenly’ man and life-giving Spirit. The
‘body’ is no longer psychikon, but pneumaticon—i.e.
incorruptible, immortal, glorious, no longer subject to the laws of matter; it
does not even answer the description of matter. Psyche can be used in a
wider sense as the opposite of the body to indicate what it is in a human being
that behaves and feels, or even to indicate the spiritual and immortal soul.”
So it is important to be aware in this passage that Paul is
using the “spiritual body” here as the source of life in the earthly human
body. It is not what we commonly understand as a God-inserted immortal soul,
but rather something common to all living things, plants, animals and humans.
Paul continues his explanation of his distinction between
the “physical” (‘natural’ in some translations) and the “spiritual” body by
pointing to their two archetypes: the first Adam, and Jesus, the second Adam:
The first man, Adam, became a living being; the last Adam
became a life-giving spirit.
The first human person, Adam, had a natural body of the dust
of the ground (Gen 2:7) and through him a physical body is given to his
descendants. Through the creative power of the Creator he became a “living
being”. That is, the dust of the earth became animated by a life-giving
principle which he passed on to his descendants. But:
The first man was from the earth, made of dust…
The first Adam, who came from the dust of the earth, was
given life. The second Adam is one who gives life. His is a “life-giving
spirit” (see John 5:26). When he comes at the end of time, he will, through the
power of his own death and resurrection, give his people a “spiritual body”,
that is, a Spirit-filled body. This body is, as we said, imperishable, without
corruption and capable of existing face to face with God. We are the same
person but we exist in an altogether different way.
In life we are modelled on the ‘earthly man’, destined to
death and to return to the dust of the earth. After death, we are modelled on
the ‘spiritual man’, sharing in the very life of Jesus, the Second Adam. The
resurrection of Jesus and our resurrection after death are central to our
Christian faith. Without them, life loses all its meaning.
However, it is probably better for us not to speculate too
much on the very nature of life after death. It is an area which naturally
arouses a great deal of curiosity and we have reports of people who have had ‘near-death’
experiences. These accounts are very encouraging, but they say very little of
the experience of being face to face with God in all his glory. Paul says:
What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the human heart conceived,
what God has prepared for those who love him… (1 Cor 2:9)
So let us leave it at that and look forward to that
wonderful day by concentrating on spending each day on earth in the love and
service of Jesus, who has gone before us and has all things ready for us in his
Father’s house of “many dwelling places”.
Commentary on Luke
8:4-15
In yesterday’s reading, we saw that Jesus was going around
preaching the Good News of the Kingdom, accompanied by his twelve chosen
disciples and a number of women who supported the work. Jesus, we are told, is
surrounded by people who have come from every nearby city. There is an
intimation of universality, ‘catholicism’, about the message he is going to
give.
We are given an example of some of the teaching that he was
giving them. It takes the form of a parable, the well-known parable of the
sower. As in Matthew’s version, the parable is told in two stages. The first is
the parable itself. The emphasis is on the sower sowing. He scatters the seed
all over—as Jesus is now doing with the people. Some of it falls on the path,
some on rocks, some among brambles and some on good soil.
It describes a typical situation in Palestine at the time.
The field was largely a public place, at least while it was fallow. So there
were paths meandering across it where people took short cuts. The land was not
very fertile so there were pieces of rock jutting out of the soil. In the
fallow season, it was not looked after and wild plants like brambles grew up.
Also, unlike other farming cultures, the sowing took place before the
ploughing.
The central message is that, even though some of the seed
that the sower plants will wither and die, there is some which will find
fertile soil and flourish. So it is with the Word of God and the Word of Jesus.
It is a message of confidence and hope for the future of the Kingdom. In the
Gospel, it is Jesus’ disciples who are the fertile soil.
As he finished the parable Jesus called out to all, inviting
them to hear. He did not mean that they just physically hear. They are meant to
listen carefully, to assimilate fully and to implement effectively all that he
says. He is the Sower, the seed is the Word, those spoken to are the soil.
Clear as it is, the disciples ask for an explanation of the
parable. Jesus tells them that the inner secrets of the Kingdom are for them.
