Albert Einstein is reported to have said, "Sometimes, the thinking that has got us so far is inadequate to handle the problems of the place our thinking has got us to!"

Think of the explosion of words people face every day. From our computers flows an endless stream of words.

Storytelling is a time-honored occupation. We may not sit around the tribal campfire anymore to hear what the bards have to say, but we do plop onto the sofa in front of the TV, fire up the Netflix Instant Watch on the computer, or read an old-fashioned novel in bed—with or without a Kindle.

"The seed sown on rich soil," Jesus says in the gospel, "is the one who hears the word and understands it."

Coming-of-age stories are as old as literature itself. From Odysseus to Saint Augustine, Tom Jones to Jane Eyre, Pip to Huck Finn, Holden Caufield to Scout Finch, Celie to Harry Potter. This classic genre captures the struggles, turmoil, and adventures young people experience as they mature and develop as human beings.

Every once in a while it is good for city folks to take a long drive into the country and see the row after row, acre after acre of crops growing. It helps them to realize what the farmers know, that it is hard work to raise the food we take for granted.

In today's first reading we hear God's Word compared to rain that falls gently, brings life and good things, and then returns to the heavens. Record rains in California's desert regions have provided a shining example.

My sisters and brothers, we pray to be the good soil that hears God's word and lets it bear fruit in our lives.

We wait for . . . the redemption of our bodies. Just as creation is incomplete and limited in its capacity to fulfill itself, so is the body incapable, on its own, to be whole; thus creation and creatures suffer.

Store up in your minds the Lord's words which you receive through your ears, for the Word of the Lord is the nourishment of the mind. . . . Be careful, then, that the word you have received through your ears remains in your heart.