Fr. Flor McCarthy, SDB, the author of New Sunday and Holy Day Liturgies has this cool story to share with us: “Once a severe winter took place in the Arctic; all but two people in a certain camp died of starvation. The two survivors were an Eskimo woman and her baby. The woman began a desperate search for some means of obtaining food. Eventually she found a small fish hook. It was a simple matter to rig a line, but she has no bait, and no hope of getting any.

Where do you turn to when you are beset by difficulties and insurmountable problems? Do you naturally turn to God in prayer? But this seems to be a very selfish and pragmatic approach to God which should not be the case. We have to always turn to God in good and bad times.

Our first reading tells us about Elijah fleeing from the wrath of Queen Jezebel who threatened to kill him after King Ahab told her that he was responsible for the death of two thousand prophets of Baal. Elijah ran away and fled for his life, going from Beersheba to Judah until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it.

Our Sunday readings today point to one theme, that is, we have a God who is our Father who provides us with abundant blessings and graces because of his profound unconditional love for us. He reassures us that he never abandons us. His presence and care are constant, and he invites us to be an extension, a concrete and tangible expression of his provident love to our brothers and sisters in need.

I have an uncle who is/was obsessed in searching for the infamous “Yamashita treasure.” He spent a lot of money in the process of his search. Until now, he was not successful. Today’s gospel tells us of two parables. A man in search of treasure in field and a man search of the finest pearl. Both were willing to sacrifice everything they had just to obtain the field with treasure and the finest of all pearls.

Perhaps one of the reasons why Jesus taught in parables is because He wants to uncover the secrets of the Kingdom of God to the ordinary and simple people of His time. And once they get the lesson, they would be able to put it in their lives. Last Sunday, we heard about the parable of the seed. Today’s Sunday pericope or account gives us a colorful parable of the weeds among the wheat.

If you are familiar with the Gospels, you would notice that they are littered with a lot of parables. This is one of the methods that Jesus uses in order to be understood by his audience, who are mostly ordinary people. People during the time of Jesus do respect the parables because they are easily construed by people. Today we hear a famous parable, the Parable of the Sower.

In this pericope or Gospel account, we focus on the theme of “rest or being refreshed.” This is what Jesus had promised to those who are laboring for His Kingdom or for His vineyard. Mind you, Jesus had just sent his twelve disciples to the towns and villages where He intended to go. He specifically instructed them to go after the “lost sheep of the house of Israel.” The disciples most of the time were successful, but there were times they were not.