Jesus said that “every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth,” in order to show that in casting out evil spirits, He is not doing the work of the devil, but of God. But these words have a universal meaning, which we too must seriously consider.

“Great is thy faith!” This is what Jesus said to the Canaanite woman who asked the Lord to help her daughter. Jesus healed her daughter when He saw her great faith. What is faith?

Man is special among God’s creatures. He has one or two things in common with other creatures, but there is something important in which he differs even from those who are most similar to him: animals and angels.

The Lord says at the beginning of today’s Gospel: “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: and they shall scourge him, and put him to death, and the third day he shall rise again.”

Jesus foretells four things here:

The traditional Gospel for Sexagesima Sunday is Jesus' parable of the Sower. Since Jesus himself explains this parable, it is not difficult for us to understand it: the seed that is sown is the word of God, and different soil is different people who either receive the word of God or not. Unfortunately, there are not many whose heart’s soil is fertile enough to bear fruit a hundredfold.