Thursday, July 27, 2023

27 July 2023 - divine pedagogy


"Why do you speak to the crowd in parables?"

We may imagine that some of our Dominican brothers and sisters might feel this way. Why not a Summa with all questions answered and all alternatives refuted? Why not state in syllogisms the points Jesus wanted the disciples to receive? Without at all devaluing the worth of such a Summa we may still believe that the way Jesus taught was purposeful, and more than a mere concession to a specific audience at a specific time.

Because knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven
has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted.

It was true that the parables did allow uneducated people to perceive his meaning. But it seems they also allowed those who leaned instead on their own understanding to go away frustrated. Because we are used to hearing the parables we might make the mistake of thinking that their meaning is obvious. But the parables require us to engage with them on not only an intellectual level but a moral one as well. We stand exposed by them as they reveal both the light and the darkness that is within us. If we refuse to look at this illumination we will not grasp the parables at all.

To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich;
from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

The parables grow more rich the more we allow ourselves to fully engage with them. They have not just one meaning, but layers of meaning, applying to our life in the Kingdom in a variety of ways. They are able to speak to us at every stage of our growth as disciples. They are resistant to becoming causes of argument or division, not easily wielded as weapons with which to bludgeon others, unlike the Law or the maxims of philosophy. 

they have closed their eyes,
lest they see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their hearts and be converted
and I heal them.

Although the parables are not easily argued with they are still easy enough to dismiss as too simple or irrelevant. We need grace to open our hearts to perceive in the parables the great gift that they truly are. When we find ourselves described by them, say, choked by thorns and weeds of cares and anxieties, we must resist the urge to make excuses and continue to pay attention to the hope to which they finally direct our attention. We can be good soil and bear fruit.

There is not a vast literature of anti-parable apologetics. But there are many who close their hearts to the parables as irrelevant. Even those of us to whom the mysteries of the Kingdom is granted tend to assume that we've heard them all before and have nothing new to learn. But if instead we approach them like children, with fresh eyes, we can experience the blessing described by Jesus not just once, but every time we let them speak to us.

But blessed are your eyes, because they see,
and your ears, because they hear.
Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people
longed to see what you see but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

The parables are both veiled, like Sinai wrapped in smoke, and unveiled, like a new Moses coming from the mountain to teach. We must not run from the smoke, but wait for the coming of the Teacher.



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