Independently of each other, Father Jim Pace and I both realized that the lectionary editors are being more than a little dishonest about the passage appointed for today from Matthew. They wanted us to omit the verses that begin with the disciples’ question, “Why do you speak to them in parables?,” and to omit Jesus’ answer, “To you”—but not to them—“it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven.”[1] The question that comes immediately to my mind is, “Why doesn’t God let everyone know the secrets of the sovereign power of heaven?”
Read more