THE HARVEST DEPENDS ON THE OPENNESS OF THE DISCIPLES

I have a problem in preparing my homilies each week.  To be an effective communicator I need to speak at the level of my audience.  But if the audience are at different levels of understanding, what do you do?  Still worse is when your audience are at different levels of openness to the Word of God.  Some people may be attending the Church out of habit.  For such people just a routine is enough and the what I say is secondary.  There are others who are looking for solutions for the problems in their lives.  They are earnest seekers of the Word of God, as long as the Homily is addressing their problems.  There are also studious people interested in learning the Bible for intellectual satisfaction.  A scholarly discourse is what these people are looking for. Then there are people wanting to improve on their commitment as disciples of Jesus Christ.  Such spiritual seekers are not the majority.  How to preach to such a diverse audience?  This dilemma of mine is not unique, and not to this time.

The disciples in the early Church were also frustrated that their teachings and preaching did not always produce a hundred percent result.  The 1st century preachers even faced a lot of hostility as well.  Therefore, the Lord advised his disciples with the parable of the sower and the seeds meaning that a lot of seeds will be wasted in different ways.  But some will be yielding fruits of different measures. Though limited, be satisfied with the harvest you are able to reap.  Leave the responsibility of not wasting the Word of God to the hearers for whom the Word of God is sown.  You, as a preacher, can only be as effective as the openness of the disciple allows.