Parables in Life

Often, I witness the parables in action in my life and in the life of others. People have their favorite authors and hopefully some of those authors are reflective individuals of faith and spirituality. I find that extensions to scripture are written in quality works of fiction and nonfiction as well as in plays and motion pictures. Each morning, I start with a reading from the day’s scripture. As I place myself in the setting and environment of the passage, I roll time forward to present day and attempt to incorporate my story into the reading. Parables, limitless in possibilities and timeless in nature, are favorites. Frequently, I find them in literature and life. Because parables are so rich with possibilities, they were not meant to be fully understood, but to be engaging with everyone immersed!

Jesus telling stories was and is an attractive way to capture people’s attention. Jesus used parables for their universal, timeless appeal using the ‘familiar’ with people while also adding contrasts to their experiences. He was able to teach from parables while inviting people to invest themselves more fully than if he’d lectured them on values, morals, or ethics. He did not present a world of escapism from a power-driven, material world to some idyllic spiritual dimension. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son …” (John 3:16). Jesus walked the earth seeing everywhere the signs of His heavenly Creator. He saw evil in the world, but He would overcome it.

Anthony de Mello, a Jesuit, was a master at capturing stories from other cultures, artists, and storytellers … weaving them into the Catholic faith. He rarely expanded on them, but wanted the reader or listener to journey forth. de Mello shares a story for which I do not know the author.

The Song of the Bird

The disciples were full of questions about God.

Said the master, “God is the Unknown and the Unknowable.  Every statement about him, every answer to your questions, is a distortion of the truth.”

The disciples were bewildered.  “Then why do you speak about him at all?”

“Why does the bird sing?” said the master. 

Not because it has a statement, but because it has a song.

The words of the scholar are to be understood.  The words of the Master are not to be understood.  They are to be listened to as one listens to the wind in the trees and the sound of the river and the song of the bird.  They will awaken something within the heart that is beyond all knowledge.

How do our Lord’s stories stir your heart? How do timelessness of the parables apply in your life? Could you as parents and grandparents share the parables in the stories your children and grandchildren read in quality literature? Bring a story to the dinner table, on a drive to the ballgame, on an evening walk and see where the journey takes you ….