SHAREHOLDERS IN THE HEAVENLY MARKET

15h Sunday in Ordinary Time
Is 55:10-11; Rm 8:18-23; Mt 13:1-23
Rev. John Tran Kha, Houston, TX

apitalism is an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned. Capitalist is a person who invests capital in business enterprises. When we make our investments, we expect to make profits and not to lose our money. We look for a bank that offers higher saving interest rate, or we make investments in corporations that generate more money to help us become rich. Currently, corporate accounting scandals, global political instability and questions about the strength of the recovery have combined to produce smog of fear over the stock market. Many investors see Wall Street as a dangerous place that can destroy fortunes and wreck retirement plans. Many people do not want to take risk of losing money. They want to take their money out of the stock market to invest somewhere else. Financial advisers are recommending people to diversify their investments to make their retirement funds more secure. We want to make profits. And we are operating as capitalists.

The reading from the prophet Isaiah as well as Jesus’ parable suggests that God is also a capitalist. God wants to make profits. God invests his word in us. The first reading says that just as the rain and snow come down from heaven to water the earth to produce fruit and bread so as the word that goes forth from the mouth of God. God expects his word not to return to him void. Every word that comes from the mouth of God has a purpose and a mission. "My word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it." God is investing his word in our lives. We are the soil to nourish the word of God. We are the soil for the word of God to become alive and produce fruits.

The Soil for the Word of God

Jesus explains in the parable of the sower. As a sower, God does not make distinctions between different soils; he simply throws the seed. The word of God is the seed to be sown on the ground. The seed is lavishly sown on the different grounds. Some falls on the path. Others fall on rocky ground; some falls among thorns. Others fall on rich soil. God does not distinguish between rich and poor, learned and unschooled, careless and fervent, sinners and saints, courageous and timid, Anglo and Hispanics, Arabians and Asians. God’s word concerns everybody. God wants to address all without discrimination. The path, the rocky ground, the thorns, the good soil are you and me and everyone in the world. The way we receive the word of God reflects what kind of soil we are.

And God's expectation is clear. The emphasis is on our responsibility to be the good soil. The seed of the word of God can develop its potentialities only if it falls on favorable ground. In other words, the word of God can only take root and produce fruits a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold when we wholeheartedly embrace it and attend to it. Our worldly concerns are the thorns that choke the seed. Our habitual sinful activities and vices are the rocks that prevent the word of God to take root in our lives. Our indifferent attitude toward the word of God is the path that does not welcome the word of God wholeheartedly and give it the opportunity to grow but allow it to disappear or taken away.

What can you do to make the word of God growing within you, your families and your parish?

Cultivate the Soil

Trying to secure the stock market and seeking to bolster sagging public confidence in scandal-rocked corporate America, President Bush spoke sternly to business leaders, calling on them to adopt higher ethical standards and proposing stiffer criminal penalties for executives who commit fraud. Last week, President Bush came to Wall Street, the nation’s financial hub, to outline a series of steps that he said are needed to restore trust in the private sector. He wants to make the Wall Street a good soil for investors. "We need men and women of character, who know the difference between ambition and destructive greed, between justified risk and irresponsibility, between enterprise and fraud... Our schools of business must be principled teachers of right and wrong, and not surrender to moral confusion and relativism." This is the effort to cultivate the good soil of economy for our investments.

To make the Catholic Church in the United States a better soil, the U. S. Catholic Bishops met in Dallas last month and developed a policy of zero tolerance to any priest who sexually abused minors.

So to make our parish, our families and our own lives become good soil for God to invest his word, we also need to take away the rocks of sin, the thorns of worldly concerns from our lives. We need to prepare our hearts to be receptive to the word of God. In order for God’s word to bear fruit to a hundred, sixty and thirtyfold, we also need to cultivate our lives to become good soil. We need to cultivate our families to become good soil. We need to cultivate our parish to become good soil for the word of God. When we are good soil for the word of God to produce fruits, the fruits return to God. And we become the shareholders in the heavenly market.

A rich man had a dream in which he died and went to heaven. St. Peter escorted him down a lovely street on which each house was magnificent. The rich man saw one house that was particularly beautiful. "That," said Peter, "is the house of one of your servant."

"Well," said the man, smiling, "if my servant has a building like that, then I'm really looking forward to seeing my own magnificent mansion."

Soon they came to a very small street where the houses were tiny. "You will live in that hut," said St. Peter, pointing his finger.

"Me, live in that hovel!" roared the man in great anger.

"This is the best we can do for you," explained St. Peter. "You must understand that we only build your home up here with the material you send ahead while you are still on earth" (McArdle, Jack, 150 More Stories for Preachers and Teachers, # 9).