Why this privilege? Because they are disciples, because they are followers and
because they are ready to listen. The rest hear in parables and only in
parables: seeing, they do not see; hearing, they do not understand. They do not
really want to see or hear because, as the Gospel says elsewhere:
…they may indeed look but not perceive, and may indeed
hear but not understand; so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.
(Mark 4:12)
In other words, if they were to see and understand, they
would have to turn their lives around and they are not ready for that. The
disciples are those who have done just that; they have left their boats, their
nets and their families, their security and gone with Jesus. That is what
seeing and hearing means.
Then follows the explanation which really carries the
original parable further than its simple message. In fact, it becomes more like
an allegory where each part has a meaning of its own rather than the one point
that a parable normally makes. And, whereas in the parable the emphasis was on
the sower, here the emphasis is very much on the soil which receives the seed.
Each example is made to represent a particular way in which the message is
received or not.
The seed that falls on the path is like those who hear the
word, but it is snatched away from them before they have even a chance to
respond. The overwhelming pagan world around them was just too strong an
attraction.
The seed that falls on the rock where there may be some
moisture in the crevices is like those who hear the word with great enthusiasm
and “joy” (a favourite Lucan term). But they are not able to put down any
long-lasting roots and, at the first hint of opposition or temptation, they fall
away. They represent the many early Christians who must have given up under the
pressures of persecution.
The seed that falls among the brambles represents those who
do hear and accept the word. But gradually the pressure of the secular world
and its values is too much. They try to live in both worlds at once, but are
gradually choked up with concerns about money and material and social wants and
the pursuit of pleasure. Eventually, the word dies in them. Many Christians
today could identify with this group.
The seed that falls on good soil represents those who hear
the word in all openness and accept it fully. The word takes root deep within
them and overflows in all kinds of good works.
It is quite clear to which group we are called to belong.
With which one, however, should I honestly identify myself?
https://sacredspace.com/commentary
Saturday,
September 19, 2026
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Almighty God,
our creator and guide, may we
serve You with all our hearts and know Your forgiveness in our lives.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives
and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Luke 8: 4-15
When a large crowd gathered, with people from one town after
another journeying to Jesus, he spoke in a parable. "A sower went out to
sow his seed. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path and was trampled, and
the birds of the sky ate it up. Some seed fell on rocky ground, and when it
grew, it withered for lack of moisture. Some seed fell among thorns, and the
thorns grew with it and choked it. And some seed fell on good soil, and when it
grew, it produced fruit a hundredfold." After saying this, he called out,
"Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear." Then his disciples asked
him what the meaning of this parable might be. He answered, "Knowledge of
the mysteries of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you; but to the rest,
they are made known through parables so that they may look but not see, and
hear but not understand. "This is the meaning of the parable. The seed is
the word of God. Those on the path are the ones who have heard, but the Devil
comes and takes away the word from their hearts that they may not believe and
be saved. Those on rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear, receive the
word with joy, but they have no root; they believe only for a time and fall
away in time of temptation. As for the seed that fell among thorns, they are
the ones who have heard, but as they go along, they are choked by the anxieties
and riches and pleasures of life, and they fail to produce mature fruit. But as
for the seed that fell on rich soil, they are the ones who, when they have
heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit
through perseverance."
Reflection
In today’s Gospel, we will
meditate on the parable of the seed. Jesus had a very popular word to teach by
means of parables. A parable is a comparison which uses the visible things of
life that are known to explain the invisible and unknown things of the Kingdom
of God. Jesus had an enormous capacity to find very simple images to compare
the things of God with the things of life which people knew and experienced in
their daily struggle to survive. This presupposes two things: to be within the
things of life, and to be within the things of God, of the Kingdom of God. For
example, the people of Galilee understood all about seeds, of land, of rain, of
the sun, of salt of flowers, of the harvest, of fishing, etc. Now, there are
exactly these known things that Jesus uses in the parables to explain the
mystery of the Kingdom. The farmer who listens says: “The seed in the ground, I
know what this means. Jesus says that this has something to do with the Kingdom
of God. What could this ever be?” It is possible to imagine the long
conversations with the people! The parable enters into the heart of the people
and urges them to listen to nature and to think about life.
