What if the most powerful thing you could offer a searching soul isn’t an argument, but a story? Drawing from Matthew 13’s parable of the sower, Isaiah 55, and Psalm 65, there is a quiet but devastating shift: when sharing the gospel becomes a test of who’s resisting us, we’ve moved from sowing to searching for opposition.
The pastoral insight is tender and searching—there is more hope in the young woman’s whispered “That is harsh” than in any rehearsed tract, because the Holy Spirit often speaks first through hesitation.
The homily opens with a vivid scene straight from the Hermitage doorstep—two street missionaries, one teaching the other, until a single sharp question—“What is your problem with the *** Church?”—reveals how quickly urgency can crowd out gentleness
For those of us who feel ill-equipped to evangelise, the message is freeing: you don’t need polished words or winning arguments. Your stories—of kindness in hard times, of beauty noticed at day’s end—are seeds God waters long after you’ve forgotten planting them.
So go today, friends. Carry your story like rain, trust the harvest to God’s hands, and come home rejoicing.
Breaking Open 