Homily for Thursday of the 16th Week in Ordinary Time

You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.  It is said that this is the oldest continuously used proverb in the English-speaking world, first appearing in writing in the year 1175.  So, it would seem that there is a lot of veracity to what it refers to; namely, that we can lead people to the truth, but we cannot make them hear it, or see it, or believe it.

It can be argued that Jesus was saying this about some of the prophets and righteous people of His day and in the ancient days as well, given His quoting the prophet Isaiah in today’s gospel passage.

Jesus’ parables were tools He used to give people a window, a way to recognize and understand the Truth that He came to bring us.  All of us have a deaf ear and a blind eye to different areas of our lives, even facets of our lives that are very important to us.  And there are many different reasons why this is the case and those reasons are different for each person.

So, let us acknowledge that we are sometimes blind and deaf to the message and presence of Jesus in our lives, and ask the Holy Spirit to help us to hear, to see, and to believe the Truth.+