When He finishes telling the parable, Jesus does not explain
it, but He usually says: “Who has ears to hear, let him hear” This means: “This
is: you have heard and so now try to understand!” From time to time He would
explain to the disciples: People like this way of teaching, because Jesus
believed in the personal capacity to discover the sense of the parables. The experience
which people had of life was for Him a means to discover the presence of the
mystery of God in their life and to have courage not to be discouraged along
the way.
•
Luke 8: 4: The crowds follow Jesus. Luke says: a
large crowd got around Him and people from all the towns ran to Him from all
the towns. So then He tells them this parable. Mark describes how Jesus told
the parable. There were so many people that He, in order not to fall, went into
a boat and sitting down He taught the people who were on the seashore (Mk 4:
1).
•
Luke 8: 5-8: The parable of the seed is a mirror
of the life of the farmers. At that time, it was not easy to live from
agriculture. The ground was full of rocks; there was little rain, and much sun.
Besides, many times, people, to shorten the way, passed through the fields and
stepped on the plants (Mk 2: 23). But in spite of that, every year the farmer
sowed and planted, trusting in the force of the seed, in the generosity of
nature.
•
Luke 8: 8b: Anyone who has ears to hear let him
hear! At the end, Jesus says: “Anyone who has ears to hear, let him hear!” The
way to be able to understand the parable is to search: “Try to understand!” The
parable does not say everything immediately but moves the person to think. It
does it in such a way that the person discovers the message beginning from the
experience which the person has of the seed. It urges the person to be creative
and to participate. It is not a doctrine which is presented ready to be taught
and decorated. The parable is not water in a bottle, it is the source.
•
Luke 8: 9-10: Jesus explains the parable to the
disciples. At home, alone with Jesus, the disciples want to know the meaning of
the parable. Jesus responds by means of a difficult and mysterious phrase. He
says to the Disciples: “To you is granted to understand the secrets of the
Kingdom of God, for the rest it remains in parables so that “they may look but
not perceive, listen but not understand.” This phrase gives rise to a question
in the heart of the people: What is the purpose of a parable? Is it to clarify
or to hide things? Did Jesus use the parables in order that people continue in
their ignorance and would not convert themselves? Certainly not! In another
place it is said that Jesus used the parables “according to what they could
understand” (Mk 4: 33). The parable reveals and hides at the same time.” It
reveals for those who are “inside, within” who accept Jesus Messiah Servant. It
hides for those who insist in seeing in Him the Messiah the glorious King. These
understand the images of the parable, but do not understand its meaning.
•
Luke 8: 11-15: The explanation of the parable,
in its diverse parts. One by one, Jesus explains the parts of the parable, the
seed, and the earth up to the harvest time. Some scholars think that this
explanation was added afterwards; that it would not be from Jesus, but from one
of the communities. This is possible! It does not matter! Because in the bud of
the parable there is the flower of the explanation. Buds and flowers, both of
them have the same origin, that is, Jesus. This is why we also can continue to
reflect and to discover other beautiful things in the parable. Once, a person
in a community asked: “Jesus says that we have to be salt. For what does salt
serve?” The people gave their opinion starting from the experience which each
one had regarding salt! And they applied all this to the life of the community
and discovered that to be salt is difficult and demanding. The parable
functioned well! The same thing can be applied to the seeds. All have a certain
experience.
Personal Questions
•
The seed falls in four different places: on the
roadside, among the rocks, among the thorns and in the good earth. What does
each one of these four places mean? What type of earth am I? Sometimes, people
are rock; other times thistles; other roadside, other times good ground.
Normally, what are we in our community?
•
What are the fruits which the Word of God is
producing in our life and in our community?
Concluding Prayer
Your kingship is a kingship forever, Your reign lasts from age
to age.
Yahweh is trustworthy in all His words, and upright in all His
deeds. (Ps 145: 12-13)
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