Today all the three readings are connected. This unity is reinforced by a Responsorial Psalm which, in its beauty, can encourage us greatly in our attempts to incorporate the message of the readings into our lives.

The unity is based on the life-giving presence of God's word in the world. It is regularly asserted in the Old Testamnett that God is at work in the physical world sustaining it and making it fruitful. His presence is so reliable and so effective that the farmer and the gardener can with confidence take up a profession that will in the vast majority of cases guarantee their families a reasonably comfortable life style.

In the Old Testament, moreover, God's sustaining power is not confined to the world of corn and fruit, cattle and fish. His word seeks entry into the hearts and minds of men and women. This becomes abundantly clear in the stories and parables of the New Testament.

Granted normal conditions the fields and gardens of the world will produce their long awaited harvests almost automatically. Not so with us humans alas! We have to be willing, active cooperating soil before there is a harvest. We have to be open to God's harrowing and sowing.

The resulting harvest, however, will ensure that God's word is not just a message It will be an event, a happening revealing God's plan of salvation successfully accomplished.