Daily Reading for July 15

In his explanation of this parable [of the sower], Jesus says that riches smother. They smother because they choke our hearts by the constant thoughts that they arouse. When they prevent good desires from entering our hearts, it is as if they are cutting off the intake of the breath we need to live.

We must notice the two things Jesus links to riches: anxieties and pleasures. Riches overwhelm our hearts with care, and cause them to be dissipated by surfeit. Contrary to our expectations, they make those who possess them both wretched and insecure. Pleasure cannot coexist with wretchedness. At one time riches make us wretched, because we are concerned with protecting them, and at another time they weaken us by providing a surfeit of pleasures.

Good ground brings forth fruit by patience. . . . The more we progress, the more we find things in this world which are hard to bear. As our love for this present age declines, the adversity caused by this age increases. This is the reason we see so many people doing good and yet laboring under a heavy burden of distress. They are fleeing from their earthly desires, and yet heavy afflictions are wearing them out. But according to the word of the Lord they are bringing forth fruit in patience.

From Be Friends of God: Spiritual Reading from Gregory the Great in an English version by John Leinenweber (Cowley Publications, 1990).