July 23, 2026 Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memoria of Saint Birgitta of Sweden Gospel: Matthew 13:10-17
Today is Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time. The Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of Saint Birgitta of Sweden. According to the recently published Roman Missal, St Bridget (Birgitta) (1303-1373) was born in Sweden and married Ulf Gudmarsson in 1316. It was a happy marriage and the devout couple brought up eight children, including St Catherine of Sweden. After Ulf’s death in 1344, she founded a religious community (Bridgettines) and received a number of mystical revelations. She corresponded with European monarchs, promoting peace and the return of the papacy from Avignon to Rome. She made pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Rome, where she spent her final years.
Today’s Gospel passage from Saint Matthew presents a dialogue between Jesus and His disciples following the parable of the Sower. I wish to offer some reflections on this text.
As I write these lines, I often think of those brothers and sisters who regularly attend Mass in our churches, as well as those who serve faithfully in online communities. Their knowledge and understanding of God can sometimes remain at the level of words. Some exegetes, perhaps drawing solely from their own seminary formation and experience, explain Scripture only on its surface—placing themselves, like the disciples who questioned Jesus, in a position of interpreting the divine word merely according to its literal sense. Perhaps, like the Apostles in Jesus’ time, they too struggle to grasp the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven.
To truly understand the word of God today, we must rely on the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. Only by following the Spirit’s prompting can we hear, in the Liturgy of the Word, what Jesus Himself speaks to us. At times, our own intellect fails to comprehend His words; yet if we yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit and allow His guidance to shape our understanding, we will come to perceive the Kingdom that Jesus proclaims—and more deeply grasp our relationship with this world and the mission entrusted to us in this passing age.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus says: “But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.” (cf. Matt 13:16–17) May we manifest this blessedness, which God has bestowed upon us, through our lives and concrete actions, so that the seed of God’s word may take root and bear fruit in the hearts of all.
O God, who guided Saint Bridget of Sweden along different paths of life and wondrously taught her the wisdom of the Cross as she contemplated the Passion of your Son, grant us, we pray, that, walking worthily in our vocation, we may seek you in all things.
全属于祢 
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