Sunday Homily, 12 July 2026 - Fr Paul Rowse, OP

The parable of the sower accounts for people falling away from Christ.  The wisdom here is attributing, rightly, the cause of that fall away to external factors.

None of the causes of falling away is Christ himself; neither is the cause of falling away the person themselves.  Other things have been introduced and have worked on them.

So, Christ is still credible.  He is worthy of our faith.  Christ hasn’t set us up for a fall.  His Gospel isn’t defective.  He didn’t cause those who fell away to do so.

It’s not only Christ who is still credible: we are credible too.  We can put our faith in our own natural powers to persevere.  No one has been defectively created; no one is naturally inadequate to the great task before us.

So, there is a warning to us: to guard securely what has been given.  Each of us is capable of persevering in Christ into eternal life, if two big factors are in place.

The first is an adequate understanding of Christ.  There must be knowledge of Christ, and a desire to know him ever better.  Now is the time to check whether we have a reasonable answer to the question: “Why are you Catholic?”  And if you haven’t an reasonable answer, how will you begin to acquire one?  A good answer will always speak about Christ: “Jesus Christ is my best hope of that holiness I need to get to heaven.”

The other is resilience with Christ.  There is a warning in this parable, not to go it alone as a Christian.  Always seek, and so receive, the strength which comes from being part of Christ’s Church.  What’s common to those who fell away, if it wasn’t misunderstanding Christ, was isolation.  The world will present its problems to us, but they ought not to be faced alone.  Again, check on the answer you might give to the question: “To whom do you turn when things get too much for you?”  The first part of the answer needs to be Christ and his Church”.

Christ has been sown in us.  His word will produce eternal life in him, if we know him well and persevere with his Church.

Fr Paul Rowse, OP Parish Priest