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Chapter IX
Explanation of the parable
And when He was come into the house from the multitude, His disciples asked Him the parable. Mark 7, 17.

Master, You speak to us in two ways. You speak to us in the midst of the community of those who believe in You.

You speak to us in and through Your Church to whom You have entrusted the dispensation of Your Gospel.

I certainly do not pretend to have access to any secret teaching. I am Your listener, among Your most humble listeners. The Gospel which is presented to all is the only Gospel which appeals to me.

I know of no other Gospel than the one which was announce to Peter, James, John and the others of the company of the Twelve, and to the whole throng which followed You. Let me find a place in that throng and sit down at Your feet, with and as “the man out of whom the devils were departed sitting at His feet.”

Yet, You speak, O Master, in still another way. Allow me, once the crowd has dispersed, to go “into the house,” in peace and solitude, and to question You about what has been said.

For You have also spoken in this manner. Your disciples questioned You about Your parables. What You answered them added nothing to the message of the parable, but it helped them to “understand,” to go more deeply into the message, and above all to apply it to their own present condition.

Master, it was too late when I began to appreciate the wealth contained in Your parables. I grew so accustomed to them, and they were so simple, so popular, that I did not know how to see in them a complete treatise of things about Your kingdom and of life according to Your Spirit.

When I read them, I did not know how to make them coincide with Your personal experience of these episodes (for You had seen all that since You were a child):
* the sower who cast his seed,
* and the woman who swept her room in order to recover the lost drachma,
* and the housekeeper who mixed the leaven with the dough,
*and the vinedressers hired for the day,
* and so many other images drawn from everyday life.

Today I should like to reread the parables by acquiring a little of the human “vision” through which You Yourself saw these things. And then, in the past, I did not feel clearly that behind the universal truths which were veiled by these similitudes, each parable constituted a “sign,” the sign of a given situation, of a concrete, living, actual situation implicating Your very own person and that of every listener.

Master, You no longer speak to us today in parables. Or rather the parables that You put before us are no longer verbal parables, spoken or written. They are no longer texts which are fixed once and for all, as the parables of Your Gospel.

They are “existential” parables, no longer expressed by words, but by facts and events. The “sign” is replacing the old parable, because You continue to speak to us by means of signs which are constantly changing.

I call “signs” everything that happens to me in a visible way during the course of the day. Each day is woven together with episodes, slight or serious happenings, meetings, contradictions, difficulties, successes, and conversations – all of which are as so many “signs.”

For in each of these situations I find Your Presence and Your will concerning the orientation of my life. If my eyes were opened enough, I would notice, behind material events, the “sign” which You are addressing to me.

“Signs” therefore are Your parables of today. It is a matter of understanding the meaning of the sign, just as in Galilee and in Judea it was a question of understanding the meaning of the parables.

I now see the confusing, reverse side of the tapestry. It remains for me to see the right side, the real design, namely the accumulation of the graces and acts of salvation of which my days are full.

Seeing that would also mean awakening to a clearer consciousness of the ministry which the angels and saints exercise before men, promoting Your intentions, Your works with love.

Each sign is a messenger repeating to me Martha’s words to Mary: “The Master is come and calleth for thee.” And “when Mary therefore was come where Jesus was, seeing Him, she fell down at His feet.”

Every human situation is, at a given moment, the “right side” where Jesus is to be found. As soon as I have understood the situation which each one of Your signs expresses, I want to overtake this situation in a conscious way, run toward You, find You in it and cast myself at Your feet.

The Pharisees and Saducees approached You in order to put You to the test. they asked You to show them a “sign,” namely a miracle, since the Greek word has these two meanings.

(The depth of this double meaning is: each one of Your miracles, even before it is a wonderful event, is a natural sign.)

You answered them that every evening, according to the bright red or overcast sky, they could predict that the morning would be sunny or stormy. And You concluded: “You know then how to discern the face of the sky: and can you not know the signs of the times?”

Master, teach me to discern the “signs of the times,” concerning my own existence. Teach me how to interpret the parables of my life.

Show me Your divine interventions and goodness. Why, for example was I not run over by that automobile which brushed against me today? For what ends have You again granted me a delay?

In the evening of each day I should like to draw close to you “in the house,” in a personal conversation, and hear from Your mouth what was the deep meaning of the events which befell me since morning. I am capable of interpreting myself the parables and signs of my life.

Let my eyes behold You, through the light veil which envelops You! Master, explain the parable to me.